Customer Reviews

The Many Faces of God: Science's 400-Year Quest for Images of the Divine

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The style of Campbell's book is somewhat idiosyncratic. One sometimes gets the impression that the author is telling you the same story again and again. In a sense, he is, but this is not always a bad thing. Campbell covers a lot of territory--from the middle ages to the 21st century--but the book really revolves around the 17th century. We hear about the same figures quite a bit (particularly Newton), but each chapter takes up a different part of the discussion between science and religion, and instead of becoming repetitive, I found that the overall picture took on ever greater depth and clarity.

This is not an atheist tract. (The first reviewer was perhaps hoping that it was.) Its purpose is not polemical in the least. Its aim is to understand where the uncomfortably close relationship between science and religion got started, and how our modern strategies for talking about God are still influenced by this history. We try to imagine "where" God is in the universe, and what role he plays in its operation. Is he a designer, a maintenance man, an interventionist, a kind of information? Is he everywhere, nowhere, inside, outside? Is God more like intelligence or more like will? (The debate is not, as a previous reviewer incorrectly says, between God being "transcendent" or "willful.") These are the sorts of questions for which the book provides a very insightful and learned back-history. It is not just history, however, since Campbell repeatedly ties the past to the present. We learn almost as much about the 20th century as we do about the 17th.

Campbell is utterly aware of the ironies and contradictions that riddle the world of religion. His book would never "comfort" the run-of-the-mill Christian. Nevertheless, he supports the theological enterprise. He thinks that the legitimacy of theology need not depend on its scientific plausibility. (This is partly because in an age of scientific indeterminacy, chaos theory, quantum strangeness, and other conundrums, science is becoming less certain that it will ever explain itself.) Many today feel that science can make or break religion, but it was not always so, and need not be so now. Religion brought this fate on itself, and Campbell believes it could regain its previous autonomy. A return to dogmatic religion is impossible, he says, but their is much that could still be done in our thinking about God. This "fairness" to theology may engender some disgust among "new atheists," but in the end I think it reflects the cool head and broad perspective of a historian.

An elegant, erudite, and fascinating read!

The potential buyer of this book needs to know the God Campbell writes about is basically confined to the Judeo/Christian/English perspective of God. Other times and views are mentioned, but the core of the book follows Campbell's experience.

The book is written in 22 chapters of 10 to 15 pages. The organization allows focus on specific times and thoughts. Importantly, a basic understanding of physics, both Newtonian and Quantum, is helpful to enjoy the 2nd half of the book.

Campbell gives primary emphasis toward the creator's physical creation. The mystery and wonder of life is not addressed equally. Many of us believe God is more concerned, if concerned at all, with our lives, the choices we make, and our living relationship to him than to the physical world that surrounds us.

I would have enjoyed more recognition and discussion regarding the time-related, progressive revelation of God from the beginning of the Old Testament through the New Testament.

Campbell minimizes the role of Jesus and the traditional views held by most Christians today. The Christian reader will wonder why so much time is given to physicists and so little attention to the writer of the Gospel of John. John 10:30: "I and my Father are one." John 14:9: Jesus says, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father."

If you are someone who believes that science has more to say about the nature of God than the church does then this is a book you will enjoy. There can be no doubt that the discoveries of science into how the world is made have profoundly altered the way humans perceive God. Jeremy Campbell traces the history of that revolution and how it has infiltrated into all aspects of man kinds understanding of the nature of the Divine. Changing what it means to have faith in the process. Instead of a classical history book, however, we are given a rather eclectic group beginning with Tertullian, dominated by Newton and ending with John Updike, of all people. The theology presented here is of the simplest while the science is only slightly better. There is much talk of quantum mechanics, for example, but little in the way of concrete examples. He tries to trace the progress of the paradigm shift these discoveries have produced but in the end it comes off as curiously light weight.

Scientists of the caliber of Isaac Newton had their own understanding of what their discoveries meant and the thoughts of men of that stature are always worth considering. Where the book loses its way is in the impression that these ideas are more than just opinions. Although, to his credit, Campbell recognizes that theology does not depend on science for its validity. Reading all of the various ideas that different scientists have put forth over the years one is reminded of Renee Descartes who once said that there was nothing so strange but that some philosopher had said it. Scientists seem to have fallen into the same trap. But he is right, science now has the upper hand on the church and the sight of some of the finest theological thinkers of the last 100 years kowtowing to science is not an inspiring sight. For if God is a transcendent God as the theologians maintain then He is outside of and beyond the universe we know. He is hence beyond experimentation and watching scientist comb through quantum mechanics searching for God's entry point into the universe comes off as merely sad.

What has been shown are the problems that arise when both science and theology fails to stick to their own business. For when you try to use the experimental method to understand the true nature of God you move from solid science to irrelevancy. Don't allow yourself to fall into this trap and you will find some interesting history, some provocative ideas, and a better understanding of the current state of theological thinking. If your area of interest is Newton and his ideas about the world then this book is worth a look, if you are looking for insights into the nature of God you might want to pass on by.

An early clue to Mark Twain's scepticism about religion emerged in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". In the course of being "civilized" by the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, Huck is told about prayer but finds the concept too complicated for his young mind. It was "too many for me", he said, so he abandoned the idea. Huck's dilemma was compounded by not knowing to whom or what he was to direct his entreaties. Had he followed Jeremy Campbell's efforts, the situation would have hopelessly baffled him. By Twain's day, the number of gods defined by the extended host of theologians struggling to identify that entity was already extensive. Today, they are countless. And that's only the Christian ones.

