Description
Book SynopsisFathers, sons, brothers, kings. Does the predominantly masculine symbolism of the Biblical writings exclude women or overlook the riches of their spiritual life? If Christ is ''the second Adam'' and the one on whom all Christian life must be patterned, then what about Eve? This book from a leading scholar of religious language and feminism opens up the Bible''s imagery for sex, gender, and kinship and does so by discussing its place in the central teachings of Christian theology: the doctrine of God and spirituality, Imago Dei and anthropology, Creation, Christology and the Cross, the Trinity, and eschatology.
Trade ReviewWhen I began to read The Kindness of God, I could scarcely put it down... The book maintains a marvelous tone. Its manner is kind. It belabors nothing... The tone constructs both the author and the readeras people with interests, who care, who seek to understand something without heat. Everywhere there prevails a light touch. A light touch is such a rare thing... Soskice's scholarly voice is nearly unique. She shares with Thomas Aquinas the virtue of arguing with ideas, while leaving her opponents unnamed... The Kindness of God treats the... fraught topic of God and gender with a range, delight, and finesse that no one else, as far as I can think, could manage. * Eugene F. Rogers Jr., Modern Theology *
[A] stimulating book of essays * Anne Thurston, Doctrine & Life *
[A] wonderful book... this is an enlightening piece of erudite research. It is a worthy book for the scholar and the general public interested in the search for appropriate metaphors that can link us into the reality of God. * Thomas G. Grenham, Milltown Studies *
Janet Martin Soskice's new book brings together material published since 1991 together with a substantial new piece and a short coda to the whole book... Her realism always draws the reader away from the flights of abstract fancy to the facts of women's lives as a starting point for theology. * Gerald Hegarty, Expository Times *
...[An] important collection of essays... * Paul Richardson Church of England Newspaper *
Here is a woman powerfully challenging the patriarchal tradition of her Church and doing it ... by careful scholarly exploration of its faith and spirituality... * Peter Cornwell, Times Literary Supplement *
Soskice throws off many provocative insights [such as] in a splendid chapter on friendship [in which] she traces the notion from Aristotle through to CS Lewis. * Fergus Kerr, The Tablet *
Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Love and Attention ; 2. Imago Dei ; 3. Creation and Relation ; 4. Calling God 'Father' ; 5. Blood and Defilement: Christology ; 6. Trinity and the 'Feminine Other' ; 7. The Kindness of God: Trinity and the Image of God in Julian of Norwich and Augustine ; 8. Friendship ; Postscript: Eschatological Anthropology: Being Lovely
