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Summary: Mother, Father, Parent?
Review: Is God Father, Mother, neither? What are we to call the God of Jews and Christians? This collection of essays does an excellent job in providing thoughtful, argumentative, and logical arguments in favor of traditional "God Talk". Even though it is not in favor of saying, "Glory to the Parent, Child and Spirit", it does not dismiss those who believe such in a flippant or disrespectful manner. Taking their cue from the modern controversy in literature and lecture, the contributors of this volume leave the reader with much to think about. I would also guess that most readers, regardless of their position on the matter, will be forced to rethink their own ideas of God by reexamining their own assumptions or prejudices. Here are a few quotes: "Thus our knowing of God rests not on a center in ourselves but on a center in God, not on the ground of our own being, but on the ground of God's being. Our ability to know him is grounded not in some capacity of our own but in the activity of God in opening himself to our knowing and actually making himself known to us through his Word." "By contemplating, participating in, and imitating the saving activity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the oikonomia of creation, salvation, and deification, human persons can discover what it means for them to be men and women, fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters in the image and likeness of God the Father revealed through Christ the Son in the Holy Spirit, who makes creation to be God's bride, the wife of the Lamb, and whose presence in the church is already the anticipatory pledge . . . of the "Jerusalem above" which is "free" and is "our mother" (Gal. 4:26)." "Just as God is the first teacher of Trinitarian truth, so also is it God who provides the first lesson in Trinitarian grammar: "When we cry 'Abba! Father!' it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Rom. 8:15-16). . . . The speakability of the otherwise unspeakable mystery of the triune God presupposes the gift of God's very self and depends on resources that come with that gift." This is THE book to start with when coming to the question of naming God.
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