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The Invention of God
Thomas Romer
€ 46.99
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Description for The Invention of God
hardcover. Who invented God? When, why, and where? Thomas Romer seeks to answer these enigmatic questions about the deity of the great monotheisms Yhwh, God, or Allah by tracing Israelite beliefs and their context from the Bronze Age to the end of the Old Testament period in the third century BCE, in a masterpiece of detective work and exposition." Num Pages: 296 pages. BIC Classification: HBLA; HRAB1; HRAX. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). .
Who invented God? When, why, and where? Thomas Roemer seeks to answer these questions about the deity of the great monotheisms-Yhwh, God, or Allah-by tracing Israelite beliefs and their context from the Bronze Age to the end of the Old Testament period in the third century BCE. That we can address such enigmatic questions at all may come as a surprise. But as Roemer makes clear, a wealth of evidence allows us to piece together a reliable account of the origins and evolution of the god of Israel. Roemer draws on a long tradition of historical, philological, and exegetical work and on recent discoveries in archaeology and epigraphy to locate the origins of Yhwh in the early Iron Age, when he emerged somewhere in Edom or in the northwest of the Arabian peninsula as a god of the wilderness and of storms and war. He became the sole god of Israel and Jerusalem in fits and starts as other gods, including the mother goddess Asherah, were gradually sidelined. But it was not until a major catastrophe-the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah-that Israelites came to worship Yhwh as the one god of all, creator of heaven and earth, who nevertheless proclaimed a special relationship with Judaism. A masterpiece of detective work and exposition by one of the world's leading experts on the Hebrew Bible, The Invention of God casts a clear light on profoundly important questions that are too rarely asked, let alone answered.
Product Details
Publisher
Harvard University Press United States
Number of pages
296
Format
Hardback
Publication date
2015
Condition
New
Weight
595g
Number of Pages
320
Place of Publication
Cambridge, Mass, United States
ISBN
9780674504974
SKU
V9780674504974
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 4 to 8 working days
Ref
99-2
About Thomas Romer
Thomas Roemer is Professor of the Hebrew Bible at the College de France and Professor at the University of Lausanne. Raymond Geuss is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge.
Reviews for The Invention of God
Ro mer is interested in the emergence of a deity whose nature is now so familiar that its startling originality no longer startles.
Brian Bethune Maclean's (11/30/2015) R mer presents a scholarly and provocative account of how a minor tribal deity likely grew to become
or revealed himself to be
Lord of Creation.
David O'Reilly Philadelphia Inquirer (04/03/2016) It reads very well, is well translated and has a bit of the excitement of discovery for engaged readers.
John C. Endres and Jean-Fran ois Racine America (03/07/2016) R mer is a sure-footed guide to what is often a difficult discussion. A learned and elegant book.
Nathan MacDonald, University of Cambridge R mer is the first to have brought all the relevant material together in such an accessible form, setting out both literary and archaeological evidence clearly and readably.
John Barton Church Times (05/20/2016) R mer, a distinguished scholar rather than an ideologue, seeks to determine exactly what is historical and exactly what is not in the depiction of God. This is a brilliant book.
(01/14/2016) R mer deftly weaves together evidence from the Bible with extra-biblical archeological finds that mention Israel and Yhwh to outline the development of monotheism... Not until Jerusalem's destruction in 587 BCE did Yhwh become the universal, monotheistic god untied to place or particular monarch, the god who was later adopted by Christians and Muslims. R mer writes with clarity and accuracy and tells a compelling story. This book is a masterful work, tying together an enormous amount of information in a concise format.
(01/11/2016) [An] excellent book...A masterly work of historical detection that looks at the evolution of Jewish faith from the Bronze Age to the Hellenic period. This is a superb work of scholarship.
(08/05/2016) There is nothing quite like this book in English. The Invention of God traces the history of the God of Israel from the late Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period, charting the rise of Yhwh as the sole God. The period covered is vast, the thesis is provocative and stimulating, and the scholarship is cutting-edge.
Timothy Lim, University of Edinburgh
Brian Bethune Maclean's (11/30/2015) R mer presents a scholarly and provocative account of how a minor tribal deity likely grew to become
or revealed himself to be
Lord of Creation.
David O'Reilly Philadelphia Inquirer (04/03/2016) It reads very well, is well translated and has a bit of the excitement of discovery for engaged readers.
John C. Endres and Jean-Fran ois Racine America (03/07/2016) R mer is a sure-footed guide to what is often a difficult discussion. A learned and elegant book.
Nathan MacDonald, University of Cambridge R mer is the first to have brought all the relevant material together in such an accessible form, setting out both literary and archaeological evidence clearly and readably.
John Barton Church Times (05/20/2016) R mer, a distinguished scholar rather than an ideologue, seeks to determine exactly what is historical and exactly what is not in the depiction of God. This is a brilliant book.
(01/14/2016) R mer deftly weaves together evidence from the Bible with extra-biblical archeological finds that mention Israel and Yhwh to outline the development of monotheism... Not until Jerusalem's destruction in 587 BCE did Yhwh become the universal, monotheistic god untied to place or particular monarch, the god who was later adopted by Christians and Muslims. R mer writes with clarity and accuracy and tells a compelling story. This book is a masterful work, tying together an enormous amount of information in a concise format.
(01/11/2016) [An] excellent book...A masterly work of historical detection that looks at the evolution of Jewish faith from the Bronze Age to the Hellenic period. This is a superb work of scholarship.
(08/05/2016) There is nothing quite like this book in English. The Invention of God traces the history of the God of Israel from the late Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period, charting the rise of Yhwh as the sole God. The period covered is vast, the thesis is provocative and stimulating, and the scholarship is cutting-edge.
Timothy Lim, University of Edinburgh