An interview with the author - Liberating the Name of God: A Free-Thinker Grapples with the Meaning of Divinity
What moved you to write this book?
It’s a labor of love concerning a topic I’ve been thinking about all of my life. During the first few years after college back in the early 80s, I wrote two different monographs regarding the meaning of divinity but never dared to try to publish them. Back then, I was just beginning the process of putting my thoughts into a coherent framework. Later, I came to realize that the best way to reach other people on this topic was to tell stories. I worked the topic of God into both of my novels. But the greatest story I can tell is the tale of my own personal search for enlightenment on this topic, and that is what I chronicle in this book. It is my hope that by revealing all I’ve learned from several traditions, both religious and heretical, I can inspire my readers to attempt their own searches – or at least to struggle a bit more with the meaning of the Holy Name.
Does this book have a core thesis?
It has several. But perhaps the most central is that we need to stop having what Buber would call an I-It relationship with the name of God. In other words, we need to stop using this name primarily as a tool for our own empowerment, which is how we have come to create “God” in our own idealized image. Instead, we should respecting the awesome mystery that is inherent in any deity worthy of the Name, and embark on a search to explore this mystery, knowing that it will never be solved.
If this is a story, who are the characters?
The first one is the Divine. I don’t view the Divine as a human-like figure but rather as the mysterious Ultimate. We can search to better understand the Divine but can never feel that we’ve reached the end of our search. The second character is the Name. Whether we refer to the Divine as Allah, Adonai, or simply God, this word has tremendous power. It becomes a tool to use for good or evil, depending on who is using it. But while the Name belongs to us, the Divine shall always remain primarily cloaked in mystery. I am the third character. I describe my encounter with the Name over the course of my life, revealing both my biases and my epiphanies. And in this manner, I hope to inspire the final character of the book, my reader, to discern her own biases and thereby to have epiphanies of her own.
What audience are you trying to reach in this book?
The most natural audience is anyone who is currently engaged in a search for truth with respect to the meaning of divinity. And I would add to that that academics and members of the clergy who are trying to teach or minister to such searchers are also part of the target audience. But the problem is that, in my view, far too few people are actively pursuing this mystery, and most of us are operating on a third grade level when it comes to the domain of religion, and religious philosophy in particular. So this book is written to anyone who is concerned about how we as a society can better inspire ourselves and each other to open our hearts and our minds and grapple with the meaning of divinity.
Why should people read a book on God written by a lawyer?
It is important to read books on this topic both by people in the God-business and by those who aren’t. By being outside the tent of the religious professional, I can write as freely as possible without worrying about offending my colleagues, my congregants, or the conventions of my religious faith. Also, the practice of law teaches you the value of presenting your ideas logically and clearly, so it has helped in some regard. But mostly what it’s done is allow me to realize that there is more to life than our jobs and that our greatest passions often have nothing to do with how we make our living. While I can and do bring a lot of passion into my law practice, it’s nothing compared to how much I care about the topics in this book.
Why do you say that this book liberates the Holy Name?
“God” has a denotation, which means the Ultimate. At least among monotheists, it’s impossible to worship a deity who you don’t think of as the Ultimate. The problem is that “God” also has a conventional connotation, which refers to the way people characterize the Lord of Scripture. We create that deity in our own image by projecting our ideals onto “Him.” Increasingly, though, especially in well-educated societies, people are losing faith in that deity and as a result are losing interest in religion. I’m trying to confront that apathy in this book. To me, we need to liberate the Holy Name by exploring the denotation of the word “God” and not getting hung up by any single connotation.
How has your involvement with the interfaith movement influenced your perspective on God?
It has increased my commitment to studying faiths other than my own (Judaism). I realize now that we can’t achieve enlightenment without being open to the greatest teachings our species has to offer, which means that we can’t only listen to one group of clerics and scholars. Also, I’ve learned that it rings hollow to have one God if we can’t work together to honor God through our actions. Through this movement, I’ve become passionate about fighting the divisions that have given religion a bad name. That involves embracing the ways in which we are both similar and different, which is the way most of us relate to our extended families. It is critical that religious people learn to see “the other” as family, not as opponents or enemies.
There are numerous books on the market about God; why read this one?
Most of those books assume that “God” refers to the Scriptural character known by that name – an assumption that is satisfying for many, but has left many others completed alienated by the domain of religion. My goal in writing this book is to allow my readers to discover for themselves what “God” means to them. And by revealing not only my innermost thoughts on the subject but also my deepest feelings, I hope to inspire the same sort of soul-searching on the part of my readers. It matters not to me if they agree with my conclusions. My intent is to engage and inspire them by exposing them to the most profound insights on the topic of God that I have picked up after nearly five decades of searching.
