Mourner, Mother, Midwife: Reimagining God's Delivering Presence in the Old Testament

Mourner, Mother, Midwife: Reimagining God's Delivering Presence in the Old TestamentTraditional understandings of God as deliverer depict God as a mighty liberator warrior and wrathful avenger. Juliana Claassens explores alternative Old Testament metaphors that portray God as mourner, mother, and midwife images that resist the violence and bloodshed associated with the dominant warrior imagery. Claassens discusses how metaphors of God as life giver began to develop in the aftermath of the trauma of Israelite exile. She offers

Traditional understandings of God as deliverer depict God as a mighty liberator-warrior and wrathful avenger. Juliana Claassens explores alternative Old Testament metaphors that portray God as mourner, mother, and midwife--images that resist the violence and bloodshed associated with the dominant warrior imagery.

Claassens discusses how metaphors of God as life giver began to develop in the aftermath of the trauma of Israelite exile. She offers compelling examples of how this feminine imagery still has the power to inspire hope amidst violence in today's world. She demonstrates that God's delivering presence helps people of faith cope with trauma and suffering on many levels--individual, community, national, and global--while bringing forth new life out of death and destruction.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Published: 11/28/2012
ISBN: 9780664238360
Pages: 126
Weight: 0.43lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.30d

Review Citations: Christian Century 05/01/2013 pg. 27