The Lonely God? Perspectives from the Hebrew Bible

Christian trinitarian theology would suggest the notion of divine loneliness is an oxymoron, although theologians have been willing to consider the concept. But the Hebrew Bible lacks a trinitarian outlook, and Jewish authors can describe the God of the Hebrew Bible as one who is incomparably alone. This essay probes these perceptions, interrogating passages drawn from narrative, psalmody, prophecy, and wisdom. These reflections suggest that ascriptions of divine loneliness are more likely to be the result of the projection of finite creatures than a profile of the biblical God.