It’s a labor of love concerning a topic I’ve been thinking about all of my life. During the first few years after college back in the early 80s, I wrote two different monographs regarding the meaning of divinity but never dared to try to publish them. Back then, I was just beginning the process of putting my thoughts into a coherent framework. Later, I came to realize that the best way to reach other people on this topic was to tell stories. I worked the topic of God into both of my novels. But the greatest story I can tell is the tale of my own personal search for enlightenment on this topic, and that is what I chronicle in this book. It is my hope that by revealing all I’ve learned from several traditions, both religious and heretical, I can inspire my readers to attempt their own searches – or at least to struggle a bit more with the meaning of the Holy Name.
Does this book have a core thesis?
It has several. But perhaps the most central is that we need to stop having what Buber would call an I-It relationship with the name of God. In other words, we need to stop using this name primarily as a tool for our own empowerment, which is how we have come to create “God” in our own idealized image. Instead, we should respecting the awesome mystery that is inherent in any deity worthy of the Name, and embark on a search to explore this mystery, knowing that it will never be solved.
If this is a story, who are the characters?
The first one is the Divine. I don’t view the Divine as a human-like figure but rather as the mysterious Ultimate. We can search to better understand the Divine but can never feel that we’ve reached the end of our search. The second character is the Name. Whether we refer to the Divine as Allah, Adonai, or simply God, this word has tremendous power. It becomes a tool to use for good or evil, depending on who is using it. But while the Name belongs to us, the Divine shall always remain primarily cloaked in mystery. I am the third character. I describe my encounter with the Name over the course of my life, revealing both my biases and my epiphanies. And in this manner, I hope to inspire the final character of the book, my reader, to discern her own biases and thereby to have epiphanies of her own.
What audience are you trying to reach in this book?
The most natural audience is anyone who is currently engaged in a search for truth with respect to the meaning of divinity. And I would add to that that academics and members of the clergy who are trying to teach or minister to such searchers are also part of the target audience. But the problem is that, in my view, far too few people are actively pursuing this mystery, and most of us are operating on a third grade level when it comes to the domain of religion, and religious philosophy in particular. So this book is written to anyone who is concerned about how we as a society can better inspire ourselves and each other to open our hearts and our minds and grapple with the meaning of divinity.
Why should people read a book on God written by a lawyer?
It is important to read books on this topic both by people in the God-business and by those who aren’t. By being outside the tent of the religious professional, I can write as freely as possible without worrying about offending my colleagues, my congregants, or the conventions of my religious faith. Also, the practice of law teaches you the value of presenting your ideas logically and clearly, so it has helped in some regard. But mostly what it’s done is allow me to realize that there is more to life than our jobs and that our greatest passions often have nothing to do with how we make our living. While I can and do bring a lot of passion into my law practice, it’s nothing compared to how much I care about the topics in this book.
Why do you say that this book liberates the Holy Name?
“God” has a denotation, which means the Ultimate. At least among monotheists, it’s impossible to worship a deity who you don’t think of as the Ultimate. The problem is that “God” also has a conventional connotation, which refers to the way people characterize the Lord of Scripture. We create that deity in our own image by projecting our ideals onto “Him.” Increasingly, though, especially in well-educated societies, people are losing faith in that deity and as a result are losing interest in religion. I’m trying to confront that apathy in this book. To me, we need to liberate the Holy Name by exploring the denotation of the word “God” and not getting hung up by any single connotation.
How has your involvement with the interfaith movement influenced your perspective on God?
It has increased my commitment to studying faiths other than my own (Judaism). I realize now that we can’t achieve enlightenment without being open to the greatest teachings our species has to offer, which means that we can’t only listen to one group of clerics and scholars. Also, I’ve learned that it rings hollow to have one God if we can’t work together to honor God through our actions. Through this movement, I’ve become passionate about fighting the divisions that have given religion a bad name. That involves embracing the ways in which we are both similar and different, which is the way most of us relate to our extended families. It is critical that religious people learn to see “the other” as family, not as opponents or enemies.
There are numerous books on the market about God; why read this one?
Most of those books assume that “God” refers to the Scriptural character known by that name – an assumption that is satisfying for many, but has left many others completed alienated by the domain of religion. My goal in writing this book is to allow my readers to discover for themselves what “God” means to them. And by revealing not only my innermost thoughts on the subject but also my deepest feelings, I hope to inspire the same sort of soul-searching on the part of my readers. It matters not to me if they agree with my conclusions. My intent is to engage and inspire them by exposing them to the most profound insights on the topic of God that I have picked up after nearly five decades of searching.