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The Disappearance of God: A Divine Mystery
In this bold and illuminating new work, Richard Elliott Friedman probes a chain of mysteries that concern the presence or absence of God. He begins with a fresh, insightful reading of the Hebrew Bible, revealing the profound mystery and significance of the disappearance of God there. Why does the God who is known through miracles and direct interaction at the beginning of the Bible gradually become hidden, leaving humans on their own by the Bible's end? How is it possible that the Bible, written over so many centuries by so many authors, depicts this diminishing visible presence of God - and the growing up of humankind - so consistently? Why has this not been common knowledge? Friedman then investigates this phenomenon's place in the formation of Judaism and Christianity.
But this is not only the study of an ancient concept. Friedman turns to the forms this feeling of the disappearance of God has taken in recent times. Here, too, he focuses on a mystery: an eerie connection between Nietzsche and Dostoevsky, who each independently developed the idea of the death of God.
Friedman then relates all of this to a contemporary spiritual and moral ambivalence. He notes the current interest in linking discoveries in modern physics and astronomy to God and creation, reflecting a yearning for concrete answers in an age of divine hiddenness. And here the focus is on another mystery, intriguing parallels between Big Bang cosmology and the mysticism of the Kabbalah, which points to a territory in which religion and science are complementary rather than antagonistic.
This inspiring work is grounded in learned research. It is a brilliantly original exploration of the Bible that also shows how the Bible is much more than "ancient history." In the Bible the hiding of the face of God is a literary and theological development, but in the twentieth century it is a spiritual crisis, and Friedman aims to apply solutions to this quandary. Moving through rich and provocative examinations of world literature, history, theology, and physics, The Disappearance of God is as readable and exciting as a good detective story, with a conclusion that offers real hope in a time of spiritual longing.
But this is not only the study of an ancient concept. Friedman turns to the forms this feeling of the disappearance of God has taken in recent times. Here, too, he focuses on a mystery: an eerie connection between Nietzsche and Dostoevsky, who each independently developed the idea of the death of God.
Friedman then relates all of this to a contemporary spiritual and moral ambivalence. He notes the current interest in linking discoveries in modern physics and astronomy to God and creation, reflecting a yearning for concrete answers in an age of divine hiddenness. And here the focus is on another mystery, intriguing parallels between Big Bang cosmology and the mysticism of the Kabbalah, which points to a territory in which religion and science are complementary rather than antagonistic.
This inspiring work is grounded in learned research. It is a brilliantly original exploration of the Bible that also shows how the Bible is much more than "ancient history." In the Bible the hiding of the face of God is a literary and theological development, but in the twentieth century it is a spiritual crisis, and Friedman aims to apply solutions to this quandary. Moving through rich and provocative examinations of world literature, history, theology, and physics, The Disappearance of God is as readable and exciting as a good detective story, with a conclusion that offers real hope in a time of spiritual longing.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1995
About the author
Richard Elliott Friedman
27 books144 followersRICHARD ELLIOTT FRIEDMAN is one of the premier bible scholars in the country. He earned his doctorate at Harvard and was a visiting fellow at Oxford and Cambridge, a Senior Fellow of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Jerusalem, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Haifa. He is the Ann & Jay Davis Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia and the Katzin Professor of Jewish Civilization Emeritus of the University of California, San Diego.
He is the author of Commentary on the Torah, The Disappearance of God, The Hidden Book in the Bible, The Bible with Sources Revealed, The Bible Now, The Exile and Biblical Narrative, the bestselling Who Wrote the Bible?, and his newest book, The Exodus.
He was an American Council of Learned Societies Fellow and was elected to membership in The Biblical Colloquium. His books have been translated into Hebrew, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Polish, Hungarian, Dutch, Portuguese, Czech, Turkish, Korean, and French.
He was a consultant for the Dreamworks film "The Prince of Egypt," for Alice Hoffman's The Dovekeepers, and for NBC, A&E, PBS, and Nova.
He is the author of Commentary on the Torah, The Disappearance of God, The Hidden Book in the Bible, The Bible with Sources Revealed, The Bible Now, The Exile and Biblical Narrative, the bestselling Who Wrote the Bible?, and his newest book, The Exodus.
He was an American Council of Learned Societies Fellow and was elected to membership in The Biblical Colloquium. His books have been translated into Hebrew, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Polish, Hungarian, Dutch, Portuguese, Czech, Turkish, Korean, and French.
He was a consultant for the Dreamworks film "The Prince of Egypt," for Alice Hoffman's The Dovekeepers, and for NBC, A&E, PBS, and Nova.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
December 22, 2017
The silence of God is a big challenge to theists. This book, which I heard about on the Jordan Peterson podcast, seemed appropriate to read on the subject. The first part, where the author looks at how God seems to diminish and disappear throughout the Bible narrative, is brilliant. His insights here on how God even steps aside throughout Genesis for humans are thought provoking. I was wondering how he'd tackle Christianity and he does so, as well as with Rabbinic Judaism, in interesting ways. Its not that I agree with all his conclusions, but this part of the book was probably close to five stars.
Part two is a discussion of Nietzsche and Dostoyevsky. They were two men who grappled with God's silence in similar, as well as differing, ways. I love Dostoyevsky's novels and Nietzsche is always worth learning more about. This section ties in well as a contemporary illustration that extends from the disappearance of God in the Bible. I'd have liked a bit of a bridging of that gap with thoughts on history from the end of the Bible to today. Is Friedman's interpretation of the Bible conditioned by a culture that absorbed Nietzsche's critiques? Was God silent throughout the history of the church and no one noticed? That aside, those two writers grappled with the challenge Friedman saw. This section is probably four stars.
