- Hardcover: 254 pages
- Publisher: Frances Lincoln Publishers Ltd (27 May 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0711213151
- ISBN-13: 978-0711213159
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14.3 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 532,152 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Product Description
As the Talmud says, God made people because God loves stories... The God Stories is a celebration of the spellbinding stories that some readers first meet, in part, in the Bible. Through her research of the Talmud and of folklore, Berg lyrically and successfully reclaims these stories for everyone, religious and irreligious, aged nine to ninety.
From the Author
I wrote this book primarily because I wanted to give back to people the folk tales and legends which religious institutions and people in power, by dogmatism and manipulation have taken away from them.
Almost nobody reads the Old Testament voluntarily, for pleasure, today - the institutional layout, the notes, the pious paper and binding, the moralistic associations. I wanted to make a book of stories rooted in the Old Testament that would exhilarate everyone, not by taking away its poetry, a modern idea which is to me absurd, but by first taking away the religious and political and sociological manipulation; and then building not only on the stories themselves, but on the loving, fanciful improvisations that through centuries have been woven by learned and unlearned people, over them - rather like jazz.
Early in my research I came across a Staff, a Staff of sapphire, blue as the sapphire sky - a Cloak, which had pictured on it every animal, bird and insect in the world - a Book, that had in it all knowledge worthy to be told, including the song of the sun and the thoughts of the rain. In legend these gifts were given to Adam and Eve to protect them when they left the Garden of Delight, and then handed down through the ages. I decided to make them my framework, and to write the book only about the characters who in legend had been given them.
Following Jewish folklore, I made God male and female together, and the first human being male and female together, since it was made in God's image. It was also in legend made all colours, so that it could live happily and freely anywhere in the world. And the earth in legend belonged to God and was to be respected. Today we call that respect for the environment.
The God Stories is a book for people aged nine to ninety, irreligious or religious, who are captivated by stories. I hope they will read it on the train on their way to work or back, or relax with it after school; and that parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, will read it aloud to each other for shared pleasure, as they read other books of powerful stories. It is a book for storylovers and storytellers.
"God made people, because God loves stories" (The Talmud)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
This is how it was in the beginning. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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1 review
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
God Stories:A Celebration of Legends
10 Aug 2005
Format:Hardcover
Very well written! I am using this for work, but it is riveting and interesting.Written in a non-biased, non-religious, non-sexist format.
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