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.

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! :-)

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.