In the midst of saying some very odd and wacky things, Jack Miles does have some insights to offer in his God: A Biography . Most especially, there’s his notion that the unity of the Bible (he’s dealing with the OT) lies in the fact that it has a single main character, God. God is the hero of the story, and ultimately (I say, against Miles) a comic hero, a triumphant hero (not, as Miles says, a silent, nearly dead, weary hero). Miles’s emphasis on the “multiple” identity of God, his unpredictable volatility, is also a welcome corrective to overly Apollonian portraits of God. It would be wonderful is someone of Miles’s writing gifts and learning, but with an ORTHODOX turn of mind, would work up a theology proper in the way he does, examining God’s “character” and even “character development” as it emerges in the narratives of Scripture.
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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