Twain would have loved this book. Its title is false, its basic premise shaky and its conclusions meaningless. We can pass over the problem of the title: "The Many Identities of God" would hardly move from the bookstores' shelves. The premise is that there is a deity to identify. Campbell doesn't bother to raise that question, blithely assuming there's something to define. The "science" of his subtitle is restricted to Isaac Newton and a few modern scientists who have associated their work with the divine. None of the latter appear until Chapter 11, and that instance is one science historian's challenge to avoid "simplicity". That approach lets divinity in by the back door. Beyond that, we hear nothing of real scientists. Charles Darwin is mentioned for his vandalising of books, then summarily dropped.

Campbell traces the opinions of various theologians, nearly universally Christian, in how their deity should be envisioned. From early Judaism onward, he observes, the issue of whether the deity could be approached directly was a matter of dispute. Although Moses climbed a mountain in hopes of direct confrontation, he only saw "God's back" - which remains undescribed. After the Gnostics, Arians and other "heretics" were subdued by the rising state-supported "Orthodox" Christians, the issue seemed settled: "No bishop, no church" became the theme. The faithful could communicate with the deity only through "mediators" - priests, bishops and on up the hierarchy. So it stood until an obscure German monk uttered a protest. From that step came new concepts of the deity, each as valid as sufficient numbers of believers could sustain. The question of the character of that deity would not be seriously debated until an English scholar considered the movements of heavenly bodies.

Isaac Newton provides the focus of the book because he changed the rules. For Campbell, Newton's laws of nature pushed the deity further away from humanity than any of the long ranks of theologians. By describing the universe as operating under its own recognizance, with possibly a few divine tweaks, Newton galvanised a debate over whether the deity was "transcendent" or "willful". A transcendent god had little role to play and any mediators an even lesser one. The creation is essentially perfect, let it run its course. The "willful" deity, however, being all powerful, can meddle and change things - at will. Newton's own views on the matter were expressed in various ways, confusing later scholars - and perhaps Newton himself.

As time passed, the Protestant Reformation produced precisely what the Roman Catholic church ante-Luther had feared. The relaxation of hierarchy spawned a multi-headed serpent which proliferated various definitions of the divine. Campbell approaches the question of "American Christianity" with some trepidation. The US is, after all, where he resides. He gives the nod to "individualism" in that nation giving people the option to either choose a deity of their liking, or make one up of their own. Although seemingly a little disturbed at the situation revealed in Alan Wolfe's book, Campbell synopsises its findings. Campbell is already uncomfortable with his native Britain's secularism, but keeps his opinion of the US chaotic Christianity in check. For him, that 90% of the US are "believers", no matter of what stripe, seems fulfilling enough.

The author has problems coming to grips with the Jesus myth. He spends little time on the Gospels, and is wholly ignorant of the recent scholarship on them. He notes a couple of breakaway groups, the rise of a modern version of Gnosticism, which he obviously finds distasteful, and the proliferation of non-god "faiths". None of this has anything to do with "science" of which Campbell also seems lacking knowledge. Although he spends bottles of ink relating Newton's views and impact on theologians, and a few other thinkers of that era, the author leaps across the 19th Century with hardly a glance. That's unfortunate, since it was that period that launched the great analysis of the source for information on the deity he's struggling to depict - the "Bible" or one of the many versions thereof. Of course, he eschews the question of whether all this variability and conjecture might suggest "the many faces" can't be seen because none of them are there in the first place. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

If you are someone who believes that science has more to say about the nature of God than the church does then this is a book you will enjoy. There can be no doubt that the discoveries of science into how the world is made have profoundly altered the way humans perceive God. Jeremy Campbell traces the history of that revolution and how it has infiltrated into all aspects of man kinds understanding of the nature of the Divine. Changing what it means to have faith in the process. Instead of a classical history book, however, we are given a rather eclectic group beginning with Tertullian, dominated by Newton and ending with John Updike, of all people. The theology presented here is of the simplest while the science is only slightly better. There is much talk of quantum mechanics, for example, but little in the way of concrete examples. He tries to trace the progress of the paradigm shift these discoveries have produced but in the end it comes off as curiously light weight.

Scientists of the caliber of Isaac Newton had their own understanding of what their discoveries meant and the thoughts of men of that stature are always worth considering. Where the book loses its way is in the impression that these ideas are more than just opinions. Although, to his credit, Campbell recognizes that theology does not depend on science for its validity. Reading all of the various ideas that different scientists have put forth over the years one is reminded of Renee Descartes who once said that there was nothing so strange but that some philosopher had said it. Scientists seem to have fallen into the same trap. But he is right, science now has the upper hand on the church and the sight of some of the finest theological thinkers of the last 100 years kowtowing to science is not an inspiring sight. For if God is a transcendent God as the theologians maintain then He is outside of and beyond the universe we know. He is hence beyond experimentation and watching scientist comb through quantum mechanics searching for God's entry point into the universe comes off as merely sad.

What has been shown are the problems that arise when both science and theology fails to stick to their own business. For when you try to use the experimental method to understand the true nature of God you move from solid science to irrelevancy. Don't allow yourself to fall into this trap and you will find some interesting history, some provocative ideas, and a better understanding of the current state of theological thinking. If your area of interest is Newton and his ideas about the world then this book is worth a look, if you are looking for insights into the nature of God you might want to pass on by.