The Elephant in the Room
I had a defining moment in the shower this morning. A lot of my defining moments come when I’m in the shower, probably because that’s one of the few places I’m not engaged in some project or on my way to the next one, and my mind has a chance to catch up with my body. Last week I finished the first draft of a book, and I’m in the process of submitting a proposal to a publisher. In filling out the publisher’s form, I’m asked for an annotated Table of Contents—basically, summarizing the book in a few sentences, chapter by chapter. With hot water relaxing my neck and shoulders, and with shampoo stinging my left eye, I pondered how to compose that annotated Table of Contents, and it came to me that, in developing the argument of the book, I had found in the Judeo/Christian Scriptures, and particularly in the Hebrew Scriptures, what amounts to two distinct G(g)od images, each incompatible with the other; indeed, diametrically opposite. If I’m totally honest with myself and with my...