Biblical scholar Richard Elliott Friedman explores the question of the absence and the presence of the Creator in human history and experience in this interesting book. He begins with an examination of God's disappearing act in the Hebrew Bible. Next he looks at the lives and writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and Feodor Dostoevsky, whose philosophical and literary legacies led to the twentieth century concept of the death of God. The author ends on a more hopeful note with his survey of the Big Bang and the Kabbalah.

Friedman points out that scientists have revived our sense of awe in the presence of Creation and that Jewish mystics have brought us back to a keen sense of our mission of repairing the world. In the end, this intellectually engaging work helps us appreciate the mysteriousness of God. And that is always a good thing.