The Disappearance of God details the gradual decrease of the divine presence in the Biblical writings—from the unquestioned companion and teacher of the Patriarchs, to the distant but still present redeemer in Exodus, to the absent Deity of Esther. Each stage of the withdrawal of the perceived Divine presence is another stage of human development. But how is it, asks Friedman, that the numerous biblical authors, in the complete absence of any coordination between them, managed to tell the same story of gradual Divine withdrawal from human history?