Finding God: Selected Responses

Rating:
Summary: A Variety Of Meaningful Approaches To Age-Old Questions.
Review: Questions about God have probably existed for as long as mankind has existed. Who is God? What is God? Does God exist? How does he fit into our lives? The authors of the newly revised "Finding God: Selected Responses," Rifat Sonsino and Daniel B. Syme, objectively present a variety of approaches to the profound questions about the divine being we call God. This very readable book offers a historical review of how theologians and philosophers have viewed God, over a period of thousands of years, without pushing a single approach, or suggesting that the reader believe anything at all. This is a wonderful resource book that I originally read for a class and have reread, and passed along to others, since then.

Jewish scholars have debated the nature of God for millennia. This short book packs a lot into each chapter as the authors present over a dozen views of Jewish thinkers and teachers, including those who transcribed, or wrote the Bible, the great Rabbis quoted in Rabbinic literature, Philo, Maimonides, Luria, Spinoza, Buber, Steinberg, Kaplan, Fromm, Heschel, and Alvin Reines.

The authors wrote in their Introduction: "This is a book about God. More specifically, it is a book about ways in which Jews have spoken of God through four thousand years of Jewish history. This book will not attempt to tell you what to believe as a Jew. Rather, it will present a spectrum of theological options that have been explored and affirmed by great Jewish thinkers, ancient and modern." The authors take care to point out that in the Jewish tradition, there is no one "correct" way to think of God. "Finding God" offers a solid foundation to begin the exploration of the concepts of God.

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom in Needham, MA, and Rabbi Daniel B. Syme, spiritual leader of Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Hills, MI, wrote, "If we make it possible for one Jew to reclaim his or her Jewish spiritual identity, if we help others to begin to talk about God without ambivalence or embarrassment, if we serve as a catalyst for further study of these and other Jewish thinkers, we will consider our work worthwhile." This is an extraordinary book, beautifully written, and is most worthwhile.
JANA

Rating:
Summary: A Variety Of Meaningful Approaches To Age-Old Questions.
Review: Questions about God have probably existed for as long as mankind has existed. Who is God? What is God? Does God exist? How does he fit into our lives? The authors of the newly revised "Finding God: Selected Responses," Rifat Sonsino and Daniel B. Syme, objectively present a variety of approaches to the profound questions about the divine being we call God. This very readable book offers a historical review of how theologians and philosophers have viewed God, over a period of thousands of years, without pushing a single approach, or suggesting that the reader believe anything at all. This is a wonderful resource book that I originally read for a class and have reread, and passed along to others, since then.

Jewish scholars have debated the nature of God for millennia. This short book packs a lot into each chapter as the authors present over a dozen views of Jewish thinkers and teachers, including those who transcribed, or wrote the Bible, the great Rabbis quoted in Rabbinic literature, Philo, Maimonides, Luria, Spinoza, Buber, Steinberg, Kaplan, Fromm, Heschel, and Alvin Reines.

The authors wrote in their Introduction: "This is a book about God. More specifically, it is a book about ways in which Jews have spoken of God through four thousand years of Jewish history. This book will not attempt to tell you what to believe as a Jew. Rather, it will present a spectrum of theological options that have been explored and affirmed by great Jewish thinkers, ancient and modern." The authors take care to point out that in the Jewish tradition, there is no one "correct" way to think of God. "Finding God" offers a solid foundation to begin the exploration of the concepts of God.

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom in Needham, MA, and Rabbi Daniel B. Syme, spiritual leader of Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Hills, MI, wrote, "If we make it possible for one Jew to reclaim his or her Jewish spiritual identity, if we help others to begin to talk about God without ambivalence or embarrassment, if we serve as a catalyst for further study of these and other Jewish thinkers, we will consider our work worthwhile." This is an extraordinary book, beautifully written, and is most worthwhile.
JANA