Book Launch Philosophy in Interfaith Contexts

Making Sense of “GOD”: What God-Talk Means and Does

9 November, 2023

We are deeply honoured to host Rabbi Dr Norman Solomon‘s Book Launch Making Sense of “GOD”.

Here are the details of this fascinating event.

Speakers: Rabbi Dr Norman Solomon in conversation with Revd Dr John Goldingay.

Author’s biography: Norman Solomon was born in Cardiff in 1933, and educated there and at St. John’s College, Cambridge. He served as rabbi to Orthodox Congregations in Manchester, Liverpool and London before founding, in 1983, the Centre for the Study of Judaism and Jewish/Christian Relations at the Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham. Fellow in Modern Jewish Thought at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies from 1995-98, he is a member of Wolfson College, Oxford, and of the Oxford University Teaching and Research Unit in Hebrew and Jewish Studies. He is a Past President of the British Association for Jewish Studies, Vice President of the World Congress of Faiths, and a Patron of the International Interfaith Centre, and has participated in Interfaith Dialogue in over twenty countries on five continents. His publications include Judaism and World Religion (1991), The Analytic Movement: Hayyim Soloveitchik and his School (1993), A Very Short Introduction to Judaism (1996, 2014²), Historical Dictionary of Judaism (1998, 2015³), The Talmud: A Selection (2009), and Torah from Heaven (2012), as well as numerous articles and reviews.

Abstract: All over the world people talk about God, or gods, and what, if anything, to do about it. Do they know what they are talking about? Do they ever seriously consider what it might look like or feel like if God actually spoke to you? How could you tell, if someone said God spoke to them, whether they were deluded, bluffing, or high on drugs? The reflections, dialogues and arguments in this book address such questions, often with humour, sometimes provocatively, as when the author suggests the ancient gods have returned to invade the institutions of our great religions, or when two spirits, William and James, viewing the world from afar, voice their doubt as to whether the human species will ever attain the pinnacles of cooperation, reason, beauty and love. Ancient texts from the Mayan Popol Vuh through the Bible to the Chinese classics are invoked, and the discoveries of modern science from anthropology through to zoology are brought into play as the reader is gently led to an appreciation of the role of religious language in modern society.

Date: 9 November, 2023

Time: 18:00-19:00 GMT | 19:00-20:00 CEST | 10:00-11:00 PST | 13:00-14:00 EST

Venue: online

PLEASE REGISTER HERE

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