Then part three he discusses science and Kabballah. I admit he lost me here. The science is interesting, though perhaps already a bit dated twenty years later. Maybe its me not really being a science person, or just that while scientific things challenge some I have never seen it as a problem. In other words, God's silence is a challenge to me. Evolution or big bang? Shrug. But its not that it doesn't connect with me, it didn't seem to connect to the rest of the book.
So overall, the first two parts are four stars but part three brings it down to three.
Part two is a discussion of Nietzsche and Dostoyevsky. They were two men who grappled with God's silence in similar, as well as differing, ways. I love Dostoyevsky's novels and Nietzsche is always worth learning more about. This section ties in well as a contemporary illustration that extends from the disappearance of God in the Bible. I'd have liked a bit of a bridging of that gap with thoughts on history from the end of the Bible to today. Is Friedman's interpretation of the Bible conditioned by a culture that absorbed Nietzsche's critiques? Was God silent throughout the history of the church and no one noticed? That aside, those two writers grappled with the challenge Friedman saw. This section is probably four stars.
Then part three he discusses science and Kabballah. I admit he lost me here. The science is interesting, though perhaps already a bit dated twenty years later. Maybe its me not really being a science person, or just that while scientific things challenge some I have never seen it as a problem. In other words, God's silence is a challenge to me. Evolution or big bang? Shrug. But its not that it doesn't connect with me, it didn't seem to connect to the rest of the book.
So overall, the first two parts are four stars but part three brings it down to three.
April 15, 2022
Had this book ended at its halfway point, it would likely have rated five stars. Roughly the first half of this book explores the idea of how God gradually withdrew from contact with humans throughout the timeline of the Old Testament, a process which can be seen happening as early as the Book of Genesis. This was a fascinating analysis of an important issue that is often overlooked by those studying the material, and I would recommend reading the first half of this book to anyone.
The second part of the book jumps to the 19th century and examines the relationship of Nietzsche and Dostoevsky and the Death of God. I didn’t feel like this material matched the brilliance of the books first half, and it was poorly bridged, not fully integrating with what went before it.
The final section examined humanity dealing with the disappearance or hidden nature of God through both science and Kabbalah, and this bit lost me completely, and I began to skim.
Overall, this felt like three books, one brilliant, and the rest lackluster. Read the first half, and take or leave the rest as you see fit.
The second part of the book jumps to the 19th century and examines the relationship of Nietzsche and Dostoevsky and the Death of God. I didn’t feel like this material matched the brilliance of the books first half, and it was poorly bridged, not fully integrating with what went before it.
The final section examined humanity dealing with the disappearance or hidden nature of God through both science and Kabbalah, and this bit lost me completely, and I began to skim.
Overall, this felt like three books, one brilliant, and the rest lackluster. Read the first half, and take or leave the rest as you see fit.
December 23, 2017
The first third of this book is remarkable, exploring the gradual disappearance of God in the text of the Torah, or Old Testament. The evidence is consistent and solid. My eyes were opened. The entire theory that God gradually disappeared as mankind matured into independence with knowledge, understanding and ability made sense, in a biblical way. Jump to the 19th century to meet Frederick Nitszche and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the former about to become literally a madman telling us that God is dead and the latter writing characters who experience the world left behind as God disappears. I found the shift from modern biblical scholarship 2000 years forward to enlightenment philosophy to be jarring, almost irreconcilable. Then we learn that Kabbalah is to help us understand what happened to God and how spirit and modern physics meet and I am not only lost but disappointed. I just can't accept Kabbalah as a brilliant insight into how the world was created or how the world works.
In his reference book, Jewish Literacy, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin quotes Professor Saul Lieberman explaining to students why there could not be a graduate course on Kabbalah saying,"it is forbidden to have a course in nonsense, but the history of nonsense, that is scholarship." I reviewed one referenced text on Kabbalah: Zohar, Book of Splendor, readings from the Kabbalah, edited by Gershom Scholem. According to Scholem, the Zohar does indeed mention a "supernal point" beyond which "nothing can be known. Therefore it is called bereshit, beginning." This point can be compared to the "singularity" described by Hawking and Penrose which is the beginning of time, but the quote is surrounded by such a multitude of unrelated images that the analogy to the singularity is completely lost. At least in this instance, Friedman chooses from Kabbalah the part that fits his theory and ignores the rest. Such is the problem with mystical interpretations of Torah. Assigning numbers to the letters and searching for strings that add up to a number you have chosen is always possible. Friedman finds what he is looking for and uses it to shore up his arguments about God and time and the universe and physics but it doesn't work. Not for me.
God has certainly withdrawn from the world. We don't experience miracles any more. If you hear the voice of God in your head, you might be given powerful medication to make it stop, especially if God is telling you to murder your closest friends and relatives. Science has filled in the blanks for so many phenomenon previously assigned to God that there are only a few left, the main one being the initial cause of the beginning of everything. Was there a prime mover? What, or who was it? Physics may be able to describe the initial conditions of the universe at time zero, but never be able to tell us what started the process. Time and physics did not exist before the singularity.
I applaud Friedman's biblical scholarship and recommend it as fascinating reading for religious and non religious readers alike. After that, the reader might as well form their own ideas about what it all means. It remains a mystery.
In his reference book, Jewish Literacy, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin quotes Professor Saul Lieberman explaining to students why there could not be a graduate course on Kabbalah saying,"it is forbidden to have a course in nonsense, but the history of nonsense, that is scholarship." I reviewed one referenced text on Kabbalah: Zohar, Book of Splendor, readings from the Kabbalah, edited by Gershom Scholem. According to Scholem, the Zohar does indeed mention a "supernal point" beyond which "nothing can be known. Therefore it is called bereshit, beginning." This point can be compared to the "singularity" described by Hawking and Penrose which is the beginning of time, but the quote is surrounded by such a multitude of unrelated images that the analogy to the singularity is completely lost. At least in this instance, Friedman chooses from Kabbalah the part that fits his theory and ignores the rest. Such is the problem with mystical interpretations of Torah. Assigning numbers to the letters and searching for strings that add up to a number you have chosen is always possible. Friedman finds what he is looking for and uses it to shore up his arguments about God and time and the universe and physics but it doesn't work. Not for me.
