What Is God?

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, simple and heart warming!
Review: "What Is God?" is appropriate for both children and adults. Because of it's clarity and clear message, I use it in my work with young children and sometimes recommend it for adults who are searching for answers themselves. I used excerpts from the book for a reading at my wedding this fall and it touched everyone, regardless of their religion! They all connected with Boritzer's simple logic and examples of how most major religions all really teach the same things. Buy it for all the adults and children you know who have ever wondered, "What Is God?"

Rating:
Summary: Strong concept, poor execution
Review: As a Unitarian Universalist parent, I bought this for my kids (8 and 5). Not a good choice. There are way too many words considering the abstract nature of the book and lack of story line. The oversimplifications, particularly of Buddhism, offended me. The author seems quite taken with his own cleverness, and the humility one might expect from a mystical, all-religions-point-toward-God attitude is missing. The part about religious persecution is completely lost on my kids. Maybe other kids, who ask "What is God" type questions, will get something out of it, though I would caution parents to have their answers thought through and not rely on this book to do it.

Rating:
Summary: The Beginning of Discussions....
Review: As much as parents think they can totally direct their child's faith, the truth seems to be that each of us comes to our own understanding of who or what "God" is.

This book is a good opening for discussions of religion with children (who will eventually grow into adults, with their own experiences, choices, experiences). We can lay the foundation, express our beliefs and hopefully let our lives speak.

This is a very short, brightly illustrated book to have on the bookshelf for those times when a small child asks, What is God? or when you want to bring up the topic. The book answers the questions with "Maybe," which allows the children to share their own reflections.

It also talks very very briefly about different ways people pray, the great teachers, and the different religions of the world - Christianity, Judaism, Muslim, and Buddhism plus a reference to other beliefs.

I like the page that talks about commonality among religions. It also touches on the arguments that happen when people disagree about God. It focuses a lot on prayer, and in the end it suggests ways to talk to God in a universalist way.

This book is not for atheists or fundamentalists of any denomination. Nor is it for anyone set with the belief that their belief is the only Way. It does not question the existence of God, although it does provide different interpretations of what God means, or could mean, to a variety of people. (Best book on this topic, though, is still Old Turtle.)

Rating:
Summary: The Beginning of Discussions....
Review: As much as parents think they can totally direct their child's faith, the truth seems to be that each of us comes to our own understanding of who or what "God" is.

This book is a good opening for discussions of religion with children (who will eventually grow into adults, with their own experiences, choices, experiences). We can lay the foundation, express our beliefs and hopefully let our lives speak.

This is a very short, brightly illustrated book to have on the bookshelf for those times when a small child asks, What is God? or when you want to bring up the topic. The book answers the questions with "Maybe," which allows the children to share their own reflections.

It also talks very very briefly about different ways people pray, the great teachers, and the different religions of the world - Christianity, Judaism, Muslim, and Buddhism plus a reference to other beliefs.

I like the page that talks about commonality among religions. It also touches on the arguments that happen when people disagree about God. It focuses a lot on prayer, and in the end it suggests ways to talk to God in a universalist way.

This book is not for atheists or fundamentalists of any denomination. Nor is it for anyone set with the belief that their belief is the only Way. It does not question the existence of God, although it does provide different interpretations of what God means, or could mean, to a variety of people. (Best book on this topic, though, is still Old Turtle.)

Rating:
Summary: Don't know how to start the conversation?
Review: Don't know how to start talking with your young children about God? Don't know how to answer their questions in a non-judgemental and open way? Here is the book to get things started. This book is for all families who embrace open-mindedness and reject the idea that any religion has a monopoly on truth. Touching on the great teachers and holy texts of such religions as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism and, finally, showing the similarities between them, this book opens the door to many meaningful discussions and reflections.

Rating:
Summary: Don't know how to start the conversation?
Review: Don't know how to start talking with your young children about God? Don't know how to answer their questions in a non-judgemental and open way? Here is the book to get things started. This book is for all families who embrace open-mindedness and reject the idea that any religion has a monopoly on truth. Touching on the great teachers and holy texts of such religions as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism and, finally, showing the similarities between them, this book opens the door to many meaningful discussions and reflections.

