In Deeper than Words: Living the Apostles’ Creed, Brother David reexamines the words with which the early followers of Jesus summarized their faith. Reading line-by-line with an open perspective, he reveals the often overlooked message of trust, compassion, peace, love, and awareness contained in this widely known but rarely examined statement.
Deeper than Words moves beyond ritual and exclusivity and instead finds a deeper faith based in real human experience and the sense of limitless belonging that is shared by all people who seek to understand themselves and the world. The words of the Apostles' Creed are Christian, but its heart is a universal and timeless guide to fullness of life. From this transformation perspective, developed over a lifetime of contemplation, Brother David presents a powerful call to renewal through reconnection with the spiritual and a reawakening to shared sacred truths.

In this book, Brother David Seindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk, unpacks each line of the Apostles’ Creed, one of the oldest and least disputed of the Christian creeds. The book grew out of Brother David’s work with Christian-Buddhist dialogue, and in it, he attempts to explain how this statement of specifically Christian beliefs points toward a deeper faith that unites all people.

I loved a lot of what Brother David had to say about the importance of the various lines of the creed, and many of his personal reflections are stirring. The chapters on “The Father” and on “The Almighty” were among my favorites. Here, he perfectly juxtaposes the idea that God is personal and intimate with us with the idea that God’s love is almighty. This loving God has empowered and affirmed us. Brother David also recognizes the value of the image of God as Father without denying the tension inherent in the image and how it can too easily lead people to perceive God as masculine.

Although I found a lot in this book to like, I also found a lot of it vexing. I often found that I couldn’t follow Brother David’s train of thought from what the line of the creed means to why it’s important. And I sometimes thought he was making big leaps that simply couldn’t be supported by the text of the creed or of scripture. There were other times, too, when I thought he was too quick to dismiss more literal or traditional readings of certain lines of the creed, and I had lots of questions circle about the view of Jesus presented here. I often felt that Brother David was dancing around the difficult issues in an effort to be inclusive.

See my complete review at Shelf Love. ( )