Who Needs God [Paperback]

Harold Kushner (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 29, 2002

If you have lost faith or have never known it, or if you have ever wondered "What can religion offer?" here are wise and thoughtful answers. With the warmth, insight, and understanding that distinguished his phenomenal bestsellers When Bad Things Happen to Good People and How Good Do We Have to Be?, Harold Kushner addresses a critical issue in the lives of many: a spiritual hunger that no personal success can feed. Rabbi Kushner shows how religious commitment does have a place in our daily lives, filling a need for connection, joy, and community.

For anyone who has ever wanted a more fulfilling life or wished to make a difference in the lives of others...for anyone who has ever felt guilty, afraid, or alone...Rabbi Kushner shares a path to faith that offers new sources of comfort and strength for all of us. Powerful, provocative, and persuasive, Who Needs God is a message of universal appeal.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Using an approach that is "pragmatic and ecumenical rather than didactic," rabbi and spiritual counselor Kushner asserts that all people need God. "This is an inspirational book for all, no matter whether religious or skeptic," wrote PW.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Attaining and then maintaining religious sense or persuasion is often difficult today. Our culture of individualism, self-sufficiency, and competitiveness thwarts, even nullifies spiritual inclinations, with technology a prime contender for our reverence even though it is totally "witless and unimaginative" on its own. Yet many people are vaguely aware of something lacking in their lives. Rabbi Kushner (best known for When Bad Things Happen to Good People ) believes that "human life has meaning . . . but only in religious terms." According to this crucial realization, it is religion that connects us to God and community. In the end, Rabbi Kushner goes so far as to define religion as community rather than theology--a point of contention. What, then, would be the point of his title? But mainly, he attempts to transcend differences while conveying basic spiritual truths. Recommended for general audiences. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 7/89.
- Carol J. Lichtenberg, Washington State Univ. Lib., Pullman
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (January 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743234774
• ISBN-13: 978-0743234771
• Product Dimensions: 0.6 x 5.4 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #215,385 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Harold S. Kushner is Rabbi Laureate of Temple Israel in Natick, Massachusetts, where he lives. His books include the huge bestseller When Bad Things Happen To Good People and When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It Is "Full of Sky"... August 25, 2000

By yygsgsdrassil

Format:Paperback

....I hide nothing about my search for spiritual awareness. If you've followed along some of the book reviews I've done in Amazon.com--and other places, because I do write articles under psuedonyms in other venues--you would know I've read a lot in the religious and spiritual and philosophical arena. Rabbi Kushner has written many books on how modern folks could cope in today's trials and tribulations starting with the great "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" which, in my estimation, still is one of the best books on the searching I have ever read.

This book, "Who Needs God" is written for those who are too-- should I say 'distracted' by everything to find the love God gives us through the fellowshipping and community of churches, and a hope that can be strenghtened by belief in and awareness of someone greater than our poor selves. Kushner writes passages that are sheer beauty...in a chapter entitled "Can Modern People Pray" he says Psalm 73 is a "Spiritual Masterpiece" in which the author comes to experience God and "in the light of that experience, all doubt, all philosophical and intellectual questions melt away" and "once we have tasted the prescence of God, we will no longer envy the wicked..."

I cannot adequately describe how stirring and how helpful this book has been for me. It is has been a lifechanging expeience for me. You will have to get it and read it to find out for yourself..

The "full of sky" quote comes from Kushner's introduction in a fable about a Sky Maiden who leaves her earth-husband after he's opened the box she asked him not to...it was to the husband empty, but to the Maiden, it was full of that which she came to know and love from her celestial existence....

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Who Needs G-d June 12, 2001

By D. Gehr

Format:Paperback

Well, I have to let you know that I had some difficulty getting into this book. That lasted all the way through the introduction. The only reason I gave this book four stars was that I had some difficulty following the author's train of thought at times. I am reading the book for the second time. I have found this book excellent for focusing on my own doubts on being Jewish and my relationship or lack there of between myself and G-d. This book provided the perspective I needed to reach inside and think of my own needs and the needs that G-d may have for me. This book is a great read and one that you will like to own.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Well-intentioned but ultimately unconvincing December 30, 2008

By J. Davis

Format:Paperback

I'm glad I read this book, but I'm afraid I will disappoint Rabbi Kushner with my response. A quick background on myself:Once I was a moderately observant Jew (went to High Holidays, tried not to work on Sabbath, etc..) A few years ago I read Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens,and a few others and completely lost all belief in God. With an open mind, I read Who Needs God to see if there was any chance I might regain some faith. I regret to say, that while I thought the book was enjoyable and passionate, it did not at all convince me that God or religion is necessary (or true) anymore. Rabbi Kushner's arguments for God (see p.177, where he says God is "found in the courage of the human soul....") just aren't compelling. The courage of human beings is evidence that some human beings have courage, nothing more. An empiricist like myself wants a little more evidence of God's existence. I find another non-religious Jew, Steven Weinberg, more convincing: "Remembrance of the Holocaust leaves me unsympathetic to attempts to justify the ways of God to man."

If a reader joins a congregation after reading this book, more power to him or her. But it won't be me.