sujith_g_mampilly

The late Yochanan Muffs is often overlooked as, unfortunately, the page for this book on goodreads.com indicates. As the title suggests, he argued that the Jewish contribution of the Tanach was not a more transcendent theology above human realities but a more human and more individualized God who (cue reference to Heschelian influence) is very much in search of man. However, going beyond an anthropopathic God he really does focus quite explicitly on the ways in which God resembles man and on the issues that arise for an all-powerful God in relationship with finite man. The key points, as I can see it, where the humanity of God becomes realized through the Tanach in contradistinction to the presentation of gods by surrounding societies, are the ways in which YHWH is not beholden to some meta-realm of the gods and is not limited to an almost archetypally one-dimensional personality. The result, in Muffs' assessment, is an unbounded, multifaceted God with whom humans can relate directly. Whether or not one finds his arguments persuasive, his perspective is unique enough to warrant a read.

2023-06-17 04:00