Theology, Religious, Philosophy, Christianity 

In this close, careful, and inspired reading of God's life as told in the Old Testament--book by book, verse by verse--God is seen from his first appearance as Creator to his last as Ancient of Days, variously powerful yet powerless, savage yet gentle, endlessly subtle yet mysteriously naive.

Publisher's Weekly Review
In a masterful, audacious inquiry, Miles attempts to tease out God's nature, character, motives and designs through a close textual analysis of the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament. He deduces that the God of Judeo-Christian tradition is an amalgam of several ancient, divine personalities. Worshiped as the source of mercy, wisdom, strength and love, God is also at times an abrupt, unpredictable, wrathful being: a destroyer as well as a creator. There is also Abraham's personal god, almost a ``busy friend of the family''; God the lawgiver, who attaches supreme importance to justice; God as arbiter, conqueror and father; and the silent, omniscient God of the Book of Daniel, who knows in detail the entire remaining course of history. The Creator, in Miles's reading, is intimately linked to human destiny, because humanity, made in His image, is an indispensable tool in His quest for self-understanding.