Product Description

Where does God come from? Has he always existed? What kind of food does he eat? The answers to all these questions, small and large, are in the Bible, or have been written about by those who know him best - saints, popes and visionaries. In this fascinating account of God's life, Alexander Waugh, author of TIME, tackles the biggest subject of them all in his uniquely refreshing and enthusiastic style. So many stories about God have been forgotten, or edged out of the familiar tales that we have lost our understanding of him and how he has been viewed by mankind throughout the ages. Now we can once again find out more about who it is that we pray to. (20020227)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #453542 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Alexander Waugh, the grandson of Evelyn Waugh and son of Auberon, has produced a book about God which manages to be both shallow and erudite at the same time. In other words, Waugh has done his homework and learned a lot about God in the various religions, but he maintains a salacious and flippant tone throughout which is neither amusing nor thought provoking. On the good side, the book is packed full of interesting facts about God and religion. The structure of the book is more scattergram than logical outline, but the information is tersely presented in short readable chunks so the reader can dip into the book and read as much or as little as he wants. There's also a good index and bibliography for serious God hunters.

While this is an interesting grab bag overview of the Deity, it's too bad that Waugh has to maintain his insouciant public-schoolboy style throughout. It's a pity he couldn't manage just a little bit of personal wonder or reverence for his subject. Readers who would prefer something with a rather broader vision might try Professor Keith Ward's God--a guide for the perplexed. --Dwight Longenecker

George Osgerby, Tribune
'[An] erudite, scholarly, irreverent and impeccably researched biography of the supreme being... daringly brilliant and witty treatise'

Review
'Immensely entertaining, and a sovereign remedy against the absurdities and dangers of religious belief ... funny and whimsical ... clever and perceptive' (A C Grayling, Literary Review 20020412)

'Peculiar and delightful... I loved it. Waugh's light-hearted approach is deceptive: some formidable research has gone into this book' (Douglas Kennedy, Mail on Sunday 20020412)

'A deeply felt and genuine exploration... Waugh's biography is a search for love - and strangely, the god he leaves us with, however impossible, remains attractive.' (Jeanette Winterson, The Times 20020316)

'Ten out of ten for the idea, the approach, the style, the writing - above all, the writing - and the sublime audacity of it all ... Waugh writes like an impious angel; wittily and rivetingly' (Michael Brown, Yorkshire Post )

'A testimony to human ingenuity and imagination...Waugh's GOD combines philosophical wrangling with the delightfully insolent tone of 1066 AND ALL THAT' (Christopher Silvester, Financial Times )

'[Waugh's] sardonic, urbane tone is in the tradition of Gibbon or Hume...very funny. Pleasingly original...wherever you stand - or think you do - on the God question, this is a good read' (Susan Elkin, Independent )

'With mischievous wit and erudition...Waugh's tremendously funny book has, however, a serious purpose' (S.B.Kelly, Scotland on Sunday )

'[An] erudite, scholarly, irreverent and impeccably researched biography of the supreme being... daringly brilliant and witty treatise' (George Osgerby, Tribune )

'Colourful, funny, deep and perceptive' (A.C.Grayling, Independent on Sunday )

'An idiosyncratic, intriguing and often charming book about God' (Brendan Walsh, The Tablet )

Customer Reviews

GOD is a good read
Oh dear! The Bible and religion are having such a pasting these days! Alexander Waugh's book "God" is a book (like Paine's Age of Reason) that, by its style can easily cause offence to those who have very gentlemanly ideas as to how criticism should be carried out, if at all. For years, most books written on Biblical criticism, whether textual or archaeological, though taking the Bible to pieces, are usually careful to end up supporting the establishment (and not hurting the feelings of academic friends, or indeed one's own reputation) in reasserting the greatness and richness of the Bible etc.
Waugh's book is not like that. Whereas The Age of Reason was a deliberately abrasive and powerful attack on the Bible and 'revealed' religion, "God" is a light-hearted and flippant treatment of the same subject. I found it entertaining, informative, and I am glad I bought it.
It is essential for any freethinking student of the world's religions to bypass the received opinions of theology and put the cards on the table face-up so to speak, as Tom Paine did. It is only then that you can see plainly the glaring problems of superstition and human invention which abound in all the sacred texts which are supposed to be communicated from God to man.
It is not 'how' an author presents his subject that leads to the truth, but the 'facts' he produces in support of his case that really matters for our enlightenment. So, like Tom Paine, Alexander Waugh has presented us with a mixed bag of possibly unwelcome facts (to some people) in an easily readable format taken from various ancient religious texts. These extracts further help the modern thinker to assess the relevance today (with our far more general education) of the puny and demeaning concepts of God in the Bible etc. "God" is a good book and worth having in your collection. Howell Thomas.

