Personhood of God

Yochanan Muffs

Description

A fascinating exploration of the many faces of God and what they reveal about our own humanity He was a whole pantheon in Himself…. He constantly appeared in many and ever-changing roles lest He be frozen and converted into the dumb idols He Himself despised. God was a polyvalent personality who, by mirroring to man His many faces, provided the models that man so needed to survive and flourish. This is the true humanity of God. —from the Introduction In scholarly but accessible terms, with many startling and controversial insights, renowned Bible scholar Dr. Yochanan Muffs examines the anthropomorphic evolution of the Divine Image—from creator of the cosmos to God the father, God the husband, God the king, God the "chess-player," God the ultimate master—and how these different images of God have shaped our faith and world view. Muffs also examines how expressions of divine power, divine will and divine love throughout the Bible have helped develop the contemporary human condition and our enriching dialectic between faith and doubt.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• God
• Jewish philosophy
• Judaism
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 20 octobre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580235280
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Personhood of God:
Biblical Theology, Human Faith and the Divine Image
2005 First Printing
2005 by Yochanan Muffs
Foreword 2005 by David Hartman
Preface 2005 by Yocheved Herschlag Muffs
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Page 211 constitutes a continuation of this copyright page.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Muffs, Yochanan.
The personhood of God: biblical theology, human faith, and the divine image / Yochanan Muffs; foreword by David Hartman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-58023-265-5 (hardcover)
1. God-Biblical teaching. 2. Bible. O.T.-Criticism, interpretation, etc. 3. Bible. O.T.-Theology. 4. Image of God. 5. God (Judaism) I. Title.
BS1192.6.M84 2005
296.3'11-dc22
2005014703
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Manufactured in the United States of America
Jacket Design: Tim Holtz
Jacket Fabric Art: Yocheved Herschlag Muffs
Indexing: John Dibs
For People of All Faiths, All Backgrounds
Published by Jewish Lights Publishing
A Division of LongHill Partners, Inc.
Sunset Farm Offices, Route 4, P.O. Box 237
Woodstock, VT 05091
Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]
www.jewishlights.com
To Yocheved
CONTENTS
F OREWORD BY D R . D AVID H ARTMAN
P REFACE
I NTRODUCTION : M ONOTHEISM , A NTHROPOMORPHISM, AND THE P ERSONHOOD OF G OD
I. T HE B IBLICAL G OD IN R ELATIONSHIP WITH A P EOPLE
1. P AGANISM AND B IBLICAL R ELIGION
2. T HE E SSENCE OF B IBLICAL P ROCESS
3. T HEOLOGICAL A NTHROPOMORPHISM
4. T HE G ODS AND THE L AW
5. F AMILY AND N ATION : T WO V ESIONS OF N ATIONAL F ORMATION
II. T HE D IVINE P ERSON
6. B IBLICAL A NTHROPOMORPHISM
7. T HE L IVING M ACHINE
8. D IVINE A SPIRATIONS : F OUR A SPECTS OF K INGSHIP
9. P OWER , L OVE, AND J USTICE: THE P OSITIVE E XPRESSION OF THE D IVINE W ILL
10. O N THE U SES OF D IVINE P OWER
III. A ESTHETIC S ENSIBILITY AND R ELIGIOUS I MAGINATION
11. I MAGE AND I MAGINATION IN THE B IBLE
12. T HEOLOGY AND P OETICS
13. T OWARD A P HENOMENOLOGY OF THE S ENSES
IV. J OY , L OVE, AND L ITURGY
14. I NTENT , V OLITION, AND THE R OOTS OF R ABBINIC P RAYER
15. J OY IN THE L ITURGY
16. L OVE AND A LACRITY IN O THER L ITURGIES
17. T HE P RIESTLY B ENEDICTION
V. E NCOUNTERING THE P ERSONHOOD OF G OD
18. G OD AND THE W ORLD
19. A J EWISH V IEW OF G OD S R ELATION TO THE W ORLD
20. J UDAISM AND S ECULAR C ULTURE
21. O N THE D EMYTHOLOGIZING OF R ELIGION
N OTES
C REDITS
G ENERAL I NDEX
I NDEX OF J EWISH S OURCES
FOREWORD
D R . D AVID H ARTMAN
I have known Yochanan Muffs for over forty years. He is my friend and the teacher who opened up the Bible for me as an exciting and engaging human-theological drama.
Yochanan Muffs, known throughout the world as one of the leading contemporary biblical scholars, is a biblical philologist and an expert in Mesopotamian religion and its influence on the Bible. Yet the Yochanan I know-the scholar-poet, the master of midrashic analysis whose rich theological imagination reveals the gripping realism of the biblical God and the intensity of God s relationship to human history-is less known to the reading public.
As a reader of this book, you have the rare privilege of sharing in Yochanan s fascinating mode of imaginative exegesis and of gaining a new perspective on the theological dimension of the biblical narrative and worldview.
For many years I was influenced by Maimonides philosophical approach to the Bible and his methodical attempts at removing by reinterpretation the embarrassment of the Bible s bold anthropomorphic presentation of God. Maimonides, a thinker rooted in the Aristotelian philosophic tradition, accepted as evident the necessary connection between change and imperfection and between emotions and the absence of freedom. His philosophic, religious concern was to articulate an approach to biblical language that would preserve the purity of what he believed was the demonstrably true conception of the divine reality.
