God Is the Good We Do: Theology of Theopraxy (Paperback)

by Michael Benedikt (Author)
Key Phrases: theological hyperbole, traditional believers, weakest force, God of the Bible, Holy Spirit, Martin Buber (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
God is the Good We Do is a passionate and profound rethinking of the meaning of the divine in human life. Its central argument for theopraxy develops biblical, Jewish, Christian, and modern perspectives on God in original and often surprising new directions. In the process, the sacred is fundamentally tied to human goodness while human morality is invested with a powerful holiness. At once down to earth and erudite, readable and penetrating, the book explores a wide range of vital questions of moral life without losing sight of its persistent and courageous goal: locating God in life s goodness. A challenge to both religious orthodoxy and contemporary secularism, it offers a truly fresh and stimulating approach to some of the most pressing issues of our time. --John Wall, Prof. of Religion, Rutgers University, author of Moral Creativity.

Benedikt makes a comprehensive case for his theology, which he calls theopraxy, with deep learning, intellectual honesty, and humane wisdom, and his may be about the best God a full commitment to rationality will allow. --Mitchell Silver, review in Jewish Currents, April/May 2008

Benedikt makes a comprehensive case for his theology, which he calls theopraxy. He does so with deep learning, intellectual honesty, and humane wisdom, and his may be about the best God a full commitment to rationality will allow. -- Mitchell Silver, Jewish Currents, March 2008

Michael Benedikt s book God is the Good We Do is a profound attempt to develop a new God language with which to define the human experience. He takes God out of the sky of theological debate and places this God in the depths of life. He empowers self-conscious human beings to embrace the power they have to bring God into human awareness.... I welcome this book and this author as my ally in the struggle to bring about a New Religious Reformation that is rooted in the ethics of life-affirming Goodness and that sees every religious system finally as an attempt to make us all more fully human. --Bishop (Ret.) John Shelby Spong, author of A New Christianity for a New World.

Product Description
God Is the Good We Do invites believers and agnostics to return to their spiritual heritages with a changed understanding of how religions are and are not carrying out God's will. At the same time, it invites atheists to see that God is not the oldest and strongest but the youngest and weakest force in the universe, a force whose existence depends on them as much as anyone else. God Is the Good We Do appeals to both mind and heart, offering a fresh way to think about God in this scientific and media-saturated age.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Bottino Books; 1st edition (November 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979375401
• ISBN-13: 978-0979375408
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #338,527 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Transformative and Uplifting New "Interpretation" of God, December 5, 2007

By	Tom Spencer "Soul of the Garden" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

God is the Good We Do is, by turns, profound, witty, poetic, and ultimately very practical. Thoroughly researched and beautifully argued, Benedikt's "Theology of Theopraxy" is also strikingly original. I believe this book will be discussed for many years.

Those who are uncomfortable with "God talk," but who understand that "God" is too important to be surrendered to fundamentalists should prove to be a receptive audience for God is the Good We Do. (Fans of John Shelby Spong take note.) Benedikt argues for a God that co-evolves with us, that is as dependent on us as we are on "Him," and that calls us to reverential, creative acts of good-doing. Here, God is not the all powerful originator, but rather, the "newest and weakest" force in the universe, one that is realized only when we choose to do good.

I highly recommend God is the Good We Do to both believers and non-believers alike. Rarely, have I read a work that has gotten under my skin in the way that this book has. Be prepared to be intellectually challenged for this is a serious work of philosophy and theological inquiry. Be prepared also to think about God and the potential for doing-good in an entirely new way. God is the Good We Do will lift you up, and hopefully, inspire you to do the same for those who share your world.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even after the book is closed, you continue to think about it., January 24, 2008

By	Judith Ann Parker (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book has given me a refreshing new way to make sense of the concept of God. Having grown up in the Unitarian church, I was given so many choices. There is good in most religions of the world, yet I could never quite find one that rang true to me. The wisdom I found in this book has given me a new tool with which to accept the various religious traditions without so much worry over the particulars. If the practice, religious or otherwise, results in good of a concrete nature actually being done, it is the practice of God (theopraxy.) It rings true, no matter what church you go to.

