©2014 Randal Rauser • © 2014 Journal of Analytic Theology The Antitheist meets the Shepherd: A response to

Yoram Hazony’s book begins by asking whether there is something important missing in our understanding of the Hebrew Bible (2012, ix). His answer, as you might have expected, is yes. But the nature of the answer is something you might not have anticipated. According to Hazony, the problem is that we think of the Bible as works of revelation rather than reason. Hazony does not deny that the Hebrew Bible is a work of revelation, but he does worry that this confession has obscured the fact that these works were (and are) first and foremost exercises in philosophical reasoning. As I read The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture I began to wonder how Hazony’s conception of the Bible would stand up against the vociferous critiques of the new atheists. Admittedly, a new atheist might appear to be a rather curious choice for an interlocutor given that, when it comes to religion, they are typically the very antithesis of nuanced and charitable critical analysis. Even so, there is value in choosing a new atheist as an interlocutor given their effectiveness at summarizing common objections to the Bible with all the skill of the populist rhetorician. We ca