Reviews for Personal Worship: Intimacy with God

The average rating for Personal Worship: Intimacy with God based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-02-10 00:00:00 Brian Benjamin I'm an atheist, but religion fascinates me, primarily as a manifestation of culture. I read the Torah as I would any ancient text, and found it an amazing and instructive document of nation-building. From the most pragmatic--laws and norms, historical lessons--to the most spiritual--a genesis story, a spiritual justification, a historical and cultural sense of the nation, what is the meaning of being human, what the limits, what the goals, what the good and bad relationships--, countless questions are answered, often in a satisfyingly absolute way (though questions linger at other times). The narrative is uneven, sometimes mythical, sometimes action-packed, at times mind-numbingly detailed and repetitive (getting through the measurements of the temple, or the census was a real struggle), but all of it adds up to an unparalleled document of a newly forming nation. There are many, many interesting features in the Torah as a whole, but one that stands out to me is that often motivations (human or godly) go unexplained...leading to the pragmatic (and true to life) conclusion that sometimes, things just are; the ultimate explanation does not always exist (or perhaps the religious would say does not always manifest to humans), even in a world with a divinity.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-12-03 00:00:00 J.a. Van Ruler Scared the heck out of my parents during the couple weeks I was reading this baby. Oh, I read the Large Print edition. Much easier on the eyes. From a literary perspective, it was in dire need of a good editor. I mean, every time God tells Moses something, we get the complete text of his speech. Then, we get the exact same text again when Moses tells everyone what God said. REDUNDANCY. Could have really tightened this piece up to make the plot move much swifter. Had problems liking anyone in this book. God was a jerk. Moses wasn't so nice. And the rest were a bunch of gossipers, back-stabbers, and liars. Also, could we limit the number of animals we have to slaughter? The gods must be crazy! Some nice bits about how if your slave won't leave when you free him, take an awl and drive it through his ear into your door. That's awkward. Actually, the best bit was toward the end when they talk about helping your friends and family. Those bits were quite lovely and rational & I got a sense of where the Jewish half of my family picked up their codes of generosity.