Different Stories, Different Genres, Different Gods

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presented by Dr. Michael Goldberg
Wednesday, March 26, 2026 – 4:30 p.m.
Quad 264, Saint John’s University

Influenced by common English usage as well as by Jewish and Christian monotheistic traditions, we typically talk of “God” as though the Bible speaks of one — and only one — deity. However, a close reading of various biblical texts reveals that instead of a singular character called “God,” we find several different characters who go by that appellation while having their own distinctive set of character traits. Those respective characteristics are at times so incompatible, indeed so incommensurate, as to depict separate gods, each with a unique character in its own right.

This talk will not only draw on Dr. Goldberg’s forthcoming Oxford University Press book,The Bible’s Gods: The Nonexistent One True God of Scripture, it will also make use of his earlier work, Jews and Christians, Getting Our Stories Straight:The Exodus and the Passion-Resurrection.

An elderly man with white hair and a beard smiles while standing in front of a wall covered in green ivy. He wears a black coat and a dark scarf.

Michael Goldberg is a nationally-acclaimed writer and speaker. He has held two university chairs in Jewish Studies, the first at Saint John’s as the Jay Phillips Professor and the second as the Gumenick Professor at William and Mary. He has also worked with the international strategic management consulting firm of McKinsey & Co., served as a professional ethicist with the Georgia Supreme Court as well as with various hospital ethics committees, additionally providing support to gravely ill patients and their loved ones as an ICU and hospice chaplain. Goldberg is the author of several books, one of which, “Jews and Christians, Getting Our Stories Straight,” was the subject of a feature article in The New York Times, and another of which, “Why Should Jews Survive?,” attracted front-page attention from The Washington Post’s Sunday Book Review section. Goldberg has also spoken on medical, legal, and business ethics

Goldberg completed his undergraduate studies in philosophy at Yale, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. Following his ordination at the Jewish Theological Seminary, he received his Ph.D. in systematic theology and philosophy of religion from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.

This event is co-sponsored by the Saint John’s University Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning and Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary.