Preface 1. Is Something Out There? 2. Metaphorically Speaking...3.The GOD Who Is Not...4. To Be...or Not to Be? 5. What's in a Name? 6. Feathers on the Breath of GOD 7. Where Can I Go from Your Spirit? 8. Nature Speaks 9. Divine Attributes: God Is Like... 10. The Power of the One 11. Imago Dei 12. In the Family Way 13. The Bible Tells Me So... 14. Who Do You Say I Am? 15.What Is Truth?
Val Webb attempts to set out intuitions or intimations of the Divine nature and attributes from the stories and poems of the world's religions.
Val Webb is a lecturer in religion, with a graduate degree in science and a Ph.D. in theology. She is the author of 10 books, including Florence Nightingale: The Making of a Radical Theologian and In Defence of Doubt: an invitation to adventure. Her book John's Message: Good News for the New Millennium was commissioned by the World Methodist Council. She now lives in Mudgee, Australia, and continues to write and lecture. www.valwebb.com.au
"Val Webb isn't out to prove the existence of a god, but to point
out imitations of the Divine nature from the literature on the
world's religions. Thus her survey includes range of world beliefs,
from Buddhism and Hindu mystics to early Mesopotamians and the
Aboriginals of Australia. The result is a critical challenge
to the thinking processes of traditional Christianity and a
challenge to readers to broaden their view of what constitutes
spiritual thinking. Spirituality collections will find it
invaluable." —James A. Cox, The Midwest Book Review, February
2008
*James A. Cox*
"Val Webb is a writer, teacher, artist, theologian and scientist
who weaves knowledge and experience together as she encourages the
reader to open themselves to a myriad of metaphors, symbols and
images that reveal the divine across cultures, relgions and
centuries." - Journey
"A lecturer in religion at universities in the US and Australia,
Webb offers an absorbing book of metaphorical theology, one that
follows the many and varied traces of the Divine in history. To
this end, she explores the writings of Sufi, Buddhist, and Hindu
mystics, the nature religions of the ancient Mesopotamians, the
ethical monotheism of the ancient Israelites, the stress on the
Creating Rainbow Spirit among the Aboriginal people, and theologies
associated with traditional as well as progressive Christian
traditions...Webb upholds process theism as the most fruitful,
satisfying way to describe the Divine today. This astute book
carries wide appeal." -Darren J.N. Middleton, Religious Studies
Review, September 2008
"An absorbing book written with a lightness of touch, but grounded
in deep knowledge and experience. As writer, teacher, artist,
trained theologian and scientist, Val Webb draws on an amazing
storehouse of ideas and explores in vivid, often unexpected ways
the myriad of symbols and images that disclose the Divine in the
contemporary world. Chosen from a host of multireligious sources,
including the rich biblical heritage of Jews and Christians, but
also science and nature, her work celebrates the ever elusive,
mysterious Divine Presence, Power and Life in many original,
refreshing ways, even as Communication itself. This is
an intensely personal book packed with critical comment, insight
and wisdom. Its searching questions and reflections can inspire a
wide group of readers in their own attempts to decipher the wealth
of symbols speaking to us about Divine Reality today."—Ursula King,
Professor Emerita of Theology and Religious Studies, University of
Bristol
*Ursula King, Professor Emerita of Theology and Religious Studies,
University of Bristol*
"Insightful, imaginative, and provocative! Val Webb's new book has
freed the Divine from the religious. A striking achievement."—John
Shelby Spong, author of Jesus for the Non-Religious
*John Shelby Spong, author of Jesus for the Non-Religious*
Award-Winner in the Religion: General category of the National Best
Books 2007 Awards.
"Like Catching Water in a Net, the winner of the 2007 USA Best
Books award for "Religion: general," carries forward the concerns
animating those earlier books. There is ample recognition here of
the necessary service doubt can render. Feminist insights are
richly mined...But as the book's argument builds, one finds oneself
hungering for the "Yes" in our undeniably human efforts to describe
the divine. Webb is not going to settle for a wholly apophatic
theology, reaching rather for a positive alternative to the
problematic pieties she so emphatically critiques (66). She
celebrates the fact that "a new Christianity is evolving,
uncovering the human Jesus so long buried under centuries of dogma"
(206). There seems to be, after all, a deep anthropological basis
for this religious quest (211, 227)...She presses herself to go
further, to identify "mega-characteristics" (111) in a reformed
way. Thus she will speak of "the Divine, the world and ourselves as
‘good' in aesthetic rather than moral terms" (115), calling upon
Thomas Aquinas, Alfred North Whitehead, Dag Hammarskjold and the
Turkish poet Fazil for explication. Or she will have us employ "the
Image of GOD as Communication (NOT Communicator, because that
returns to an ‘idol' like us that we create)" (76). More
materially, she will speak of "Love as a unifying, reconciling
Force within this universe" (120)." - Paul R. Sponheim, Word &
World 28/3, Summer 2008
*Word and World*
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