Portrait of a tyrant
Alexander Waugh, in GOD has tried to explain the personality of God. He has taken, for his sources the bible, the Qu'arn, as well as the books of Enoch, the and occassionally Joseph Smith, and other texts.
The book is comprised of 7 chapters divided into short sections, thus it is easily digestable, though some may find this style erratic, and not linear enough.
Personally, I feel this is part of the charm of the book. Waugh has a very dry sense of humour, and I laughed out loud on several occasions (this may cause a problem for the deeply religious.)
There are many interesting things that Waugh puts forward: the polytheistic origins of the Bible, the Egyptian origins of Moses, the needing by Christians of the Old Testament, for the sake of origional sin. (some of these well known, others not so).
Is this an atheistic book? No, I don't think so, but it is certainly not a Christian book. (And will definately appeal to atheists - myself included). I believe that Waughs main point is that the Christian God - an all loving, all knowing God can not coexist with the God of Israel - a Genocidal maniac, with a penchant for the smell of burning flesh. But, herein lies the weekness. I say I think this is Waughs point, but I really do not know. The last chapter doesn't really seem to have an aim, and reluctantly ambles to it's conclusion. I think is mainly because of Waugh's reluctance to share his religious beliefs, or lack thereof - rather like his father, as described in the forward. Still, this is the only real weakness, in an otherwise funny, and thought provoking book. The main lesson I took from it is that an atheists biggest weapon is scripture, itself. I'm off to read the Bible, now...

God takes a beating
Waugh's stated purpose for this book was to paint a portrait of God using all available literary sources, not just the Bible and Christian theological writings (among the other sources are the Qur'an, Jewish writings, mystical writings, Mormon scripture, philosophical writings, etc.). Furthermore, he's using all these widely diverse sources without any kind of distinction, and he's doing this on purpose. As he says in the foreword: "While any single opinion about God can be shown to be wrong, the totality of all human opinion about him must, necessarily, be right. [...] If God principally exists in the minds of millions of people both dead and alive, then the best thing for it is to seek him out from all sides at once, to blitz him, if you like, from every conceivable angle, from the broadest range of thought, vision, opinion, sudden intuition - it really doesn't matter."
Waugh uses a rather strange system of numbered passages (each one with a short headline), these passages ranging in length from a few lines of text up to a few pages. There are 257 of these passages, making up the entire book, aside from the foreword. This system interrupts the natural flow of the text, making it feel disjointed, although the next passage usually follows the same, or a similar, subject as the preceding passage. Most of the text is made up of extensive citations from a wide variety of sources, mostly scriptural and apocryphal. Waugh's commentary on these citations is sometimes very brief or even non-existent, since he apparently feels that the cited text speaks for itself. Waugh also strays, sometimes quite significantly, from the purpose he laid out in the beginning of the book, in the sense that he on occasion loses himself in describing all the dark and juicy bits in the Bible (and other sources), and all the absurdities and insanities in religious dogma. Of course, this in itself is a good thing, since these things need to be dug up and shown to the world as often and as much as possible. The quality of his commentary varies wildly, and it sometimes appears as if there's no system or method to his writing. Some of his comments are quite funny and insightful, but other parts of the text (such as his refutations of some of the "proofs" for God's existence) are a bit unclear or lacking in essential detail.
In the end the book just sort of fades out, without Waugh ever really saying anything about what, if anything, he has discovered about God. So, all in all, God is a bit of a strange book that didn't really satisfy. But it is interesting, and it does point out a lot of stuff that no "do-good" Christian would ever want to acknowledge, so from that point of view it is a recommended read.