But Where is the Lamb?, James Goodman
But Where is the Lamb?, James Goodman
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But Where is the Lamb?
Imagining the Story of Abraham and Isaac

Author: James Goodman

Narrator: Sean Pratt

Unabridged: 9 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 10/01/2013


Synopsis

“I didn’t think he’d do it. I really didn’t think he would. I thought he’d say, whoa, hold on, wait a minute. We made a deal, remember, the land, the blessing, the nation, the descendants as numerous as the sands on the shore and the stars in the sky.”

So begins James Goodman’s original and urgent encounter with one of the most compelling and resonant stories ever told—God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.

A mere nineteen lines in the book of Genesis, it rests at the heart of the history, literature, theology, and sacred rituals of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. For more than two millennia, people throughout the world have grappled with the troubling questions about sacrifice, authority, obedience, and faith to which the story gives rise. Writing from the vantage of “a reader, a son, a Jew, a father, a skeptic, a historian, a lover of stories, and a writer,” Goodman gives us an enthralling narrative history that moves from its biblical origins to its place in the cultures and faiths of our time. He introduces us to the commentary of Second Temple sages, rabbis and priests of the late antiquity, and early Islamic exegetes (some of whom imagined that Ishmael was the nearly sacrificed son). He examines Syriac hymns (in which Sarah stars), Hebrew chronicles of the First Crusade (in which Isaac often dies), and medieval English mystery plays. He looks at the art of Europe’s golden age, the philosophy of Kant and Kierkegaard, and the panoply of twentieth-century interpretation, sacred and profane, including the work of Bob Dylan, Elie Wiesel, and A. B. Yehoshua. In illuminating how so many others have understood this story, Goodman tells a gripping and provocative story of his own.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Tovis on November 19, 2013

Offers a comprehensive look into the different interpretations of Genesis 22 from a variety of angles. The author is not a trained biblical scholar, he has done a lot of research and that makes it very interesting.......more

Goodreads review by Doctor on April 08, 2018

Goodman doesn't resolve the big questions about the story of Abraham and Isaac -- the questions about faith and morality. What he does is give us a long, historically-infused rumination on why the story matters so much to us, how we might attempt to resolve the questions it raises, and why none of t......more

Goodreads review by Barnard on July 08, 2017

Author surveys every interpretation of the Abraham/Isaac sacrifice story (Genesis 22:1-19), ancient and modern, from every tradition and perspective. Led me to my own interpretation: that the story, from _God's_ perspective, is the answer to the question, "do you trust that I love you?" Because our......more

Goodreads review by Margaret on December 01, 2016

"I didn't think he'd do it." so begins this masterful look at 19 verses of Scripture, held sacred by Jews, Christians and Muslims. This is a critical look at two thousand years of commentary from all walks of life on Genesis 22, the text that Jews use for Rosh Hashanah no less. Told from the point o......more

Goodreads review by Andy on February 22, 2015

Structured as a sampling of important commentaries on the binding of Isaac throughout history, this book is more an exploration of the importance to our civilization of ideas about faith, suffering, virtue, martyrdom, and redemption. It is not a comprehensive compendium of approaches to the Akedah,......more