What Noam Chomsky did for political commentary, and Stephen Hawking did for cosmology, Donald Harman Akenson does for the Bible and its interpreters, and the resulting conclusions are just as astounding. Surpassing Wonder illuminates how the greatest cultural artifacts of our civilization are related to one another and constitute the very core of our consciousness.
With biting irreverence for denominational prejudices and the pretensions of academics, Akenson renews our sense of awe before these religious works. He challenges received doctrines, arguing that the ancient Jews were indeed idol worshippers and that Saint Paul did not believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth or in the virgin birth.
With wit, elegance, and clarity Surpassing Wonder makes the ancient Hebrew scriptures, the Christian New Testament, and the Talmuds of the Rabbis accessible to all and shows they can be understood only in relation to each other and against their specific historical settings. Akenson argues that each of the great texts must be considered as the product of a single author and thus as a religious invention - that is, as a self-consciously formed unity rather than an anthology of disparate works. He also argues that the great inventor of the Hebrew scriptures should be credited with constructing the very concept of narrative history and thus the foundations of Western civilization.
Using a rich and imagistic language that combines tractor mechanics, Winnie-the-Pooh, and architecture with analogies from astronomy, evolutionary biology, and economics, Akenson brings about nothing less than a radical reformation of how to think about the sacred texts. He restores their spiritual power through a just appreciation of the achievement of their authors while leaving readers to decide for themselves on the presence of a "guiding hand."
Surpassing Wonder is a penetrating study of the historian's craft and a brilliant exposé of how theologians and biblical scholars abuse historical reasoning and evidence in their treatment of the sacred texts. Just as a previous reformation cast out the priestly intercessors, so Akenson casts the scholars out of the temple and lets readers in to see the texts anew. In so doing he reinvests religion with meaning for a contemporary world and shows us how Western civilization was created not by the Greeks of Athens or the patricians of Rome but by the desert worshippers of Yahweh.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references and indexes
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 220.6
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 21
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- ISBN
- 9780773517813 9780773568419
- LCCN
- BS445
- LCCN Item number
- A42 1998eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaOONL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (viii, 658 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)slc00215137 (OCoLC)243614278 (CaOOCEL)420128
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaOONL
Table of Contents
- Contents 8
- Figures and Tables 10
- 1 Introduction: Us and the Semites 16
- INVENTING THE COVENANT 30
- 2 Apparent Woe and Great Invention 32
- 3 Returning with Yahweh to Jerusalem 77
- 4 History's All-Embracing Arms: The Covenant 104
- INVENTIVE FECUNDITY AND JUDAHIST MULTIPLICITY: THE LATER SECOND TEMPLE ERA 120
- 5 Siloam's Teeming Pool -I 122
- 6 Siloam's Teeming Pool - II 146
- 7 Siloam's Teeming Pool - III 184
- THE INVENTION OF CHRISTIANITY 222
- 8 The Re-Invention of the Species 224
- 9 From Yeshua of Nazareth to Jesus the Christ 257
- THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH FAITH 284
- 10 Don't Stare at the Neighbours 286
- 11 The Hermetic, Perfect Mishnah 308
- 12 Taming the Mishnah: Tractate Aboth, the Tosefta, Sifra, and the Yerushalmi 341
- 13 The Bounteous Bavli and the Invention of the Dual Torah 379
- 14 Conclusion: Surpassing Wonder 412
- Notes 428
- APPENDICES 524
- A: Glossary 526
- A 526
- B 526
- C 526
- E 527
- F 527
- G 527
- H 527
- K 527
- L 527
- M 527
- N 528
- P 528
- Q 528
- R 528
- S 529
- T 529
- Y 530
- B: Biblical Chronology 531
- C: The Manuscript Base of the Holy Scriptures 539
- D: Modern Biblical Scholarship and the Quest for the Historical Yeshua 551
- E: The Great Rabbinic Corpus: Access, Dating, Translation, Methods, and Queries 619
- General Index 640
- A 640
- B 641
- C 642
- D 644
- E 644
- F 645
- G 646
- H 647
- I 648
- J 648
- K 650
- L 650
- M 651
- N 653
- O 653
- P 654
- Q 655
- R 655
- S 656
- T 658
- U 659
- V 659
- W 660
- Y 660
- Z 660
- Textual Index 662