Lauren Winner, assistant professor of Christian spirituality at Duke Divinity School, explores some little-known images of God found in the Bible in her latest book, Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God.

Published in late March by HarperOne, the book has been excerpted in the national Christian press including The Christian Century and Image, a literary journal that publishes art and writing about the Judeo-Christian faith.

In the book, Winner explains that although the Bible is filled with metaphors for God—drunkard, clothing, mother hen, beekeeper, homeless man, tree, fire, comedian, sleeper, water, and dog—Christians tend to limit themselves to a few beloved but timeworn images: shepherd, father, judge, and king.

Particularly drawn to images for God that can be found in daily life, she looks for ways to consider God more fully within the everyday, among contemporary objects, needs, and environments.  

“Metaphors are the Bible’s way of making us aware of God and of the world in which we meet God,” said Winner, whose book explores what the Bible suggests about six of these idioms, and surveys what writers and preachers from earlier eras made of them. She explores the metaphors of clothing, smell, bread and vine, laboring woman, laughter, and flame. 

Winner said that her goal is not to persuade the reader “to stop thinking about God as your shepherd and start thinking about God as a cardigan sweater,” but to provoke curiosity and inspire spiritual imagination in ways that will deepen one’s relationship with God.

An Episcopal priest, Winner is the author of numerous books, including Still, Girl Meets God, and Mudhouse Sabbath.