Personhood of God: Biblical Theology, Human Faith and the Divine Image

by Yochanan Muffs

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.

Genres: Theology, Religion, Judaism

240 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2005

Reviews

[Simcha York · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the final page of The Personhood of God, Yochanan Muff sums up his thesis, namely that much of the tension between faith and rationality, the secular and the religious, supernaturalism and abstract impersonal theology, could be resolved "if we remythologized our theology rather than demythologized it." Doing so, he argues, would allow us to

"(a) spell out more clearly the anthropological and psychological implications of the anthropomorphic God and find out exactly what new definitions of personality were being projected by ancient Hebrew man; (b) win the loyalty of the reader of the myth to its humanistic content, not only by the inner cogency of its message, but also by the poetic power of its form; and (c) convince the philosophically oriented reader, by the exaggerated nature of the poetic presentation, that the theologian is as much a demythologizer in his remythologizing as the philosopher is in his abstractions."

In large part, this remythologizing would take the form of returning to an emphasis on, as the title of the book suggests, the personhood of God - that is, God as a dramatic agent and poetic figure. That is, we have to be able to view the world, as Karen Armstrong might put it, through both mythos and logos, a task which is fruitful only if we can effectively distinguish between these two modes of perception and acknowledge their distinctive strengths and weaknesses.

The Personhood of God is, on the whole, a strong, beautifully written book (though it does mire itself down a bit in the mid-book chapters on joy in the Jewish liturgy). The book is written from a Judaic perspective, but should appeal to a wide range of readers interested in the role of religion and religious thought in the modern age.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

"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 b...moreThe 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 point for Muffs where the humanity of God becomes realized through the Tanach in contradistinction to the presentation of the gods by surrounding societies, is the 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.

[Benjamin]

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.