The Feminine Spirit - Shock! God is not a large man!

The Feminine Spirit: Recapturing the Heart of Scripture
By Lynne Bundesen
Jossey-Bass, 2007
RRP $26.95

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I can’t figure out who this book is written for. It’s one in a series entitled the “Woman’s Guide to the Bible” but it is not one that is likely to be picked up by any church study group soon, and it’s certainly not for a book for female biblical scholars.

So I figure that it could be written for women who are interested in exploring Christianity, but are not too excited about an image of God that involves a really, really angry dad. And to that end it does provide food for thought, but unfortunately it tastes a little bit too like diet lime jelly for my liking.

Bundesen starts the book with what I can only describe as a brave and audacious approach. She names the fact that every version of the Biblical text that is read by you, (unless you are an ancient Hebrew or Koine Greek scholar) is a translation. Fine so far, it’s the end of page one and I’m still with her.

But by page two it’s all beginning to get a bit worrying. She provides her own translation of the Hebrew term Ruah Elohim, (Genesis 1:1-2), which is usually translated as Spirit of God, or God’s Spirit. With no authoritative source for her claim as far as I could find, she argues that this phrase can be grammatically classified as a feminine plural form of noun. God, she argues, is described as a feminine Spirit.

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

The God Delusion
Richard Dawkins
Bantam Press 2006

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My review starts with a question about Doctor Who, which is in the end, one of the points which I found really interesting in the book. Did you know that Richard is married to Lalla Ward? She played the spunky and intelligent blonde Romana on Dr Who, a female Time Lord, who journeys with the Doctor for some time before being replaced by the spunky and intelligent Adric, a male companion for the Doctor.

Anyhow, my question is: If the companions of Dr Who can be male or female, why is the Doctor always regenerated as a male? Time Lords can be female, right? Doctor doesn’t imply a gender, right? So what hasn’t it been done?

You might argue that this is a stupid question to begin a review of this book, except that I reckon that if this question had been the bee in Dawkins’ bonnet he could have written substantially the same book, but replaced the concept of “religion” with the concept of “gender”.

The Fragrance of God by Vigen Guroian

The Fragrance of God: Reflections on Finding God through the Beauty and Glory of the Natural World
By Vigen Guroian
Darton, Longman, Todd
RRP $31.95

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I picked this gorgeous little book to review because of the title. At the moment I am interested in exploring the nature of God and our response to God in non cognitive ways, and the perfumed title captured me. Imagine my delight as I began to read and understand that this was a series of extended meditations written by an Armenian Orthodox theologian, who is also a passionate gardener.

Beware all passionate Australian gardeners; one jarring note is that this is a decidedly Northern hemisphere book. Its focus on the nature of the seasons, particularly those in Virginia, meant I had to lay aside my fierce pride in native Australian bush in all its varied forms. Doing this however, allowed me to enter Guroian’s verdant world, and it was worth it.