God has certainly withdrawn from the world. We don't experience miracles any more. If you hear the voice of God in your head, you might be given powerful medication to make it stop, especially if God is telling you to murder your closest friends and relatives. Science has filled in the blanks for so many phenomenon previously assigned to God that there are only a few left, the main one being the initial cause of the beginning of everything. Was there a prime mover? What, or who was it? Physics may be able to describe the initial conditions of the universe at time zero, but never be able to tell us what started the process. Time and physics did not exist before the singularity.
I applaud Friedman's biblical scholarship and recommend it as fascinating reading for religious and non religious readers alike. After that, the reader might as well form their own ideas about what it all means. It remains a mystery.
August 19, 2015
Many may know Richard Elliot Friedman for his books on Biblical textual research, but he has also written a very useful, and very wise commentary on the Torah. However, this latest book is both scholarly and mystical in scope.
The Disappearance of God details the gradual receding of the divine presence in the Biblical writings---from the unquestioned companion and teacher of the Patriarchs, to the distant but still-present redeemer in Exodus, to the absent deity of Esther. Each diminishment of the perceived Divine presence is another stage of human development. But how is it, asks Friedman, that the numerous biblical authors, in the complete absence of any coordination between them, managed to tell the same story of gradual Divine withdrawal from human history?
The answer, he posits, is that the Bible itself is a reflection of a universal story of human development, of the withdrawal from the Sacred--and frightening--origin of being into a realm that is safer, more human, and more understandable, but which draws its meaning from its Divine origin. We remember the closeness to the Holy. It's encoded in our very being. But we have had to leave it behind and embark on our own journey in order to be truly human.
The human awareness of the absence of divinity brings with it a crisis of faith. Friedman cites the writings of Nietzche and Dostoevsky as examples of the crisis as it unfolded in modern times. Both authors connect the disappearance of God (or the absence of God) with madness.
As Friedman notes, the opposite of order is not disorder, but madness. Chaos, translated into human perception, is the absence of distinctions, where all values have equal value.
Interestingly, Friedman never makes the connection to the Four who entered the Pardes, a story of mystical revelation and madness set out in the Talmud (Chagiga 14b). There two, madness corresponded to a lack of clear distinctions.
One of the more ominous implications of the "madness" accompanying the declining perception of the divine was how it set the stage for the Shoah. Friedman writes that our voluntary acceptance of God’s law provides a measure of security. But more than that, it anchors our moral being in something greater than ourselves, and thus serves as a bulwark against moral relativism.
Nietzsche warning against arbitrariness and lack of discipline carries an implicit warning against hubris---the elevation of human reason to a position of infallibility. The moral relativism that Nietzsche foresaw was to bear fruit in the greatest cataclysm that mankind had yet seen:
It would appear that the "death of God" was an all-or-nothing proposition. The continued existence of people for whom God was not dead presented a problem for those who were certain that God was dead. Their answer was to exterminate all ambassadors of God in their midst. They would do their part to bring all back to chaos, to erase the distinctions between light and dark, good and evil. They would, in short, do what they could to bring about the death of God. Dehumanization, indeed.
And so Nietzsche's Death of God comes full circle to what Jewish tradition calls Hester Panim--the Hiding of the Face (of God). The hallmark of Hester Panim is the breakdown of God’s justice. The "Destroyer" is unleashed, taking the good along with the wicked. When Avraham asked, “Shall not the Judge of all the world do justice?” he had in mind that the good not perish along with the wicked. “Far be it for You to do this! To kill the good along with the wicked!” But that is exactly what is foretold for the days of Hester Panim. And if God himself does not act morally, can we expect humanity to act any better? The answer of course is: Yes, we can and we should!
If the Disappearance of God is a stage of our growth as a species, it is to be hoped that we will outgrow it, and soon!
The Disappearance of God details the gradual receding of the divine presence in the Biblical writings---from the unquestioned companion and teacher of the Patriarchs, to the distant but still-present redeemer in Exodus, to the absent deity of Esther. Each diminishment of the perceived Divine presence is another stage of human development. But how is it, asks Friedman, that the numerous biblical authors, in the complete absence of any coordination between them, managed to tell the same story of gradual Divine withdrawal from human history?
The answer, he posits, is that the Bible itself is a reflection of a universal story of human development, of the withdrawal from the Sacred--and frightening--origin of being into a realm that is safer, more human, and more understandable, but which draws its meaning from its Divine origin. We remember the closeness to the Holy. It's encoded in our very being. But we have had to leave it behind and embark on our own journey in order to be truly human.
What the recurrence of the phrase [the hiding of the face] indicates is that the diminishing apparent presence of God was not only a literary-historical development in biblical narrative, but rather it was felt, consciously, acutely, by sensitive persons in the biblical world. In every occurrence the phrase reflects a condition in which the deity is understood to exist but not be available to humans, giving no visible signs of presence, leaving a human community to face their troubles on their own. The prophetic books do not so much add proof to the development; rather they make it deeper, more vivid. They convey the human, emotional response to the disappearance of God.
The human awareness of the absence of divinity brings with it a crisis of faith. Friedman cites the writings of Nietzche and Dostoevsky as examples of the crisis as it unfolded in modern times. Both authors connect the disappearance of God (or the absence of God) with madness.
It is understandable that these two men who were so deeply concerned with God and with madness should have perceived these two realms to overlap. God represents order, especially in Western religious tradition. God gives shape, gives laws. Recall that in the Bible, creation is the divine imposition of order over chaos. In Genesis, initially there is only water, in a shapeless, undifferentiated abyss, described as “unformed and void” (Hebrew tohu vavohu). Creation is a process of distinctions, or divisions, which turn this unformed material into a universe of things and beings: distinctions between light and dark, between dry areas and waters, between the waters above the firmament and those below, between sky and earth, between sun, moon, and stars, et cetera.
As Friedman notes, the opposite of order is not disorder, but madness. Chaos, translated into human perception, is the absence of distinctions, where all values have equal value.
In each case, creation involves the deity's separating a substance and then giving it a name. With time as with space, the deity makes distinctions, marking days, months, years, seasons. That is creation. With God, things have distinguishable existence in time and space. Without God, “all is permitted.” Somehow madness involves, in some degree, a return to chaos. Distinctions break down, all is permitted.
Interestingly, Friedman never makes the connection to the Four who entered the Pardes, a story of mystical revelation and madness set out in the Talmud (Chagiga 14b). There two, madness corresponded to a lack of clear distinctions.
One of the more ominous implications of the "madness" accompanying the declining perception of the divine was how it set the stage for the Shoah. Friedman writes that our voluntary acceptance of God’s law provides a measure of security. But more than that, it anchors our moral being in something greater than ourselves, and thus serves as a bulwark against moral relativism.
[The absence of the Divine] leaves an arbitrariness, an ambiguity, concerning which even Nietzsche himself forewarned. When he said that the greatest danger lurking is madness, the full context oft that remark was one of madness as the opposite of faith:
“The greatest danger that always hovered over humanity and still hovers over it is the eruption of madness—which means the eruption of arbitrariness in feeling, seeing, and hearing, the enjoyment of the mind’s lack of discipline, the joy in human unreason. Not truth and certainty are the opposites of the world of the madman, but the universality and the universal binding force of a faith; in sum, the non-arbitrary character of judgments.”(The Gay Science, Book 2, section 76.)"
Nietzsche warning against arbitrariness and lack of discipline carries an implicit warning against hubris---the elevation of human reason to a position of infallibility. The moral relativism that Nietzsche foresaw was to bear fruit in the greatest cataclysm that mankind had yet seen:
Nearly a hundred years later, while some of the death-of-God theologians concentrated on the liberating aspect of the doctrine, others were intensely aware of the psychologically troubling side of what they were pronouncing. Altizer wrote of “… a new chaos, a new meaninglessness brought on by the disappearance of an absolute or transcendent ground, the very nihilism foreseen by Nietzsche as the next stage of history.”(Altizer, The Gospel of Christian Atheism, p. 22.) And he added, “No honest contemporary seeker can ever lose sight of the very real possibility that the willing of the death of God is the way to madness [and] dehumanization…”
It would appear that the "death of God" was an all-or-nothing proposition. The continued existence of people for whom God was not dead presented a problem for those who were certain that God was dead. Their answer was to exterminate all ambassadors of God in their midst. They would do their part to bring all back to chaos, to erase the distinctions between light and dark, good and evil. They would, in short, do what they could to bring about the death of God. Dehumanization, indeed.
And so Nietzsche's Death of God comes full circle to what Jewish tradition calls Hester Panim--the Hiding of the Face (of God). The hallmark of Hester Panim is the breakdown of God’s justice. The "Destroyer" is unleashed, taking the good along with the wicked. When Avraham asked, “Shall not the Judge of all the world do justice?” he had in mind that the good not perish along with the wicked. “Far be it for You to do this! To kill the good along with the wicked!” But that is exactly what is foretold for the days of Hester Panim. And if God himself does not act morally, can we expect humanity to act any better? The answer of course is: Yes, we can and we should!
If the Disappearance of God is a stage of our growth as a species, it is to be hoped that we will outgrow it, and soon!
March 29, 2013
The first third (roughly) of the book is dedicated to a study of the changing relationship between God and humanity in the text of the Bible. I found the argument made to be fascinating and compelling, but also straightforward enough that I have to suspect it isn't as novel as the author claims. Unfortunately, I don't have the background to formally judge the argument. I felt that Friedman did an excellent job of making this section interesting regardless of the reader's faith.
The second third looks at Nietzsche and Dostoevsky and their relationship to society moving beyond faith-based morality. A very interesting read, but I didn't find it particularly compelling. A lot of space is dedicated to comparisons between Nietzsche and Dostoevsky and detective work into Nietzsche's insanity. There are some nice parallels between Nietzsche's personal struggle with the reduced role of God and the struggles by society at large.
The final section starts with modern cosmology being some what presaged by Jewish mysticism. These chapters were a train wreck. Unlike how he deftly wrote to believers and non-believers in the earlier sections, Friedman undermines himself repeatedly here. On the one side, he takes a highly mystical position that cosmology is the path to reunion with God and that we are all linked to the Universe and God through a cosmic resonance. But he also remains the skeptic, retreating into "this may all be hogwash, but it's just so interesting that it's worth thinking through" over and over again. Frankly, it isn't, you can't hedge mysticism. Friedman should have either committed to this theory or left it out entirely.
The second third looks at Nietzsche and Dostoevsky and their relationship to society moving beyond faith-based morality. A very interesting read, but I didn't find it particularly compelling. A lot of space is dedicated to comparisons between Nietzsche and Dostoevsky and detective work into Nietzsche's insanity. There are some nice parallels between Nietzsche's personal struggle with the reduced role of God and the struggles by society at large.
