In “36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction” (Pantheon Books, $27.95), Rebecca Newberger Goldstein probes the collision of faith and reason in numerous intellectual, philosophical, mathematical, ethical, theological and kabbalistic arguments sprinkled with fistfuls of humor.
It is 4 a.m., and Cass Seltzer is standing on Weeks Bridge that spans the Charles River. No, he did not abandon his girlfriend’s comforter and Tempur-Pedic pillow and wind a scarf seven and a half times around his neck to head into the dark to commit suicide, but to “deal with the rush in his head.” His girlfriend, Lucinda Mandelbaum, known as “The Goddess of Game Theory,” is away at a conference on “Non-Nash Equilibria in Zero-Sum Games,” and Cass is unable to sleep. Lucinda is a glorious creature with great potential to breathe life into the story, but is absent for too long, alas, and when she does return to Cass … well, I won’t spoil the ending for the reader.
Each and every one of Cass Seltzer’s women is fascinating in her own right. Pascal Puissant, the ex-wife and poet, who “always reminded him of a starved wolf.” Roz Margolis, the strong-willed, feminist, ex-girlfriend and anthropologist on a quest to conquer aging. Cass is infatuated with his women, but incapable of developing a meaningful relationship, it seems. “Romantic infatuation can be a form of religious delusion, too,” he tells Roz. Or perhaps he is simply too busy seeing “religious frames of mind lurking everywhere, masking themselves in the most secular of settings.” His book, “The Varieties of Religious Illusion,” has thrust him into unexpected stardom. Time Magazine dubbed him “the atheist with a soul.” One of the central questions Goldstein poses is whether Cass — despite his eternal preoccupation with religion and its effect on our daily life, and despite his abstract atheist ideas — might possess a soul, after all.
We meet the eccentric Jonas Elijah Klapper, “the Klap,” the one and only professor in the “Department of Faith, Literature and Values in Frankfurter (University).” “There was not a novelist, poet, essayist, critic, historian, metaphysician, ethicist, theologian or belletrist worth the reading (an emphatically necessary qualification) of whom he had not taken the reckoning.” Cass reveres Klapper, his mentor and muse, until he comes to realize that the man is not quite all there. We meet and fall in love with Azarya Sheiner, the inheritor of the Valdener Chasidic sect, a 6-year-old mathematical prodigy and every mother’s dream. Azarya’s father, the Grand Valdener Rebbe, introduces us to customs of his Chasidic sect, among them the ancient prohibition against counting people. In the Rebbe’s shul, to which Cass Seltzer is invited to share a meal with the Rebbe in a tish — Yiddish for table, referring to the Rebbe’s table in Chasidism — Cass is swept into the rapture of a crowd of singing and dancing Chasidim. “His face was as wet with tears as any in the room, his trance as deep and ecstatic as any Hasid leaping into dance.” Perhaps Cass Seltzer, “the atheist with a soul,” has come to believe in the existence of God.
The strength and the weakness of the book are in its intellectual debates, which are rendered in detail and great insight, showcasing Goldstein’s proficiency in the numerous subjects she tackles. But such a plethora of philosophical arguments and counterarguments has a tendency to weigh down the story and might be difficult to encompass in a book presented as a work of fiction. The dedicated reader who is prepared to devote time to re-reading and meditating on each tackled subject, including an appendix that states the 36 arguments for the existence of God and their responses, will certainly be rewarded.
Dora Levy Mossanen, author of the novels “Harem” and “Courtesan,” is a regular contributor of fiction reviews to The Jewish Journal.
