The Evolution of Jewish Monotheism: ‘God Is One’ from Antiquity to Modernity By David Michael Grossber g

The problem with writing histories of—or, for that matter, anything about—monotheism is that the term itself is so slippery. When Henry More coined it in his 1660 Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness, he used the term, first, for (what we would call, but More did not) pantheism and, second, for Muslim anti-trinitarianism. In time, however, More’s neologism became a much sought-after badge of pride for Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others who wanted to be able to say of themselves that they worship the one God. But the slipperiness of the term ‘monotheism’ is manifest in the fact that many of these same Jews, Christians, and Muslims strenuously denied to one another the prerogative to use the term of themselves. David Michael Grossberg’s excellent new book considers only the case of Judaism (with just a few sideways glances at Christianity and Islam along the way). The book’s title promises an account of ‘the evolution of Jewish monotheism’, but Grossberg wisely notes that it is not really an ‘evolution’ inasmuch as newer forms do not altogether replace their forebears; rather, forms proliferate over time. Grossberg’s other ingenious move, signalled by the book’s subtitle, is to dodge the bullet of defining ‘monotheism’. Rather than write the history of an -ism, Grossberg writes the history of the religious slogan ‘God is one’ in select Jewish sources from the Hebrew Bible to the twentieth century. This is a good idea, first, because it is that slogan, not the early modern term ‘monotheism’, that actually appears in the sources and, second, because the force of the idea of monotheism has always been precisely its usefulness as a slogan, a rallying cry, a totem.