God Is Here
Reimagining the Divine
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- $329.00
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- $329.00
Descripción editorial
Toba Spitzer's God Is Here is a transformative exploration of the idea of God, offering new paths to experiencing the realm of the sacred.
Most of us are hungry for a system of meaning to make sense of our lives, yet traditional religion too often leaves those seeking spiritual sustenance unsatisfied. Rabbi Toba Spitzer understands this problem firsthand, and knows that too often it is traditional ideas of the deity—he's too big, too impersonal, and too unbelievable—that get in the way. In God Is Here, Spitzer argues that whether we believe in God or fervently disbelieve, what we are actually disagreeing about is not God at all, but a metaphor of a Big Powerful Person that limits our understanding and our spiritual lives.
Going back to the earliest sources for Judaism as well as Christianity, Spitzer discovers in the Hebrew Bible a rich and varied palette of metaphors for the divine—including Water, Voice, Fire, Rock, Cloud, and even the process of Becoming. She addresses how we can access these ancient metaphors, as well as those drawn from rabbinic tradition and modern science, to experience holiness in our daily lives and to guide us in challenging times. In the section on water, for instance, she looks at the myriad ways water flows through the Biblical stories of the Israelites and emerges as a powerful metaphor for the divine in the Prophets and Psalms. She invites us to explore what it might mean to “drink from God,” or to experience godly justice as something that “rains down” and “flows like a river.”
Each chapter contains insights from the Bible and teachings from Judaism and other spiritual traditions, accompanied by suggestions for practice to bring alive each of the God metaphors. Rabbi Toba Spitzer has helped many people satisfy their spiritual hunger. With God Is Here she will inspire you to find new and perhaps surprising ways of encountering the divine, right where you are.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Spitzer, a congregational rabbi, examines metaphors and broadens popular conceptions of God in her uneven debut. She notes that many find the traditional notion of God as "Someone or Something that we're told is both all-powerful and all-good" difficult to reconcile with the existence of evil and suffering. In response, the author proffers several metaphors for God—including rock, water, voice, fire, cloud, and electricity—intended to expand how one thinks about God and appeal to those turned off by conventional understandings of a higher power. In unpacking scriptural comparisons of God, Spitzer reveals, for instance, how a reference to God as the "Rock of Ages" highlights God's eternal nature, and "Fount of Living Waters" speaks to God's capacity to provide spiritual sustenance. The author also weaves in less expected sources, including Black American civil rights history and personal anecdotes such as her father's kayaking obsession and the death of her partner due to cancer. Despite ostensibly writing for those troubled by theodicy, Spitzer offers little to address that paradox, and the platitudes she does offer ("We can never really predict the future") fall flat. Though wide-ranging and imaginative, this doesn't live up to its own ambitious goals.