SPIRITUAL FOCUS ON BOOKS October 9, 2006 Issue

'THE DESIGN OF GOD'

KIM SHIPPEY, SENIOR WRITER

"I WILL keep faith in in God, in God's faith in me, and in all the companions whom God has given me to help see the world as God sees it — so that together we may find a way to realize the divine vision."

That was among several goals preacher, writer, and public speaker Barbara Brown Taylor set herself as she reexamined her faith when she left full-time parish ministry after 15 years to teach religion at Piedmont College in rural northeast Georgia. Taylor's goal happens to coincide with the Sentinel's commitment on its masthead "to report on the unlimited ways that the healing power and presence of the Christ activates, uplifts, and transforms the lives of everyday people around the world."

Taylor recounts how she found a different compass for herself in Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith, the 11 th book under her byline, but the first she actually sat down to write. The others were collections of sermons, lectures, or public talks, prepared to be heard, not read.

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