How Big Is Your God?
The Freedom to Experience the Divine
Foreword by Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM
By Paul Coutinho, SJ
Review by Angela Hutchinson
Spirit-Works.net
This book is pure liberation for the independent seeker. 48 brief, but powerful chapters of total acceptance and encouragement to live in relationship with the Divine is what Paul Coutinho compassionately shares with the reader. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this author’s candid and humorous tales of the journey we all take called life. Somehow his gentle words carry a healing elixir to those who may have experienced pain with religion. He looks beyond names, beyond dogmas, and into the experience of God. Tucked in the front cover is a 15 minute DVD which consists of Coutinho speaking on some of the topics of How Big Is Your God?. This book is a treat from start to finish.
What kind of God do you experience? Is he a big God with broad shoulders or a small God who gets lost in the little stuff? Are we willing to be spiritually challenged? These are questions the author encourages us to explore.
Coutinho also makes a clear distinction between following religious rules and truly experiencing God. I love that he frees the reader from the shackles of traditional thought. “Religion helps us find the river of life and the river of freedom, and it’s in the river that we experience the love of God and divine life. A question we must ask ourselves is once we find the river, once we are experiencing the divine love, do we still need the well?” Do we know God or just the experience of the well?
The book speaks of charity and compassion. Both are wonderful aspects of humanity, but it is in a compassionate act that we see God at work in our lives and the lives of others. We are giving ourselves without control of the situation. “People who have a living relationship with God are people who live by compassion….they experience interconnectedness with the rest of humanity and the whole of creation.”
The author goes on to discuss the four experiences of God taken from the first books of the bible. This is truly mind opening to view how the divine is experienced in such diverse ways.
Coutinho transcends religion and extends common sense spirituality. He brings Christianity into a new era with an emphasis on the experience of God. “Discovering our true identity in God is the beginning of knowledge.” To live each day as if it were our last, to live each day as if it were our first, is to be present and to remain open to God’s movement. As we become more aware of God in our lives, our lives change. We become bigger and empowered to live in the passion of our souls. The author encourages us to find our meaning in our own way. I believe he knows that God meets us where we are…we have only to notice.
How Big Is Your God? speaks to us of relating to God and of living a life of fullness. It is vital information for a society that needs connection to the Divine. The author walks a line of gently promoting thought without alienating the reader. Coutinho is a talented man with a progressive message. This book is about freedom to find God in our own way. This life isn’t just about the “well”; it is about the “river”. How Big is Your God? is something we should all ask ourselves.
An exceptional excerpt:
“My Jesus didn’t die for my sins. My Jesus died as the greatest sign of love ever expressed for us. My Jesus died to bring a new knowledge and a new consciousness to humanity. My Jesus died because he was different from the other religious people of his time. My Jesus died because he did not give a damn for the well of religion. My Jesus died because he spent his time with social and religious outcasts, tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners, promising them that the kingdom of God belonged to them.”