Surpassing Wonder
Donald Harman Akenson
Surpassing Wonder illuminates the ancient Hebrew scriptures, the Christian "New Testament," and the Talmuds of the Rabbis. Donald Harman Akenson takes a radical historical look at these founding documents. Studying them and the surrounding scholarship, Akenson has arrived at a new - and galvanizing - understanding. He argues persuasively that these founding texts are best understood if they are each regarded as having been written by one author-editor. He then brings the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds into clear focus, as no other writer has done. Using images that range from tractor mechanics to Winnie-the-Pooh, Akenson explains how Western civilization was created not by the Greeks of Athens or the patricians of Rome but by the desert worshippers of Yahweh.
Award History
0 wins · 1 total
| Award | Year | Result | Category / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Governor General's Literary Awards: English-language Non-fictionMajor | 1999 | Finalist | Secondary source |
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies
This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.
01 Central figures
None extracted with sufficient confidence.
02 Central places
None extracted with sufficient confidence.
These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.
- Jerusalem55%
- Babylonian Talmuds38%
03 Suggested argument
Founding texts (Hebrew scriptures, New Testament, and Talmuds) are best understood as having been written by one author-editor each, and Western civilization emerged from Yahweh’s desert worshippers.
Model confidence 60%
04 Reading orientation
70 / 100 academicAcademic
An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.
Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 62%.