Rating:
Summary: Utterly Misleading and Unpoetic
Review: For those of you who, like me, are struggling with this issue, or just like to have a book for discussion... I stumbled across this book and found that it really filled a niche for us. The book covers the perspectives of several religions, and discusses it all at an appropriate level for my 5.5yo daughter. I know that my daughter has run across references to various deities in her reading and has asked about it. This book made it easier for me to help her figure out something like an answer for herself.

Rating:
Summary: Nicely done
Review: How do you bring home to children the point that God is ultimately the only reality and that everything else is God's activity -- that, in the final analysis, the world is just "made of" God and nothing else?

(For that matter, how do you bring it home to _adults_ -- who, especially if they've been warned about this sort of thing by dog-in-the-manger "theologians" who read the words but didn't hear the music, are all too likely mistake it for either pantheism or self-worship?)

Well, really, nobody can bring it home to anybody else; we can only offer each other opportunities to realize it more or less directly. But Etan Boritzer has done a very nice job of giving children a chance to experience this truth, and Robbie Marantz has done some fine illustrations to accompany Boritzer's text.

Boritzer simply raises the title question -- "What is God?" -- and informs the reader that various answers have been proposed, mostly by teachers who lived a long time ago. (Parents of most religions will find this approach as inoffensive as I do, but some Christian readers will likely object to Boritzer's treatment of Jesus as one teacher among others. And all readers should be aware that Boritzer is not introducing or favoring any particular religious tradition here.) He pokes a little bit of gentle fun at the view that God is a white-bearded old man who lives in the sky.

Boritzer then notes that most religions teach essentially the same things, at least as regards the standards of ethical human behavior. (Of course this is a tremendous oversimplification, but it is true at a sufficiently high level of generality.) Moreover, he places the responsibility for religious wars firmly on those people who don't know this.

But never mind ethics; not all religions say the same things about God, right? So can they all be right?

Sure they can, Boritzer concludes. _Anything_ that is true must be true of God, because there isn't anything else for it to be true _of_. God is all there is -- so the wind is God and the stars are God and you are God and I am God . . .

(That's the part that will bother some readers, who may not recognize the difference between Boritzer's claim and the very different claim that _you personally_ are the Almighty and All-knowing Creator of the Cosmos. Suffice it to say that this isn't what Boritzer means, and if you don't see what he _does_ mean, you'll have some trouble explaining it to your kids.)

Boritzer makes a few remarks on prayer and concludes by inviting the reader to experience his or her "connectedness" with everyone and everything else. Parents who want to introduce their children to meditation or contemplative prayer couldn't ask for a better opening.

The whole thing is very well-executed. I won't try to recommend companion volumes for grown-ups, because any parent who buys this book has already got a shelf-ful of the relevant literature. If you know what I'm talking about and you want to introduce your kids to it, this is a good book to use.

The information above says the book is suitable for ages 9-12, but I think it's probably okay for a broader range than that. You know your own young'uns best, of course, but a precocious five- or six-year-old can probably handle this.

Rating:
Summary: sad
Review: I picked up this book while browsing in a book store. When I read it, it made me sad. Instead of giving children satisfaction, it will leave a hole in their hearts. If you want your child to learn about God, try Because I Love You by Max Lucado. I am a teenager, but I love this children's book. It depicts God beautifully through the story and has gorgeous illustrations too.

Rating:
Summary: sad
Review: My spouse and I are from two different religions; and while we have decided to raise our kids from my religion, we both wish our children to be open-minded. I don't claim to be a philosopher, nor do I play one on TV. I also don't claim that this book definitely goes into depth as to why some people take religions and use them for malevolent purposes. But I DO think that this book is a great starting point for mature kids of 5 and older to discuss the burning question about G-d and how people all over the world view G-d. G-d's role in different religions, and how people are sometimes not allowed to worship G-d for political reasons - this book runs the gamut. The first time I read it, it actually made me cry.

Put yourself in the shoes of the child that is consuming this book, not in your own, adult shoes, which are more mature and understand that there are many shades of grey surrounding the issue of religion. When you look at this book from a thoughtful child's perspective, it truly works. And that is the level that matters.