The final section starts with modern cosmology being some what presaged by Jewish mysticism. These chapters were a train wreck. Unlike how he deftly wrote to believers and non-believers in the earlier sections, Friedman undermines himself repeatedly here. On the one side, he takes a highly mystical position that cosmology is the path to reunion with God and that we are all linked to the Universe and God through a cosmic resonance. But he also remains the skeptic, retreating into "this may all be hogwash, but it's just so interesting that it's worth thinking through" over and over again. Frankly, it isn't, you can't hedge mysticism. Friedman should have either committed to this theory or left it out entirely.
December 25, 2014
The first third of this book merits a full five stars. Friedman's careful reading of the Hebrew bible gives us a fascinating interpretation of God's changing relationship with people throughout the OT. I studied bible in college and have read through it multiple times, and couldn't believe I'd never seen or heard his ideas before, even though they seem clear as day once pointed out.
The second and third parts just left me wondering why he included them. They're interesting, but far weaker and I never felt I really understood what connections he was making between them. I guess I don't have much to say about them.
In truth, you could read the first thirty pages of the book and be done with it. You'll have gotten the main idea well enough to feel quite satisfied, and you'll want to go back through those books again to see how well Friedman's ideas play out in the actual reading.
The second and third parts just left me wondering why he included them. They're interesting, but far weaker and I never felt I really understood what connections he was making between them. I guess I don't have much to say about them.
In truth, you could read the first thirty pages of the book and be done with it. You'll have gotten the main idea well enough to feel quite satisfied, and you'll want to go back through those books again to see how well Friedman's ideas play out in the actual reading.
June 28, 2022
Sometimes non Christians have very interesting insight into the Bible, Friedman and Peterson are among them. This book is broken up into 3 mysteries.
The first mystery looks at the disappearance of God in the Biblical narrative. This is especially the case in the Old Testament but even Christ on the cross asks God why he left him. During the height of God's presence, at Mount Sinai, His people were the most rebellious. Which is a very curious phenomenon since that generation did not have to believe or disbelieve in God, as they were all acutely aware of his existence yet they still were unruly. As God recedes in the narrative he grants more freedom to his people to act and gives them freedom to use miracles in their own way. God withdrawing is like a wise parent who gives more freedom of action to his children. By the time of Esther the age of miracles is over and God is most distant and yet it is the most obedient generation.
The second mystery is about Nietzsche and Dostoevsky declaring the death of God and examining how similar their lives were. Friedman treats them as modern day prophets wrestling with the disappearance and total absence of the Deity, though they respond in different ways. Having read some of each author this part was interesting and I especially liked the partial biographies of both authors. I learned a lot about each of them and as I respect each it was very interesting. Both authors lost their fathers young and in significant ways. Nietzsche's dad died when he was 5 and he had a dream soon after that his dad came out of the grave walked into the church and took out a baby and returned to the grave. The next day Nietzsche's baby brother died. Dostoevsky went away to school and kept asking his dad for money to be able to fit in with the rich kids, soon after his dad's serfs rose up and killed him, and Dostoevsky felt responsible. Both authors felt great sympathy for horses. Freud found that kids who were afraid of animals had a fear or problem with their dad, horses were big powerful creatures and were associated with the father. Nietzsche embracing the horse at Turin was the act which cast him into madness. Both authors came to the conclusion that without God anything is permitted.
The third mystery is about the Big Bang and Kabbalah. One's mystical and religious the other scientific but their are similarities. Both originate from a single point and return to a single point. Both see the creator as apart of creation, Kabbalah religiously, Big Bang with the radiation emitting noise that is found equally throughout the galaxy and is believed to be from the bang itself.
In the third mystery the author is hoping for a future reunion with the creator through scientific means and hopes to build a morality off of speciesism and hopes that mankind will grow up and be ready to meat the deity and creator of the world.
The insights of the different mysteries is very interesting, although he seems to miss the significance of a receding deity who then bursts onto the scene in Christ. Yet the conclusions he draws seem to be pervaded by overly naïve liberal optimism that humanity can be decent in the absence of a deity and incapable of agreeing on what being "decent" even means. I will give him credit that he is aware of these troubles and I applaud him for trying to revive the wonder and awe towards our creation and to return to a religious respect towards these matters.
The first mystery looks at the disappearance of God in the Biblical narrative. This is especially the case in the Old Testament but even Christ on the cross asks God why he left him. During the height of God's presence, at Mount Sinai, His people were the most rebellious. Which is a very curious phenomenon since that generation did not have to believe or disbelieve in God, as they were all acutely aware of his existence yet they still were unruly. As God recedes in the narrative he grants more freedom to his people to act and gives them freedom to use miracles in their own way. God withdrawing is like a wise parent who gives more freedom of action to his children. By the time of Esther the age of miracles is over and God is most distant and yet it is the most obedient generation.
The second mystery is about Nietzsche and Dostoevsky declaring the death of God and examining how similar their lives were. Friedman treats them as modern day prophets wrestling with the disappearance and total absence of the Deity, though they respond in different ways. Having read some of each author this part was interesting and I especially liked the partial biographies of both authors. I learned a lot about each of them and as I respect each it was very interesting. Both authors lost their fathers young and in significant ways. Nietzsche's dad died when he was 5 and he had a dream soon after that his dad came out of the grave walked into the church and took out a baby and returned to the grave. The next day Nietzsche's baby brother died. Dostoevsky went away to school and kept asking his dad for money to be able to fit in with the rich kids, soon after his dad's serfs rose up and killed him, and Dostoevsky felt responsible. Both authors felt great sympathy for horses. Freud found that kids who were afraid of animals had a fear or problem with their dad, horses were big powerful creatures and were associated with the father. Nietzsche embracing the horse at Turin was the act which cast him into madness. Both authors came to the conclusion that without God anything is permitted.