To see God as the youngest and weakest force in the universe, rather than the oldest and strongest, lifts eyebrows with most people I've discussed it with. You have to reverse roles; God being the child and you being the parent. God's existence "happens" or is born with every instance of good doing. Somehow, looking at it this way replaces the "fear of God" with the pull to create and nurture God. It opens a discussion among thinking people of all religions, about our responsibility in creating the good in this world.

It's a brilliant prospective and thoughtfully written. Benedikt first presents the ideas in poetry and builds upon that framework to fully illuminate each aspect of his philosophy. With all the references and footnotes, you could spin off into the depths of intellectual exploration to your heart's content. Yet, if you didn't read them at all, you would still understand the concepts and be thoroughly entertained and intrigued. You will want to keep the book around, so that you can go back and read parts of it again to reflect on.

--Judy Parker, Austin, Texas

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Theist reviews God Is the Good We Do, June 4, 2009

By	Thomas R. Keene "Tom Keene" (San Antonio, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In his description of Theopraxy, Michael Benedikt affirms God does exist and therefore counters the claims of atheism. Benedikt also offers an invitation to theists to look into a perspective of God that takes us beyond our traditional convictions and/or assumptions about the nature of God.

Benedikt suggests that God exists not as a creator of the universe, but as created by humanity consciously doing what is good. He compares God's presence to the presence of fire among us. Benedikt notes how fire exists wherever it is kindled or ignited. We experience fire not as a single entity, but as a force dispersed, felt wherever it is made or let to happen. Bendedikt would say that just as those who experience fire do not doubt its existence, those who experience God as the good we do have no doubts about God's existence.

Benedikt lists what he calls the Seven Tenets of the theology of theopraxy.
1. God is not a person or thing or principal or spirit. God is activity of a certain sort: the free doing of good, where by "good" we mean that which preserves, honors, or promotes all forms of life.
2. God is not the Creator. Nor is God all-powerful or omniscient. God is the newest and weakest "force" in the universe, a human production, even as God -good doing- produces humaneness in turn.
3. Freedom is necessary to doing good, and good-doing is necessary to producing more freedom.
4. Science is the friend of true religion, which is faith justified by works.
5. The development of ever fairer and more compassionate laws as well as more broadly life-sustaining social and cultural practices is God's mandate and our task.
6. Long-evolved religions present powerful and highly specific rituals, images, arguments, narratives, and commandments whose prupose is to effect Tenet 5, and can be respected and practiced without significant alteration when they succeed in doing so.
7. Both the idea and substance of God remain open to evolution.

Benedikt presents his take on theopraxy in four parts: Declarations; Explanations; Arguments; and Reflections. He deftly guides us along the tightrope between abstraction (God comes from human consciousness,not vice versa.) and concretization (God is the good we do.) He does for us what all religions ought to do: help us transcend rather than remain transfixed. That tightrope could be called appreciation.

As Benedikt outlines the stark principles of theopraxy, he shows us its direction, but the book as a whole is the journey toward that direction. As the journey's guide, Benedikt respects and honors the readers' sensibilities, from atheists to monotheists. He offers God seekers a lot to think about and ways to think about God that both challenge and inspire.

Some of us think about God. Some of us feel about God. Some of us do both. Michael Benedikt has us do both but invites us to think and feel more than ever and more differently than before. How refreshing for those of us unafraid to explore our own unknowns.

As a reader, I am grateful for the author having taken me beyond the boxes of my own thinking into new boxes of questions. Among the questions I would pose are:

Our experience has been that being is prerequisite to doing. One cannot do before one exists. Theopraxy has human doing as a prerequisite to God's being. How are we to understand this in terms of our experience?

Theopraxy recognizes the real existence of God. Does thinking of God as a real product of humanity doing good facilitate our sense of relationship with God or make it more confused? What is the character of our relationship to what we produce?

Some mystics (Mother Theresa, John of the Crosss, Teresa of Avila and others) report experiencing a "dark night of the soul" when God as a presence seems like a God of absence. How would theopraxy understand that experience?

I would conclude with the consideration that if we have to make images of God, as most of us are inclined to do, then "God is the good we do" is an image that may suffice until a better image comes along or until we no longer need images ane settle for what is rather than what we can image.

Tom Keene is a reitred professor of religious studies with degrees in theology, applied theology and paychology. He lives in San Antonio, Texas.