Who on Earth is God? Making Sense of God in the Bible

How should we understand the God of the Bible? How do we make sense of God's apparently changing character in the Bible theologically? God is not obvious - unlike all the animate and inanimate objects which we can see around us. God does not appear to fulfill any useful purpose; what is God for or about? Is God just a mystery? Or a problem? Or both?

In Who On Earth is God?: Making Sense of God in the Bible Neil Richardson provides the answers to these fascinating questions. Richardson tackles the hard issues surrounding some of the more problematic passages head on, looking at divine anger, violence and jealousy, and suggesting how these can be interpreted. The book engages with the difficult questions posed by contemporary issues, and the 'new atheism' pioneered by popular writers such as Richard Dawkins. This takes discussion 'beyond the bible' into later developments in thought, and notions of God in a post-modern context. This is an indispensable guide for people with or without faith, wrestling with these difficult, and eternal, questions and themes.

Neil Richardson was Tutor in New Testament Studies and later Principal of Wesley College, Bristol. He served as President of the British Methodist Conference in 2003-2004.

Foreword
Introduction: Why This Book?
i) That strange word ‘God’
ii) ‘There is no God’?
iii) God and gods
iv) The God of the Bible
Conclusion

Seven Steps Towards Reading the Bible

Chapter One: Beginnings: God of Creation
i) God of Beginnings
ii) Human Beings and God
iii) The Question of God’s Patience
iv) Beginning Again: Abraham, Friend of God
Summary

Chapter Two: Moses, Joshua and the Violence of God
i) God the Terrorist?
ii) ‘Divine’ Massacres, Ancient and Modern
iii) Divine Cruelty to Dumb Animals?
iv) A Choosy ‘Jealous’ God
Summary

Interlude (1): Is the Bible No Longer Trustworthy?

Chapter Three: Through the Darkest Night
i) Why did God Allow This to Happen?
ii) Towards Belief in One God
iii) The ‘Judgements’ of God in History
iv) Wrath: God’s Dark Side or Ours?
Summary

Chapter Four God: A ‘You’ Rather Than an ‘It’
i) An Awesomely Consistent ‘You’
ii) An Always and Everywhere ‘You’
iii) An Elusive (and Cruel?) You
iv) ‘My God’, ‘Our God
Summary

Interlude 2 Is the God of the Old Testament Different from the God of the New?

Chapter Five: Jesus and the God of the Bible:
i) Jesus and the Question of God
ii) The Strange Things Jesus Said about God
iii) Not a God for Religious People
iv) The Meaning of the Virgin Birth
Summary

Chapter Six: Paul: the God Who Crossed Boundaries
i) God on the Damascus Road
ii) Jesus in Our Place and in God’s Place
iii) Some Contemporary Problems with Paul’s God
iv) ‘To the Church of God in Corinth’
Summary

Chapter Seven: ‘John’s’ Witness to God
i) ‘John’ and God
ii) Still a Violent God? The Book of Revelation
iii) God in the End
iv) The Bible’s Climax: the First Letter of John
Summary

Summary of Summaries

Conclusion: Who on Earth is God?

A Personal Postscript