by Lauren F. Winner
HarperOne, San Francisco. 304 pages
REVIEWED BY DEBORAH MCKINLEY
“Wearing God” is not a book to be read as much as savored. Lauren Winner opens up several underused biblical images of God and meanders around in each one, allowing the reader to ponder the image and inviting the reader to deeper exploration. Her expressed purpose in writing the book is to provoke curiosity, inspire imagination and invite the reader into deeper friendship with God. She does just that. I found myself following her lead and pondering the images for my own life and spirit.
The first image she uses as way of introduction is that of friend. She invites the reader to view everyday realities, like friendship, as possible pathways to encountering God in new and perhaps surprising ways. This first chapter captured my attention as I have recently pondered the wealth that is friendship in my own life. It was very helpful to have Winner’s encouragement to extend that meditation toward a deeper friendship with God.
The other images she explores include clothing, smell, bread and vine, laboring woman, laughter and flame. As she playfully and thoroughly opens up each image, Winner begins with how the reader might connect with that image. She explores how the image is used biblically; she shares from her own personal experience; and she mines the archives for how Christians in ages past have experienced and written about the metaphor. She seamlessly blends historic perspective with contemporary writers and thinkers. Each chapter includes short side notes from these historic figures and from present-day sages. I often found myself reading a section, or reading a side note, then setting aside the book so I could sit with something I’d just read. As I said, it’s a book to be savored.
Each chapter includes a plethora of insights. Some will spark the reader’s imagination, and others will not. But I encourage readers to return again and again, as we bring different needs and different history to each reading. Each chapter ends with a brief prayer, encouraging the reader to fully engage the images just encountered.
This is not an academic book. Those seeking in-depth biblical exegesis will be disappointed. Still, Winner, assistant professor of spirituality at Duke Divinity School, brings her considerable intellect to bear upon the subject. She does masterful writing as she translates academic knowledge into everyday language. Her book reminded me of “A Metaphorical God: An Abecedary of Images for God” by Gail Ramshaw and “The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and ‘Women’s Work’” by Kathleen Norris. There is a growing library of resources for the pilgrim seeking to meet and know God in ever-more breadth and depth. “Wearing God” is a wonderful addition.
This would be an excellent resource for small group study in congregations as well as for personal use. Readers who come with an open mind and a spirit hungry to expand their repertoire of biblical images for the divine will harvest great reward from the book.
DEBORAH MCKINLEY is a Presbyterian teaching elder in National Capital Presbytery.
