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The Collage of God
While training for the priesthood, a stint with a hospital chaplaincy team brought Mark face to face with a depth of suffering that blew his young, confident faith apart. Years later he was still picking up the pieces, but they began to show an entirely different picture of where and how God could be found.The Collage of God is for all who find it difficult to reconcile the realities of life with easy and comfortable notions about faith. In imaginative and beautiful language, and illuminated by many quotes from modern writers and poets, Mark Oakley reconstructs faith as a collage of traditions and texts, the myriad experiences of living, imagination, silence and prayer by which we respond to the grace of God revealed in fragile lives.A contemporary spiritual classic.
- GenresChristian
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
3 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
Mark Oakley
21 books4 followersCanon Mark Oakley is Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral in London. He is a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King's College, London.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 18, 2020
This was unexpectedly great as I’d never heard of the author until a friend made me aware of him. It really presents the liberal perspective of Christianity very well and was chock full of references to other writings, not just theological but novels, poetry and biographies. I particularly appreciate books that set me off on to reading others! I found myself taking many notes of quotes that I loved like “I asked for all things that I might enjoy life, I was given life that I might enjoy all things” (extract from prayer - page 16), and a description of friendship where you have “neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words” but “pour them out as chaff and grain together” which the friend “takes and sifts, keeping what is worth keeping and then with a breath of kindness blows the rest away” (from “A Life for a Life” by Dinah Maria Mulock - page 79). There are many more like this.
And I loved that the book includes a chapter on laughing and the part at the end where it compares the church to The Clangers - “living in our own world with our own untranslatable language and just occasionally daring to send off a rocket to see if it might ever be possible to communicate with someone else”.
A short (103 pages) and easy read but with hidden depths so one which I will keep and reread to try and discover them.
And I loved that the book includes a chapter on laughing and the part at the end where it compares the church to The Clangers - “living in our own world with our own untranslatable language and just occasionally daring to send off a rocket to see if it might ever be possible to communicate with someone else”.
A short (103 pages) and easy read but with hidden depths so one which I will keep and reread to try and discover them.
July 6, 2020
This is almost too easy to read, which means many good things can slip by with barely a nod. Mark Oakley is very well read, and his quotations are well-chosen (characteristically more novelists and poets than theologians but they get a look in too). There is a lightness of touch, and he is funny (indeed there's an interesting chapter on laughter). These qualities might blind the reader to an altogether grittier honesty. For instance, after someone he had come to care for as chaplain in an AIDS hospice dies, Oakley comments,"...all those paperback books published on God and illness simply feel like attempts to sanctify the irredeemable. Lord I think I believe. Help my unbelief." That phrase
"sanctify the irredeemable" is searching and powerful. Amen. How much of theology does exavtly that?
I'll probably reread this at some point; and I'll read more of the author.
"sanctify the irredeemable" is searching and powerful. Amen. How much of theology does exavtly that?
I'll probably reread this at some point; and I'll read more of the author.
June 21, 2020
Described as a 'contemporary spiritual classic', it's one of those books you have to stop reading at the end of nearly every sentence to think about what you've just read. Then start again as soon as you've finished it - except there are so many other threads it has laid in front of you that you want to follow up... Then go through and mark copiously and keep on dipping into.
An inspiring, insightful, stimulating, encouraging, enlarging book.
An inspiring, insightful, stimulating, encouraging, enlarging book.
July 21, 2023
A good little book - actually it's 'little' only in terms of number of pages - it's packed with ideas...
A sort of postmodern approach (it was first published in 2001) as it builds a picture or impression from smaller pieces, the main theme is well captured by the back blurb:
"Reality is not neatly mirrored in the recitation of any creed. Faith is more like a collage than a tidy system, slowly pieced together from a sprawling mixture of sources: ancient texts and contemporary experiences, prayer and poetry, silence and imagination."
It is divided into two parts. The first consists of the 'materials' of hiddenness, discovery and poetry. The second is 'composition' in truthfulness, praying, service and (in a lovely turn) laughing.
Extremely well read, Mark Oakley (currently Dean of St John's College, Cambridge) is an example of the kind of explorer that has been in the church (thank God) for quite a while now.
Able to dissemble and assemble, draw intellectual input from diverse sources, bring creed alongside human experience, sit with tension, cast anchor and weigh anchor, explore the hints and rumours of something more and transcendent in the ordinary and the extraordinary.
A sort of postmodern approach (it was first published in 2001) as it builds a picture or impression from smaller pieces, the main theme is well captured by the back blurb:
"Reality is not neatly mirrored in the recitation of any creed. Faith is more like a collage than a tidy system, slowly pieced together from a sprawling mixture of sources: ancient texts and contemporary experiences, prayer and poetry, silence and imagination."
It is divided into two parts. The first consists of the 'materials' of hiddenness, discovery and poetry. The second is 'composition' in truthfulness, praying, service and (in a lovely turn) laughing.
Extremely well read, Mark Oakley (currently Dean of St John's College, Cambridge) is an example of the kind of explorer that has been in the church (thank God) for quite a while now.
Able to dissemble and assemble, draw intellectual input from diverse sources, bring creed alongside human experience, sit with tension, cast anchor and weigh anchor, explore the hints and rumours of something more and transcendent in the ordinary and the extraordinary.
July 25, 2024
I have really enjoyed hearing Mark Oakley preaching at St Paul's Cathedral in London, where he was part of the ministry team for some years. Having said that, this book once purchased has sat unread on my bookshelf for a very long time.
I'm glad I finally got around to reading it, and there are many thoughtful parts to it. It is well written and for these reasons I have rated it 4 stars. But having finished it, I'm not sure how helpful I found it in my own faith journey. I think I'll leave it on my shelf for a few more years and then re-read it.
I'm glad I finally got around to reading it, and there are many thoughtful parts to it. It is well written and for these reasons I have rated it 4 stars. But having finished it, I'm not sure how helpful I found it in my own faith journey. I think I'll leave it on my shelf for a few more years and then re-read it.
January 19, 2018
Seasoned and thoughtful exploration of the fragments that make up the collage of faith. Oakley uses wisdom from novels, poems, philosophy, the bible, and his many years of church service to try and illustrate the patchwork nature of life.
A wise accompaniment to take on your journey.
A wise accompaniment to take on your journey.
June 16, 2023
This is a delight- full of nuanced self reflection on important things, held lightly and with honesty.
August 26, 2008
In "The Collage of God", Mark Oakley searches for possibilities on how to relate to God. The book is addressed to theologians (and here especially to clergymen) as well as ordinary people who are searching to deepen their own relationship to God. It is full of highly theological thoughts and at the same time written understandably. It is not a strict manual telling one how to do things correctly, it is more a guideline showing possibilities to enter and deepen one's relationship with God and to share it with others. By this emphasis on human relationship he is again and again stressing the fact that a good relationship with the creator (yes, I am a realist - maybe a critical one, but still a realist - cf. 39ff.) is dependent and influences ones relationship to other people.
Although the book is well understandable one should not underestimate its complexity. I think that I will have to re-read it, as it seems impossible to grasp a satisfying number of thoughts after the first reading - I feel as if I left the most important ones behind in the book.
Although the book is well understandable one should not underestimate its complexity. I think that I will have to re-read it, as it seems impossible to grasp a satisfying number of thoughts after the first reading - I feel as if I left the most important ones behind in the book.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews