God by Alexander Waugh

Product Details

Synopsis

This is a book about God.

Not just any god, but the god that created Adam and Eve; the god of Abraham, the god of the Jews; the god of the Christians; and the god of Islam---without a doubt, the most influential figure in the history of human civilization. But what do we really know about him? Who is he? Where did he come from? What does he look like? What sort of character does he have? What, if anything, does he eat? Does he have a family? In what ways can he be said to even exist at all?

Alexander Waugh has been asking questions like these for as long as he can remember. Now, having drawn from an enormous range of sources, from the sacred books of the Torah, the Christian New Testament, and the Islamic Qur'an, from the Greek Apocrypha and the ancient texts of Nag Hammadi to the Dead Sea Scrolls, he has sought out the answers. Using material gleaned from the diverse writings of saints, rabbis, historians, prophets, atheists, poets, and mystics, he has molded his findings into a singular, striking biographical portrait of God.

Erudite, perceptive, and entertaining, God reveals many startling and unexpected characteristics of the divine being. From the simple stories of Genesis and Job, explored from God's own viewpoint, to the prophecies of Muhammad and Sybil and the intricate philosophies of Newton and Nietzsche, Alexander Waugh has left no stone unturned in his compulsive mission to create a fascinating and complex portrait of God, as humans have claimed to understand him.

Publishers Weekly

Despite its title, this book should not be confused with Jack Miles's God: A Biography or Karen Armstrong's A History of God. Those books are works of serious scholarship for the general public; this one seems more like a Monty Pythonesque Book of Lists as Bertrand Russell might have compiled it. Waugh grandson of Evelyn, son of Auberon comes by his cynicism honestly and employs it relentlessly as he piles up thousands of tidbits about God from the Bible, the Qur'an, the Book of Mormon, the Mishnah, the Gnostic gospels, Dante, the medieval mystics and John Milton. Dividing his chapters by Shakespeare's seven ages of man, he amasses creation stories in chapter 1 ("Mewling and Puking"), stockpiles death-of-God philosophies in chapter 7 ("Sans Everything"), and in between accumulates snippets about every imaginable or unthinkable topic including God's preferred smells (burnt meat and incense), short memory and, above all, vicious cruelty. Though Waugh says that questions about God's existence and nature "ought to be treated with respect at the very least, for they are questions of the utmost historical significance," his own approach relies heavily on sarcasm and acrimony. "God must be gratified," he writes, "surprised, puzzled even, that he is nowadays so often described as `good' especially since the holy scriptures bear a considerable weight of testimony to the contrary." Readers who appreciate British schoolboy humor, are amused by exaggerated literalism and enjoy poking fun at organized religion will hail this encyclopedic mishmash. (May) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Biography

Alexander Waugh was born in 1963, and is the grandson of Evelyn Waugh, and a son of columnist Auberon Waugh and novelist Teresa Waugh. After studying music at Manchester University, he became Chief Opera Critic at the Mail on Sunday and the London Evening Standard. He has written several books on music, including Classical Music: A New Way of Listening, which has been translated into fourteen languages. He is also a publisher, cartoonist, composer, and illustrator. He lives in Somerset, England, with his wife and three children.