The third mystery is about the Big Bang and Kabbalah. One's mystical and religious the other scientific but their are similarities. Both originate from a single point and return to a single point. Both see the creator as apart of creation, Kabbalah religiously, Big Bang with the radiation emitting noise that is found equally throughout the galaxy and is believed to be from the bang itself.
In the third mystery the author is hoping for a future reunion with the creator through scientific means and hopes to build a morality off of speciesism and hopes that mankind will grow up and be ready to meat the deity and creator of the world.
The insights of the different mysteries is very interesting, although he seems to miss the significance of a receding deity who then bursts onto the scene in Christ. Yet the conclusions he draws seem to be pervaded by overly naïve liberal optimism that humanity can be decent in the absence of a deity and incapable of agreeing on what being "decent" even means. I will give him credit that he is aware of these troubles and I applaud him for trying to revive the wonder and awe towards our creation and to return to a religious respect towards these matters.
November 23, 2021
The author argues that we as a species are dealing with the felt disappearance of God. Over the course of the Old Testament, this narrative might make more sense. God in the old testament plays a less direct role; he goes from being visible, to speaking through angels, to speaking through prophets, and then ultimately vanishing. You have to understand this only makes if you don't consider the New Testament, in which God comes to Earth as a human and plays a very direct role.
From a theological point of view, the chapters on the Hebrew Bible in the first parts of the book were more interesting. The author lost me when he spoke of Nietzsche. He also talks about the Kabala and science and how we might grow closer to God by advancing as a species through science. The author rejects a personal God as a deity; he sees God in mystical, cosmic terms.
As a Christian I disagree with this totally, based on the fact that the New Testament totally disrupts the narrative of God disappearing. I don't want to get into it too much but I think it's obvious that this doesn't jive with Christian theology.
The author does see the need for us to re-unite with God but he sees it through a human perspective; he says that we must advance as a species scientifically because science is the thing that will re-unite us. I totally disagree. Relying on our own devices is part of the problem. The problem with people today is not that we are not scientific enough. The only thing that can redeem us is God. I don't believe that our salvation is in our own hands.
Anyways, it was still a decent, thought-provoking book.
From a theological point of view, the chapters on the Hebrew Bible in the first parts of the book were more interesting. The author lost me when he spoke of Nietzsche. He also talks about the Kabala and science and how we might grow closer to God by advancing as a species through science. The author rejects a personal God as a deity; he sees God in mystical, cosmic terms.
As a Christian I disagree with this totally, based on the fact that the New Testament totally disrupts the narrative of God disappearing. I don't want to get into it too much but I think it's obvious that this doesn't jive with Christian theology.
The author does see the need for us to re-unite with God but he sees it through a human perspective; he says that we must advance as a species scientifically because science is the thing that will re-unite us. I totally disagree. Relying on our own devices is part of the problem. The problem with people today is not that we are not scientific enough. The only thing that can redeem us is God. I don't believe that our salvation is in our own hands.
Anyways, it was still a decent, thought-provoking book.
June 18, 2016
Richard Elliott Friedman is a Biblical scholar who has written a couple of books on the Old Testament (Who Wrote The Bible? is pretty high up on my list). Guy knows his Hebrew, which is one of the reasons this book was so fascinating.
In a nutshell, The Disappearance of God is about just that. The book is divided into three sections, each detailing what Friedman calls a “mystery”:
The disappearance of God in the Bible
Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the death of God
the similarities between the Big Bang and the cosmology of Jewish Kabbalah
For the first mystery, Friedman whips out his Biblical scholarship in full force. The basic premise for this section is that while Yahweh starts out performing grand, impressive, and public miracles, as the Bible progresses he begins to scale down his interactions with humanity (both communication and signs/wonders) until by the time the books of prophets are being written, Yahweh has ceased to communicate with people except through visions and other dream-like states.
Friedman frames the interaction between humanity and God in the Old Testament as a “divine/human balance”. At the beginning, all humanity is basically a child, unable to make decisions for themselves and unable to behave the way they’re told. As time goes by, however, God seems to give humanity more “power” or influence in the balance, as seen by, for example, Abraham and Job arguing and debating with God, humans choosing the signs from God instead of being told what they’ll be, and Jacob wrestling with (and overcoming!) God and subsequently demanding a blessing. With Moses, Friedman argues that God begins a rapid fade from his previous behavior, to the point where at the end it seems as if Moses has been given divine powers without even needing to call on God. Then Elijah and Elisha perform miracles that don’t explicitly involve God and don’t necessarily “glorify him” as previous miracles had (wiping out a bunch of kids with bears, multiplying bottles of oil, a cloak (which passes from Elijah to Elisha) parting a river. Friedman describes this shifting of the balance of power as perhaps a growing child receiving more responsibility from a parent as the child ages.
Then Friedman ties in the New Testament. According to Friedman, the miracles of Jesus are of the type that haven’t been seen for centuries, since Elijah (which is why Jesus is thought to be Elijah by some). This is taken as a sort of wink from God as a confirmation of Jesus’s divinity. Friedman views the story of Jesus as a sort of culmination of the divine/human struggle throughout the Bible: God incarnates and moves among humans, and they kill him. When Jesus says “forgive them, for they know not what they do,” it “fits comprehensibly in a linear historical sequence that has near its beginning an account in which some human form of God meets Jacob and, with no reason at all given, they fight.
