Part 2, Sections 5-8 Summary and Analysis

Part 2: A Creator-God opens with a quote by Martin Luther about how God, before creating the world, was sitting under a tree, cutting rods for those who ask nosy questions. In Section 5: The Intimate God of Moses, the idea of an original creation by a single, omnipotent Creator comes to the West through Moses, the greatest Hebrew prophet, and Moses also announced the paradoxical, mysterious nature of this Creator. The belief that God existed but his qualities could not be described became the basis of a whole new theology in which the Creator-God and man make a covenant establishing mutual obligations. Though belief in one God makes it easier to understand a Creator-God, it makes it harder to explain the origin of evil in the world. Jews were awed by Yahweh's justice, and they developed a personal...