Wearing God: An Exercise in Enriching Our Spiritual Imagination: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God - Hardcover

Lauren F. Winner

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 006176812X ISBN 13: 9780061768125

Publisher: Bravo Ltd, 2014

Synopsis

Lauren F. Winner--a leading writer at the crossroads of culture and spirituality and author of Still and Girl Meets God--joins the ranks of luminaries such as Anne Lamott and Barbara Brown Taylor with this exploration of little known--and, so, little used--biblical metaphors for God, metaphors which can open new doorways for our lives and spiritualities.

There are hundreds of metaphors for God, but the church only uses a few familiar images: creator, judge, savior, father. In Wearing God, Lauren Winner gathers a number of lesser-known tropes, reflecting on how they work biblically and culturally, and reveals how they can deepen our spiritual lives.

Exploring the notion of God as clothing, Winner reflects on how we are "clothed with Christ" or how "God fits us like a garment." She then analyzes how clothing functions culturally to shape our ideals and identify our community, and ruminates on how this new metaphor can function to create new possibilities for our lives. For each biblical metaphor--God as the vine/vintner who animates life; the lactation consultant; and the comedian, showing us our follies, for example--Winner surveys the historical, literary, and cultural landscapes in order to revive and heal our souls.

About this title

Review:

"Winner is a gifted writer (and a voracious reader)."--The Charlotte Observer

"[These] metaphors clarify and inspire. Winner, no iconoclast, has painted us some pictures worthy of veneration."--Aleteia

"This book begs to be savored, to be revisited, to be slept with, prayed over, and pondered."--RevGals

"A gorgeously written and compelling investigation into what it means to strike up a friendship with the Living God."--James Martin, SJ, author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage

"The images Lauren introduces me to in Wearing God have stayed with me, enriching my prayers and broadening my view of God. I love her writing, and this book is no exception."--Shauna Niequist, author of Bread & Wine

"In Wearing God--a book both winsome and erudite--Winner convenes a salon of saints and biblical writers to reveal that God is much more than just Shepherd or King and far more interesting than we thought."--Fred Bahnson, Wake Forest University School of Divinity, author of Soil and Sacrament: A Spiritual Memoir of Food and Faith

"Lauren's curiosity about the life of faith is so compelling--and her intelligence so engaging--that there is nothing more satisfying than settling down with a new book from her. The only problem is that it is impossible to read her without being changed; so advance at your own risk."--Barbara Brown Taylor, author of Learning to Walk in the Dark

"If Christianity is to regain its credibility, or even its positive character, people are going to have to read books like this! Winner opens up Scripture in ways that are loyal to the Great Tradition, and yet readable, faith-filled, and applicable to the world we actually live in."--Richard Rohr, O.F.M., author of Falling Upward

"Lauren Winner explores less familiar biblical descriptions of God and how each shapes the way we think about who God is. Wearing God is a warm, playful reflection that not only expands our understanding of God, but also highlights the delicate interweaving of language and imagination."--Relevant Magazine

"With her trademark acerbic wit and wry honesty, Winner delves into a few seldom used biblical images for God. . . . A mixture of anecdotes and thought-provoking analysis, Wearing God proves a wise and appealing companion on the journey."--Shelf Awareness

From the Back Cover:

"Around five years ago, I began to realize that my pictures of God were old. This intersected, not coincidentally, with my newfound wakefulness to the scriptures, and it led me on a search: what pictures, what images and metaphors, does the Bible give us for who God is, and what ways of being with God might those pictures invite?

"One of the invitations of this book--and, I think, of the Bible--is this: you can discover things about God by looking around your ordinary, everyday life. There is a method here, and it is Jesus's method. Jesus, after all, specialized in asking people to steep themselves in the words of the scriptures and then to look around their ordinary Tuesdays to see what they could see about holiness and life with God. This is not merely entertaining wordplay to give overactive minds something pious to do. It is the Bible's way of making us aware of God and of the world in which we meet God."

--from Wearing God

So begins a wise and lyrical journey as scholar and Episcopal priest Lauren Winner tries on overlooked metaphors for how we meet and experience God. Chapters on God as clothing, laughter, flame, food, wine, and a laboring woman not only invite us to understand God in a new way, but each reveals God to be much closer and more intimate than we imagine, opening up the opportunity for experiencing and knowing God more deeply. If God has felt distant or absent, or if your reading of scripture has become cold or rote, reading Wearing God can serve as the hymn that revives you.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bravo Ltd
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 006176812X
• ISBN 13: 9780061768125
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256