God Is
Author Mallory Wyckoff ISBN 9780802882080 Binding Trade Paper Publisher WM B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Publication Date September 20, 2022 Size 140 x 216 mmGod is Mother. God is Midwife. God is Hostess. God is Mystery. God is Home.
Traditional language for God has been dominated by a single image—Father—and masculine norms. For some, this language is meaningful. For others, it is deeply problematic. In both cases, it’s limited.
One thing is certain: God is More.
Mallory Wyckoff believes it’s past time to expand the ways we think about God. Through personal story, theology, spirituality, and social justice (and highlighting the interconnectedness of each), Wyckoff explores feminine metaphors and untapped language for God—some biblical and familiar, some less well-known, but all revelatory of a God who is More than we’ve been allowed to imagine.
As Wyckoff illustrates, when we expand the ways we image and engage with God, we are invited to see the Divine more fully—and, in the process, our neighbors and ourselves. Those who have felt alienated by the typical ways of describing God in Christianity will meet God anew: As a Seamstress who stitches tapestries out of our tatters of shame. As a Sexual Trauma Survivor who has suffered alongside those who have endured the worst. As a Mother who nurtures us to life with her body.
— Ian Morgan Cron, author of The Story of You
“For many of us, the word ‘God’ is confusing, even traumatic. With poignant storytelling and spiritual wisdom Mallory Wyckoff leads us tenderly to a place of grace, beauty, and joy. This is a wise, beautiful, and healing book.”
—Richard Beck, author of Hunting Magic Eels: Recovering an Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age
“The language we use to describe God shapes the way we relate to God and others. If you want to broaden your God-language to include feminine imagery, I recommend Mallory Wyckoff as a trustworthy guide.”
—Sara Gaston Barton, author of A Woman Called
“There are many who go as far as to name the flaws in traditional American understandings of faith and God, but no further. In this book, Mallory has done the difficult and necessary work of identifying the issues and inviting us to imagine a better way. Mallory is a fierce, funny, and prophetic voice for current and future generations of people deconstructing and reimagining their faith. The book is beautiful, honest, funny, and relentlessly vulnerable. (As a matter of fact, if you see her, kindly ask her to chill out on the funny part and leave some work for the rest of us.)”
—Anthony Russo, creator of The Bible Is Funny
“Mallory Wyckoff is brave to declare that ‘God is’ and then allow her journey and her thoughts to lead her along the path of exploring what that looks and feels like. . . . She is so correct in asserting that God is too large for only one image. This courageous exploration of God and self is a gift to all.”
—Catherine Meeks, coauthor of Passionate for Justice: Ida B. Wells as Prophet for Our Time
“Whether out of reverence or fear (or both), many attempts to talk about God end up feeling like a rigid translation of someone else’s conversation. Mallory Wyckoff dares to speak about the divine mystery from her own experience. The result is an invitation into something both beautiful and disorienting—a language as authentic as the messy reality we all know to be true to life.”
— Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, author of Reconstructing the Gospel
“Far too often we place God within boxes that do no justice for the magnitude of God, but those boxes don't just confine God. They also confine us, because a small God makes for small people. Yet the one who drags both God and us out of those confining boxes is God. I bet if you keep your eyes open you will feel the divine hints and images within this brilliant book. Wyckoff has given us all a beautiful gift in God Is that will help us receive the divine invitation to experience God.”
—Luke Norsworthy, pastor, author, podcaster
Mallory Wyckoff is a teacher, preacher, writer, and spiritual director who currently serves as Key Relationships Officer with Preemptive Love, a global community of peacemakers working to end war and stop the spread of violence. Having completed her dissertation on the impact of sexual trauma on survivors' theological perception and spiritual formation, Mallory has a DMin from Lipscomb University in missional and spiritual formation. In all her work, Mallory is a trusted voice for people seeking to navigate their spirituality with curiosity, honesty, and courage. She is a native Floridian and lives with her husband and their two daughters.
Table of Contents
1. God Is in the Waves
2. God Is Hiding under the Table
3. God Is More Than We’ve Been Led to Believe
4. God Is Communicator
5. God Is and Is Not
6. God Is Creator
7. God Is Seamstress
8. God Is Mother
9. God Is Midwife
10. God Is Hostess
11. God Is Sexual Trauma Survivor
12. God Is Wisdom Within
13. God Is Home
14. God Is Mystery
15. God Is…
Epilogue
Reflections
Notes
Selected Bibliography