The Divine Mind: Exploring the Psychological History of God’s Inner Journey

219 Pages·2018·1.99 MB·English

by  Michael Gellert

ADDITIONAL PRAISE FOR THE DIVINE MIND
“Michael Gellert offers a road map that leads from the mind's myriad projections
to the enigmatic soul and its own origin. Crossing some fascinating and at times
painful terrain, he brings the reader into silent realms of contemplation, and
concludes his book on a joyful, mystical note. It is an intriguing book, to put it
mildly.”
—Vraje Abramian, translator of Nobody, Son of Nobody: Poems of Sheikh
Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir and Winds of Grace: Poetry, Stories and Teachings
of Sufi Mystics and Saints
“This is a rich and surprising book. The clarity of Michael Gellert's prose belies
the profound ambiguity at the heart of his subject. He makes a compelling case
that if we allow ourselves to experience the pregnant silence that the Western
notion of God has given way to, a space opens up in our minds to consider the
creative possibilities of everything that is left to us to complete.”
—John Beebe, author of Integrity in Depth
“With great erudition and eloquence, Michael Gellert profoundly challenges our
established understanding of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The story of
God's awakening that he so poignantly tells is really our own. One will never
again read our scriptures in the same way or argue for a theological position that
holds that God is outside of us, or only outside of us, or fundamentally different
than us. Even atheists will find common ground with this book's all-embracing
and inspiring vision.”
—Gary Granger, Humanities Professor Emeritus, Vanier College,
Montreal

Published 2018 by Prometheus Books
The Divine Mind: Exploring the Psychological History of God's Inner Journey. Copyright © 2018 by
Michael Gellert. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a website without prior written permission of the
publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Cover image © Media Bakery
Cover design by Liz Mills
Cover design © Prometheus Books
The Internet addresses listed in the text were accurate at the time of publication. The inclusion of a website
does not indicate an endorsement by the author(s) or by Prometheus Books, and Prometheus Books does not
guarantee the accuracy of the information presented at these sites.
Inquiries should be addressed to
Prometheus Books
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gellert, Michael, author.
Title: The divine mind : exploring the psychological history of God's inner journey / by Michael Gellert.
Description: Amherst : Prometheus Books, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017014367 (print) | LCCN 2017045201 (ebook) | ISBN 9781633883185 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781633883178 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: God. | Psychology, Religious.
Classification: LCC BL473 (ebook) | LCC BL473 .G435 2018 (print) | DDC 202/.11—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017014367
Printed in the United States of America

The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too.
—St. Teresa of Avila1
All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is
unaware.
—Martin Buber2
Introduction
PART I: IN THE BEGINNING…
1. The Irrational Nature of God
2. Divine Wrath
3. Divine Genocide
4. God's Apocalyptic Fever
5. God's Wake-up Call
6. The Return of Wisdom
7. God's PTSD and Other Afflictions
8. From Trauma to Redemption
PART II: IN THE MIDDLE…
9. The Flowering of Wisdom
10. The Kingdom of God Within
11. The Face That Is Everywhere
12. The Rock of the Self
PART III: AND IN THE ENDLESSNESS…
13. The Splendor of Absolute Nothingness
14. The Incarnation That Is Always Happening
15. The Beloved
16. Reframing the Problem of Evil
Conclusion: God's Journey as a Metaphor for Our Own
Appendix I. God in the Hebrew Bible vs. the Old Testament
Appendix II. Why Was Nothingness First Discovered in the East?
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
Whether true or not, men have always believed in “unscientific
concepts,” and these beliefs often are the real “facts” which shape
their destiny.
—Max I. Dimont1
When I was a child, I was taught to worship the God of the Hebrew Bible. In
Jewish school, I learned of his extraordinary feats in a three-volume set of books
called Children's History of Israel. With chapter titles such as “Israel
Conquers!,” “Saul to the Rescue!,” “The Wonderful Prince,” “The Romance of
Ruth,” “The Bravest Boy in Israel,” “The Battle with the Giant,” “Hunted!,” and
“Treachery!,” I was rapt in awe. History was alive, and God was its powerful
mover and shaker. He was a flawless, heroic superbeing who ended the
sufferings of his enslaved people and championed them through arid years in the
desert and against formidable enemies in the Promised Land of Canaan.
In later years, I discovered that this God wasn't so one-sidedly wonderful. I
saw the other side of something that glitters. Learning of my father's experiences
in the concentration camps of Hungary shook up my views not only of the world
but of its maker. The so-called Holocaust theologians whom I then read raised
the burning question: where was God when six million were gassed, executed in
mass shootings, and killed in other horrific ways? The Bible itself confirmed
God's dark side through a multitude of condemning episodes. He meted out fatal
punishments for trivial violations of his Law. His ferocious temper would erupt
when his chosen people threatened his sovereignty over them by worshipping
other gods. He was, by his own admission, a jealous God.2 To help them win the
land he promised them, he literally went into battle with them as their
commander-in-chief. He was, the Book of Exodus tells us, a “man of war.”3 He
would spearhead military campaigns that would result in what today could only
be described as wholesale genocides, and his inclination toward ethnic cleansing,
one gathers, served the purpose of eliminating not only Israel's enemies but the