The second section begins with a lengthy biographical discussion of Friedrich Nietzsche. His madness, his family, his love life, and his religious upbringing are all discussed at length. Almost as prevalent in the chapter is Fyodor Dostoevsky (and how Nietzsche read and enjoyed his work). Friedman seems fascinated by the fact that Nietzsche and Dostoevsky seem to have arrived at the idea of the death of God independently. Friedman compares both men to Jacob, “for having wrestled, prevailed, and suffered the wounds of divine struggle. They did not play at it nor approach it as a set of intellectually interesting propositions.” Nietzsche feels that humankind cannot “be all that it is capable of being in a god’s presence.” In the Bible the generation that rebels the most is the one closest to God (wilderness) and the one with the least presence of God is the best-behaved (Ezra/Nehemiah/Esther). Both Nietzsche and Dostoevsky agree that with the death of the divine, humanity must step in to replace it.
Regarding Dostoevsky, Friedman spends a significant section of one chapter on The Brothers Karamazov (which, he notes, Nietzsche never got a chance to read) and more specifically the chapter involving the story told by Ivan Karamazov describing the meeting of the Grand Inquisitor and Jesus Christ. The Inquisitor tells Jesus that he shouldn’t have rejected the devil’s temptations in the wilderness, because they would have given him miracle, mystery, and authority, the three things which the Church needs to control people. The Inquisitor then says that the Church isn’t working for Jesus, but for Satan, and “that is our mystery.” Jesus responds by kissing the Inquisitor. Friedman notes that both an atheist and a believer could read the story and feel vindicated, reflecting both divine hiddenness and the divine/human balance. The divine voice “acquiesces in the human appropriation of powers from the divine realm.”
Friedman finishes the section by describing both Nietzsche’s and Dostoevsky’s “fear” (moreso in the latter than the former) that without God “all is permissible”. Nietzsche saw a “death of traditional morality” and predicted that in the twentieth century, “there would be wars the like of which have never been seen.” Obviously he was vindicated, but his belief came from this disappearance of God. “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.”
The last section describes, as I mentioned above, the uncanny similarities between the Big Bang theory and the cosmology of Kabbalah (a Jewish mystical movement). in Kabbalah “the fundamental fact of creation takes place in God…the creation of the world, that is to say, the creation of something out of nothing, is itself but the external aspect of something which takes place in God himself.” The deity became concentrated in a point which exploded outwards and filled space with emanations. These emanations, Sefirot, are what everything in the universe is made out of. Friedman compares the Sefirot with the fact that all matter emerged from the same single point at the beginning, as in, we are all made of matter that was present at the formation of the universe.
I’ve done a horrifically poor job of describing the last section, but it ends with the idea that perhaps God was a divine parent to humanity, allowing it more responsibility as it could handle it and finally receding from view until now, when we are starting to discover that, as Friedman concludes, “there is some likelihood that the universe is the hidden face of God.”
In a nutshell, The Disappearance of God is about just that. The book is divided into three sections, each detailing what Friedman calls a “mystery”:
The disappearance of God in the Bible
Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the death of God
the similarities between the Big Bang and the cosmology of Jewish Kabbalah
For the first mystery, Friedman whips out his Biblical scholarship in full force. The basic premise for this section is that while Yahweh starts out performing grand, impressive, and public miracles, as the Bible progresses he begins to scale down his interactions with humanity (both communication and signs/wonders) until by the time the books of prophets are being written, Yahweh has ceased to communicate with people except through visions and other dream-like states.
Friedman frames the interaction between humanity and God in the Old Testament as a “divine/human balance”. At the beginning, all humanity is basically a child, unable to make decisions for themselves and unable to behave the way they’re told. As time goes by, however, God seems to give humanity more “power” or influence in the balance, as seen by, for example, Abraham and Job arguing and debating with God, humans choosing the signs from God instead of being told what they’ll be, and Jacob wrestling with (and overcoming!) God and subsequently demanding a blessing. With Moses, Friedman argues that God begins a rapid fade from his previous behavior, to the point where at the end it seems as if Moses has been given divine powers without even needing to call on God. Then Elijah and Elisha perform miracles that don’t explicitly involve God and don’t necessarily “glorify him” as previous miracles had (wiping out a bunch of kids with bears, multiplying bottles of oil, a cloak (which passes from Elijah to Elisha) parting a river. Friedman describes this shifting of the balance of power as perhaps a growing child receiving more responsibility from a parent as the child ages.
Then Friedman ties in the New Testament. According to Friedman, the miracles of Jesus are of the type that haven’t been seen for centuries, since Elijah (which is why Jesus is thought to be Elijah by some). This is taken as a sort of wink from God as a confirmation of Jesus’s divinity. Friedman views the story of Jesus as a sort of culmination of the divine/human struggle throughout the Bible: God incarnates and moves among humans, and they kill him. When Jesus says “forgive them, for they know not what they do,” it “fits comprehensibly in a linear historical sequence that has near its beginning an account in which some human form of God meets Jacob and, with no reason at all given, they fight.
The second section begins with a lengthy biographical discussion of Friedrich Nietzsche. His madness, his family, his love life, and his religious upbringing are all discussed at length. Almost as prevalent in the chapter is Fyodor Dostoevsky (and how Nietzsche read and enjoyed his work). Friedman seems fascinated by the fact that Nietzsche and Dostoevsky seem to have arrived at the idea of the death of God independently. Friedman compares both men to Jacob, “for having wrestled, prevailed, and suffered the wounds of divine struggle. They did not play at it nor approach it as a set of intellectually interesting propositions.” Nietzsche feels that humankind cannot “be all that it is capable of being in a god’s presence.” In the Bible the generation that rebels the most is the one closest to God (wilderness) and the one with the least presence of God is the best-behaved (Ezra/Nehemiah/Esther). Both Nietzsche and Dostoevsky agree that with the death of the divine, humanity must step in to replace it.
