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Title: Imaginative and thought-provoking
Review: I tried to read this same author's "God: A Biography" and for some reason found it heavy going ... but this seemed much shorter, and in fact I couldn't put it down.As someone who preaches, I appreciate the talent that Miles has to take scripture and ask "why did it happen this way, and not some other way?" His insight into what it really meant for Jesus to die for our sins, and in some sense to atone for them, and why his father asked Jesus to suffer, is a brilliant perspective on a subject that can so easily be reduced to pious platitudes. God's relationship with us isn't a simple thing sometimes, and the usual explanations just often won't do.I don't think you need to hold this to a standard of orthodox theology (which isn't its goal), but instead to a standard of whether it is a resource helpful for someone trying to come to terms with some of scripture's contradictions. I liked it a lot.
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