
God the Child
Small, Weak and Curious Subversions
Graham Adams(Author)
SCM Press
Published on 30. April 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
192 pages
978-0-334-06500-5 (ISBN)
Description
We express the mystery of God with diverse metaphors, but mostly in Adult terms. In this experimental theological adventure, Graham Adams imagines what might flow from a more thorough 'be-child-ing' of God. Aware that the Child can be idealized, he selects particular characteristics of childness in order to disrupt God's omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience.
The smallness of the Child re-envisages divine location in sites of smallness, like an open palm receiving the experiences of the overlooked. The weakness of the Child reimagines divine agency as chaos-event, subverting prevailing patterns of power and evoking relationships of mutuality. And the curiosity of the Child reconceives divine encounter as horizon-seeker, imaginatively and empathetically pursuing the unknown.
These possibilities are brought into dialogue both with other theologies (Black, disabled and queer) and with pastoral loss, economic/ecological injustice, and theological education. Through these conversations, God the Child emerges not only as a new model for God, but intrinsic to God's new social reality which is close at hand.
The smallness of the Child re-envisages divine location in sites of smallness, like an open palm receiving the experiences of the overlooked. The weakness of the Child reimagines divine agency as chaos-event, subverting prevailing patterns of power and evoking relationships of mutuality. And the curiosity of the Child reconceives divine encounter as horizon-seeker, imaginatively and empathetically pursuing the unknown.
These possibilities are brought into dialogue both with other theologies (Black, disabled and queer) and with pastoral loss, economic/ecological injustice, and theological education. Through these conversations, God the Child emerges not only as a new model for God, but intrinsic to God's new social reality which is close at hand.
Reviews / Votes
"Our world contains 1.9 billion children but how might God be represented through them? As Adams puts it, 'in a world of giants, we don't notice what is small.' In this brilliantly challenging book Adams encourages us toward new ways of imagining God, without all the constructs and sophistication of the adult world, with words like smallness, weakness and curiosity. This new territory opens up huge potential for transformation within our understanding of God." -- Carrie Grant "God the Child is a joyfully unsettling read: richly resource-full, wide-ranging and paradigm-shifting, with Graham Adams' characteristic combination of careful clarity and poetic playfulness. Exposing and challenging 'the colonial matrix of adult power' (including its racist, ableist and heteropatriarchal dimensions), God the Child invites us to reimagine power and agency - divine and human - in ways that are bursting with subversive possibility." -- Al BarrettMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
325 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-334-06500-5 (9780334065005)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
04/2024
1st Edition
Hymns Ancient & Modern
€24.49
Available for download
Person
Revd Dr Graham Adams is Tutor in Mission Studies, World Christianity and Religious Diversity at Luther King Centre for Theology and Ministry in Manchester.
Content
Acknowledgements ix
Foreword by Karen O'Donnell xi
First Steps: Introducing God the Child 1
Part 1 Wherever God is, God is Small 19
1 God the Open Palm 21
2 Grace as Solidarity 38
3 The Blackness of the Hand 62
Part 2 However God Acts, God is Weak 83
4 God the Chaos-event 86
5 Justice as Playfulness 101
6 The Dis/ability of the Agency 121
Part 3 Whatever God Knows, God is Curious 141
7 God the Horizon-seeker 143
8 Faith as Imagination 155
9 The Queerness of the Quest 174
Conclusions: Following the Child 188
Index of Bible References 197
Index of Names and Subjects 199
Foreword by Karen O'Donnell xi
First Steps: Introducing God the Child 1
Part 1 Wherever God is, God is Small 19
1 God the Open Palm 21
2 Grace as Solidarity 38
3 The Blackness of the Hand 62
Part 2 However God Acts, God is Weak 83
4 God the Chaos-event 86
5 Justice as Playfulness 101
6 The Dis/ability of the Agency 121
Part 3 Whatever God Knows, God is Curious 141
7 God the Horizon-seeker 143
8 Faith as Imagination 155
9 The Queerness of the Quest 174
Conclusions: Following the Child 188
Index of Bible References 197
Index of Names and Subjects 199