Liberating The Holy Name [Hardcover]

In an increasingly polarized world atheists and religious fundamentalists still agree on one thing: how God must be defined. Both dogmatically claim that God can only refer to the supernatural Lord of Scripture. In Liberating the Holy Name Daniel Spiro takes square aim at this attempt to assert a monopoly over the meaning of divinity. He explains how his Jewish-atheist upbringing and later exposure to Orthodox Judaism set him on a lifelong search for truth and meaning through the annals of modern Jewish philosophy, Christian theology, and Islam. He then reveals how this search has led to a highly original theology in which God can be conceived in the third person, embraced in the second person, and recognized in the first person. Liberating the Holy Name leads the reader on a voyage through some of our species' most influential and profound perspectives on divinity. Spiro models how this search for divinity can be our greatest privilege, while arguing that in order to appreciate this privilege, we must liberate the Name itself from those who wish to monopolize it. If successful, he contends, we will improve religion's standing in the world and unleash a powerful force for social unity. For the back cover: Daniel Spiro's Liberating the Holy Name is an exciting and fresh new approach to understanding God. Neither believer nor atheist will be let off the hook as Spiro, ruthlessly honest about his own struggle with the contradictions of conventional theology, does not allow the reader to fall into easy skepticism either. As he reveals his own process of seeking to make sense of God without being constrained by orthodoxies of any sort, Spiro challenges the reader to rethink our own easy assumptions about God's existence or non-existence. --Rabbi Michael Lerner, chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, Berkeley, CA Clearly the result of many years of reflection, Liberating the Holy Name is a refreshing read for both theists and atheists. This insightful, thouglÒ