Picturing God

Ann Ulanov submits that we have all painted our own pictures of God. Most of them were formed in early childhood and now lie buried in our unconscious selves. Even though we may be unaware of our images of God, they play an active, sometimes harmful role in our spiritual development. Picturing God demonstrates the importance of confronting our unconscious selves and allowing our images of God, both positive and negative, to surface. Such inner exploration reveals not only important insights about ourselves, but also pulls us beyond our private pictures of God toward a truer view of the living God. Picturing God shows us how to explore our unconscious selves and how this spiritual exercise can change the whole of our lives: how we pray, how we respond to God, how we relate to others and how we view ourselves. Ann Ulanov is Professor of Psychiatry and Religion at Union Theological Seminary, and a faculty member of the Jung Institute. She is author of Receiving Women and The Feminine in Christian Theology. With her husband Barry Ulanov she is co-author of Primary Speech and The Witch & the Clown: Two Archetypes of Human Sexuality.