The Collage of God

The Collage of God is for all who find it difficult to reconcile the realities of life with comfortable notions about faith. Following his experiences with suffering as a hospital chaplain, Mark Oakley reconstructs faith as a collage of traditions, texts, and experiences of living, imagination, silence and prayer. A contemporary spiritual classic.

The Collage of God is truly a contemporary spiritual classic. First published in 2001 it has sold many thousands of copies and was praised by Andrew Motion, Rowan Williams, Wendy Cope and received many favourable reviews. While training for the priesthood, a stint with a hospital chaplaincy team brought Mark face to face with a depth of suffering that blew his young, confident faith apart. Years later he was still picking up the pieces, but they began to show an entirely different picture of where and how God could be found. The Collage of God is for all who find it difficult to reconcile the realities of life with easy and comfortable notions about faith. In imaginative and beautiful language, and illuminated by many quotes from modern writers and poets, Mark Oakley reconstructs faith as a collage of traditions and texts, the myriad experiences of living, imagination, silence and prayer by which we respond to the grace of God revealed in fragile lives.