Regarding Dostoevsky, Friedman spends a significant section of one chapter on The Brothers Karamazov (which, he notes, Nietzsche never got a chance to read) and more specifically the chapter involving the story told by Ivan Karamazov describing the meeting of the Grand Inquisitor and Jesus Christ. The Inquisitor tells Jesus that he shouldn’t have rejected the devil’s temptations in the wilderness, because they would have given him miracle, mystery, and authority, the three things which the Church needs to control people. The Inquisitor then says that the Church isn’t working for Jesus, but for Satan, and “that is our mystery.” Jesus responds by kissing the Inquisitor. Friedman notes that both an atheist and a believer could read the story and feel vindicated, reflecting both divine hiddenness and the divine/human balance. The divine voice “acquiesces in the human appropriation of powers from the divine realm.”
Friedman finishes the section by describing both Nietzsche’s and Dostoevsky’s “fear” (moreso in the latter than the former) that without God “all is permissible”. Nietzsche saw a “death of traditional morality” and predicted that in the twentieth century, “there would be wars the like of which have never been seen.” Obviously he was vindicated, but his belief came from this disappearance of God. “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.”
The last section describes, as I mentioned above, the uncanny similarities between the Big Bang theory and the cosmology of Kabbalah (a Jewish mystical movement). in Kabbalah “the fundamental fact of creation takes place in God…the creation of the world, that is to say, the creation of something out of nothing, is itself but the external aspect of something which takes place in God himself.” The deity became concentrated in a point which exploded outwards and filled space with emanations. These emanations, Sefirot, are what everything in the universe is made out of. Friedman compares the Sefirot with the fact that all matter emerged from the same single point at the beginning, as in, we are all made of matter that was present at the formation of the universe.
I’ve done a horrifically poor job of describing the last section, but it ends with the idea that perhaps God was a divine parent to humanity, allowing it more responsibility as it could handle it and finally receding from view until now, when we are starting to discover that, as Friedman concludes, “there is some likelihood that the universe is the hidden face of God.”
June 15, 2017
Tři a půl hvězdy. Myšlenky dobré, podaná vysvětlení dobrá, ale kniha je strašně roztahaná. Opravdu hodně. Autor řadu myšlenek v dalších kapitolách opakuje. Kdyby měla kniha třetinovou délku, bylo by to ideální.
December 11, 2018
Part one was fascinating, though the book as a whole was endlessly repetitive. Also, part three was a bit too new-agey for me. Cosmology? Kabbalah? It didn’t correspond to the rhythm initially established in the text.
June 5, 2020
There's a lot here
August 3, 2022
I really enjoyed the originality of this author's ideas.
April 8, 2023
“I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and see what their end will be…”
Deuteronomy 32:20
Deuteronomy 32:20
October 1, 2018
A fascinating book. I highly recommend it to everyone regardless of your religious persuasion or even if you are an atheist.
March 19, 2024
I found this book very intriguing, but as a Christian I was disappointed in the last chapter to find that the author had abandoned Jesus’s promise to always be with us and instead introduced an idea that we are together as a common species, to grow and mature together until we are ready to see God again. The author states that we must be worthy of the destiny that awaits us; but that worthiness can only be provided through the sacrifice of Jesus. We do not have to earn it through maturing as a species or improving ourselves.
However, the conclusion aside, I am very glad that I read the book. It really got me thinking about how desperately we need the return of our savior.
However, the conclusion aside, I am very glad that I read the book. It really got me thinking about how desperately we need the return of our savior.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 24, 2012
This book inspires a great deal of deep thought. It is comforting to know that I'm not alone in feeling like God has been absent for most if not all of history. Unfortunately the last section of the book fell a little flat for me. The author believes we should take comfort from the fact that the human race is growing up and making itself worthy of reunification with God. However, this does not provide adequate reassurance for individuals struggling to find personal meaning in a world that seems to be bereft of a personal god. It does not provide adequate reassurance, either, for individuals wondering if there's any hope for life after death in the presence of a loving god. Friedman's concept of God as the face of the universe may very well be true, but what can I as an individual hope for or expect from this God?
May 3, 2017
I'm nothing close to a religious scholar, but I did find this book intriguing. In college, it was a requirement to take a course on the Bible because the school had some historical connection to the Lutheran church. I signed up for a section taught by an Orthodox rabbi, and this book was just one of the very interesting parts of that course. It's divided into three parts that don't seemingly have anything to do with each other: the physical presence of God in Judeo-Christian texts, weird coincidences - or are they? - about Nietzsche and Dostoevsky, and then metaphysics and kabbalah mysticism. It certainly gets you thinking.
This is apparently the first edition of The Hidden Face of God, but it seems like the publishers changed the title for the subsequent editions. Too shocking a title?
This is apparently the first edition of The Hidden Face of God, but it seems like the publishers changed the title for the subsequent editions. Too shocking a title?
April 3, 2013
Odd book, by the author of "Who Wrote the Bible." His theme is that there are three "mysteries" - one involving the gradual disappearance of God as one progresses through the Hebrew Bible; one somehow involving Nietzsche, that I didn't understand at all; & one involving Kabbalah & cosmology which was interesting & not naive...
July 19, 2007
stimulating but redundant work. describes the diminishing role of god in the old testament. nietzsche declares god is dead. friedman then makes a weird parallel between modern physics and the hebrew kabala!
April 17, 2024
The God of the Hebrew bible steps back over time. How and why this occurs is a mystery that Friedman endeavors to solve. As always, his conclusions about the bible are worth reading and thinking about.
August 27, 2008
excellent especially the doestoevsky & nietzsche parallels
June 3, 2010
An interesting read. It was also interesting because the author went into the relationship between Dostoevsky and Neische and I happened to be reading The Brothers Karamazov at the time.
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