In sharp contrast to Maimonides and other scholars attempts at demythologizing the Bible, Yochanan Muffs unapologetically restores the vitality of the personhood of God. God s humanity is presented with such vivid and compelling realism that readers may experience difficulty in continuing to worship the impersonal God of the philosophers, preferring instead the full-bodied, human God of the Bible as seen through the eyes of Yochanan Muffs.
Maimonides Guide of the Perplexed guides us in the struggle against idolatry and false conceptions of God. Yochanan Muffs guides us in the struggle against indifference and apathy in religious life. In contrast to the medievalist s aversion to ascribing passions and change to God lest they compromise the idea of divine perfection, Yochanan Muffs feels there is no shame or dishonor in presenting God as a young and impetuous persona who develops through mistakes, who ultimately matures-with the help and intervention of prophetic partners-into a divine lover who expresses the deep yearning for a loving relationship with the people of Israel.
God is not a static, unchanging reality, but a dynamic, evolving person actively interacting with human beings in history and with His beloved community, Israel. Here there is no leap to a transcendent God but rather a leap into one s own psychic life where the humanity of God can be understood and, at times, emulated.
I am grateful to Jewish Lights for recognizing the importance of publishing Yochanan s incomparable work of biblical exegesis. This book offers not only a key to reading the Bible and understanding God in a new way, but also to encountering a refreshing and open approach to Judaism, one that does not thrive on the negation of the secular world or of unfamiliar patterns of thought. In presenting the most authoritative text of our tradition in a new way, this work of biblical exegesis shows us that Judaism can be strengthened and revitalized by interacting with the intellectual and experiential opportunities of the modern world.
Thank you, Yochanan, for being my teacher and the teacher of the people of Israel. You have helped us understand that only in embracing our own humanity and the psychological dynamics of the human condition will we be able to meet the God of the Bible.
PREFACE
A psychologically oriented, mythically formulated phenomenology of the world-affirming God as He appears in the Bible and in later rabbinic traditions would be valuable to those theists, atheists, and agnostics who cultivate humanistic values. Since the phenomenology can be accepted either as a psychological poem or as a reflection of some ontological reality, it may possibly serve as the basis of faith which humanist of all kinds can hold in common.
-from Chapter 21
The Personhood of God is a reflection and an outgrowth of the ideas expressed in the statement above. A major concern of Yochanan Muffs, both as a teacher and as a scholar, is the relationship between the civilization of the ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible. Specifically, his interests are two interrelated phases of these cultures: laws and mythical statements about their anthropomorphic gods.
His previous works, Studies in the Aramaic Legal Papyri from Elephantine (1969) and Love Joy: Laws, Language and Religion in Ancient Israel (1992), were devoted to the illumination of the continuity of legal terminology in the Near East, from Mesopotamia to the Talmud. The mode of analysis was philological-psychological. By means of a philological treatment of key terms, he determined the underlying psychology of certain transactions, such as sale and gift . His studies of ancient Near Eastern legal formulae were a necessary prelude to his study of biblical religion.
The first two parts of this book, Biblical God in Relationship with a People and The Divine Person, present historical and phenomenological investigations of the anthropomorphic myths of the Near East. They especially emphasize the character of YHWH, who, although different from the gods of Mesopotamia in His nonidentity with nature, is nevertheless conceived of and experienced as a person with a will and a character that expresses itself dramatically in myth. The nature of this personality-with its imperfections, and perhaps even amorality-has been an embarrassment to those who like to think their abstract notions of divinity are rooted in the Bible.
The third part, Aesthetic Sensibility and Religious Imagination, may seem to be extraneous to believing readers and students of religion. But, as Muffs puts it, the aesthetic experience is much more than a hedonistic love of pleasure; it is also an attempt to relate the transcendent and the spiritual to the immediate and the libidinal (page 103). Thus, aesthetics is not an added luxury, but an essential component of human personhood.
The fourth part, Joy, Love, and Liturgy, presents philological and psychological treatments of prayer in antiquity. The studies in this section explore the implications of terms for devotion and willingness in rabbinic prayer. Thus, the term love is the opposite of fear, not only metaphysically, but also legally and ritually (page 149). These terms were so much a part of the literary atmosphere of the ancient Near East that they found their way into not only Jewish prayer, but also the liturgies of several Eastern churches.
The final part, Encountering the Personhood of God, brings us to the concerns of the contemporary world. Her