The Naked God
Wrestling for a grace-ful humanity
Vincent Strudwick and Jane Shaw
Paperback |248 pp |216 x 135 mm
'‘The Naked God’ is a tremendously engaging and positive book, as timely a reflection as any I’ve read on the uncertain but hopeful future of the community of God’s Kingdom.'
‘All of us who wrestle with the histories and complexities of our religious faith, its challenges and possibilities, know that how we speak of God, is how we think of the world. This book is an absorbing personal and literary journey into the questions we must ask of ourselves and our societies, for the sake of a more hopeful future.’
‘The ‘Naked God’ is a refreshing, insightful and compelling book. Vincent Strudwick draws upon his wide experience as a priest, a pastor and a teacher as he reflects upon his own faith journey, and invites us to look again at the large questions concerning God, faith, the world in which we live – and our response.’
‘Every generation puts “clothes” onto God to help their understanding; but the underlying reality of God still lies beneath those garments. If we go on clothing God only with garments that are suitable for medieval Christendom, or any other age, then we can hardly expect that God will be understood in the twenty-first century.’
We live in an age in which many people are interested in spirituality but have been disillusioned by the Church and are unaware of what lies behind institutional religion. There is little knowledge of historical attempts to understand and to ‘clothe’ God, and it is more difficult for twenty-first-century generations to find the tools with which to wrestle with the big questions about who we are and how we relate both to God and to each other.
Vincent Strudwick – in collaboration with theologian, historian and priest Jane Shaw – invites all readers to become wrestlers: to explore difficult questions about God, the Bible, spirituality and the Church.