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Taste and see that the Lord is good
Peter Anthony finds out how the senses can lead us to God
 Rabbouni: Silvia Dimitrova’s painting done after meditating on a passage in John 20. In the book in which it appears, Sense Making Faith (reviewed below), a poem by Graham Kings takes the painting as its subject |
| Sense Making Faith: Body, spirit, journey Anne Richards with the Mission Theological Advisory Group CTBI £15 (978-0-85169-347-7) Church Times Bookshop £13.50 IF YOU like judging books by their covers, then this beautifully produced theological resource wins all the prizes. Its pages are bursting with vibrant photographs, colourful graphics, and approachable, well laid-out text. We are invited, in those pages, to explore the way in which the realm of our human senses can be both a focus for our own theological reflection — and also a point of contact and shared experience with the unchurched. This is a product of the Mission Theological Advisory Group, representing theologians of the Church of England and Churches Together. As such, it tries, quite inventively, to speak to a wide breadth of theological traditions. The book divides into six sessions, full of really imaginative, engaging ideas for group discussion. I could imagine using it in a whole range of contexts. My only slight criticism would be the under-representation of a Catholic perspective among the Mission Group’s members. One fears their horizons are sometimes framed by not much more than the presuppositions of modern pan-Protestantism. There is not much on the sacra-ments, for example, which must count as a bit of a lost opportunity in any discussion of the senses’ role in the spiritual life. The section on engaging the sense of smell in worship also produced a wry smile on my part. There is a whole page on the importance of incense in the scriptures. Despite this, the authors swiftly come to the conclusion that you wouldn’t actually want to use incense much nowadays. A far better engagement of the sense of smell with God’s presence is, apparently, having a well-dusted church: “The smell of polish or other cleaning products can speak powerfully to people,” we are told. Irrational liturgical prejudices die hard, it seems. Apart from that, full marks to the authors for usefulness, flexibility, and imagination. The Revd Peter Anthony is Assistant Curate of St Mary and Christ Church, Hendon, in north London. To order this book email your details to CT Bookshop |
