Choose your words carefully, says Taylor. After all, God does. This slim volume is a republished lecture originally given 17 years ago. Taylor starts with the creation story to reveal the tremendous power of God’s words in speaking existence into a void.
Taylor argues that today we are in danger of drowning in a cacophony that muffles the voice of the divine. Her verdict is that our ears are ever assaulted with language that is more seductive than truthful. But Taylor herself manages to be both; she is a prophet who crafts language exquisitely. Her words are hand-picked judiciously and creatively, making her work closer to a prose poem than a devotional or a theological textbook.
Taylor pleads for silence to discover more of God and, when speech is necessary, to set a modest table, eschewing talkativeness for simplicity. Her anger is reserved for casual preaching that multiplies empty words rather than serving up a nourishing few.
There are a few outdated references – to pagers and Walkmans, for instance – but, if anything, the content is more relevant than ever with the exponential proliferation of technology.
ALEXANDRA LILLEY is a curate in the East End of London
