Thinking of God as a big, powerful being in the sky is uncomfortable for many people. They can’t form a connection. Tobi Spitzer, as a Jewish rabbi is familiar with this problem. In this book, she uses the Old Testament to find metaphors for God that are more relatable in our world.
In the Hebrew Bible, she finds metaphors for God in the real world: Water, Voice Fire, Rock, and Cloud. Metaphor is a way to gain understand something that is difficult to comprehend directly. Spitzer’s book gives us a way to approach and understand God through the real world. I felt her most successful metaphor was water. Water is powerful and flowing, but it can also be gentle.
The use of metaphor promotes the idea that God is here in the natural world and that he can be sensed in many ways. I thought the thesis was a good one. It gives a way to think about and relate to God that is immediate and real not necessarily filtered through words and ideas that are difficult to understand.
In addition to the discussion of metaphor, each chapter has suggestions for bringing alive the ideas. She also provides textual insights from the Bible and well as spiritual traditions such as Judaism and Christianity.
I received this book from St. Martin’s Press for this review.
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