Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine - Hardcover

Bloom, Harold

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1573223220 ISBN 13: 9781573223225

Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover, 2005

Synopsis

A provocative character study of the historical Jesus and Yahweh is presented from the perspective of a literary critic, citing inconsistencies and logical flaws throughout the gospels while arguing that the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament are incompatible texts that reflect differing political and religious purposes. By the author of The Anxiety of Influence. 75,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

Bloom’s occasional forays into religious criticism are particularly interesting, given his lifelong passion for poetry and his contributions to the study of literature. And while discussions of religion itself are in play here, it is the characters of Jesus and Yahweh that inhabit the pages, and Bloom’s literary critic more than his moonlighting theologian examining them. And what of that analysis? Bloom has an obvious affinity for Yahweh over Jesus (even though Jesus gets first billing in the book’s title.) But to ascribe that preference to his Jewish roots is perhaps too easy. A close reading reveals more. Bloom finds that Yahweh, with his covenants, tempers, resolutions, and even occasional forays into the physical where he fights, eats and walks in the cool of the Garden presents a more interesting character than the rather enigmatic Jesus who only comes truly alive for him in Mark’s gospel, and even more so beyond the canonical scriptures in the Gospel of Thomas. And though in sensibility and identification Bloom hews closer to Yahweh, he acknowledges the place Jesus and his followers have made in the world, through an application of his own theory of the anxiety of influence, noting that "The New Testament frequently is a strong misreading of the Hebrew Bible, and certainly it has persuaded multitudes." Provocative statements like these abound, but Bloom is no provocateur. Whether one agrees or disagrees with his meditations on the names divine, it is hard not to respect his vigorous intellect and bracing candor as he explores their power.--Ed Dobeas

About the Author:

The author of twenty-seven books and the recipient of many honors, including a MacArthur Fellowship and the Gold Medal for Belles Lettres and Criticism from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Harold Bloom is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University and is a former Charles Eliot Norton Professor at Harvard. He is best known for his New York Times bestsellers Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human; The Western Canon; and The Book of J, as well as his early classic, The Anxiety of Influence.

About this edition

• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1573223220
• ISBN 13: 9781573223225
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256