Chapter 3 voices disappointment in learned efforts to “remythologize” the idea of God. Seeking to take scriptural imagery seriously, such efforts mistake the images for the God they intend. The mixed metaphors characteristic of biblical poetry reveal the elusiveness of the Transcendent and confess more eloquently than dry talk about ineffability how hard it is for words to capture any aspect of divinity. Yet, halting as their tropes may be, biblical poetics mark out a pathway. We must not assume the Torah’s authors, or their audience, spoke more slowly than we do—lest we cultivate a spiritual diglossia in our own minds and fail to integrate what we believe with what we know. Efforts to bring God closer to hand by allowing that He forgets, regrets, or learns by trial and error may hope to elevate our understanding but risk transforming the Mosaic God into a Deweyan “fellow learner.”
