Coming Soon in Paperback

At long last, the wait is almost over for those of you who've been awaiting a paperback edition of my book The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context. University of Illinois Press will be releasing the book in paperback in a few months' time, and it is already available for pre-order on Amazon.com. As is to be expected, it is significantly cheaper than the hardcover edition.

Win a Free Copy of The Only True God

Joel Watts is holding a giveaway. If you'd like to enter to win a copy, pay his blog a visit and participate!

Review at Grasping Mashi'ach

The blog Grasping Mashi'ach has posted a review of my book The Only True God. Take a look!

Review by Jonathan Robinson

Jonathan Robinson has a review of my book The Only True God on his blog ξἐνος.

Halfway to Paperback

If my calculations are correct, The Only True God has already sold about half the number of copies in the first print run. If the first print run sells out within the first three years, the book will be re-released as a more affordable paperback. And so I thought I'd update readers, since I know that some of you are eagerly awaiting a paperback edition. We're making good progress!

Thank you to everyone who has bought the book, reviewed it on their blog and/or Amazon.com, or recommended it for purchase to their local library.

Here are some areas where it could be doing better: On WorldCat it shows that there is only one library that has it in Australia, only three in the UK, two in the Netherlands, and none elsewhere in Europe. Where are the Germans, French, Belgians and Scandinavians who are working on the subjects of monotheism and Christology? (For some reason, the book is approximately half a Euro cheaper on Amazon.fr than Amazon.de).

I particularly expect readers from New Zealand (I know you're out there!) to be indignant that there are apparently no copies in libraries in their country, and make a concerted effort to excel Australia in this regard! I know you've been busy trying to change your national anthem, but this is important too! :-)

Review by Daniel Kirk

Daniel Kirk has just posted a review of The Only True God. Do take a look!

American Library Association CHOICE Review

The Only True God has been reviewed in ALA's Choice Vol.47 No.4, December 2009. The review provides a nice summary and categorizes the book as "recommended" for upper-level undergraduates and above as well as for general readers.

Two More Reviews

I just learned that two more reviews have appeared.

One is more of a summary than anything else, and it is by Patrick Madigan in Heythrop Journal.

The second is by Vlad Todor at Concrete Academic, and offers a thoughtful evaluation not only of the book's argument, but also of how well I did (or didn't) write in a way that makes the book both accessible to a general readership and interesting for scholars.

Article on Butler University Web Site

An article about The Only True God has appeared on the Butler University web site.

Mike Koke reviews The Only True God

Mike Koke has posted a review on his blog The Golden Rule.

More Preliminary Comments

Another blogger has shared some preliminary comments on and impressions about The Only True God.

Antiquitopia: First Impressions

Jared Calaway at Antiquitopia will be blogging about The Only True God in greater detail in the near future, but he's already offered a first impression of the book.

Book Flyer

I received a copy of the flyer for The Only True God in Adobe Acrobat format today.

Book Cover

Here's what the cover of The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context is going to look like:

The fireworks on the cover are not, to my knowledge, intended to represent the "fireworks" that often fly when people discuss God in general or monotheism in particular. The cover is a bit surprising for a book about ancient religion. I think, however, I can offer some explanation as to why a cover like this fits the book better than something more antiquarian. Whether this reflects anything that the cover designers had in mind, we'll probably never know.

First, any attempt to provide an image connected with ancient monotheism and Christology may be off-putting to some potential readers. If the book featured an image of Jesus, or of the Trinity, such a depiction would, when placed together with the title, seem to end dialogue. It would suggest that the one(s) depicted on the cover are "the only true God", end of conversation, and that is not the sort of approach taken in the book.

Second, most monotheistic traditions agree that the one God ultimately transcends the ability of any image or even any language to describe or do justice to. And so those mysterious lights symbolize that aspect nicely.

In the Top 100: Already a Bestseller!

Many thanks to those who decided to pre-order The Only True God. I just looked and it was ranked as a bestseller, coming in at #53 on amazon.com in the category

Books > Religion & Spirituality > Judaism > History of Religion

Of course, I initially suspected that perhaps there were only 53 books in this category, but not so! :-)

Pre-Order Discount

You can pre-order The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context at a significant discount on amazon.com. It is hard to beat 34% off the list price!

The Only True God: Available for Pre-Order on Amazon.com

My book The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context, forthcoming from University of Illinois Press in March of 2009, is now available for pre-order on amazon.com.

This blog has been created for the purpose of discussing the topic of the book, and since it will still be some time before it is released, those interested in monotheism in ancient Judaism and Christianity may want to follow Ken Schenck's blogging on the subject over at Quadrilateral Thoughts.