Wearing God

Starred review from February 9, 2015
Duke Divinity School professor and writer Winner (Still) combines spiritual insight and beautifully descriptive prose as she explores some of the more obscure biblical metaphors for God. This is not a book about God as king, shepherd, father, or judge. Rather, Winner looks at the ways God can be known through the everyday and familiar: a beloved sweater, the smell of a loved one’s shirt, morning-glory muffins. Weaving together intimate reflections and scholarship, Winner demonstrates how metaphors can deepen an understanding of God. She is at her best showing how language has political and social consequences. In a chapter about God as smell, she considers the historical connection between smell and virtue and suggests that we might better serve others if we remember that Jesus “was a sometimes homeless man who... surely sometimes stank.” Elsewhere, she asserts that the image of God as a laboring woman can remind us of vulnerability in the same way the Crucifixion does. Winner’s honest, charming reflections stir the imagination and invite the reader to explore not just the metaphors she has chosen, but the treasure trove the Bible provides. Prayers and quotations promote further contemplation. Agent: Carol Mann, Carol Mann Agency.