Name of Book:  In God’s Name

Author:  Sandy Eisenberg Sasso

Illustrator:  Phoebe Stone

Publisher:  Jewish Lights Publishing

ISBN: 9781879045262

Audience:  Ages 4+

Summary: After the world is created, people realize that everyone and everything has a unique name except for God.  What is God’s name?  Each person recognizes God by a different name based on their own life experiences, such as Source of Life, Mother, Father, Shepherd, or Rock.  They argue with one another that their own name for God is the right name and that it is the best name.  Then one day all the people are gathered at a lake that reflects each one of their faces, and at the same time they all proclaim their name for God.  At that moment, the people know that all the names for God are good and they call God One.

Literary elements at work in the story : In God’s Name is written as a fable with poetic text and vibrant illustrations.  It celebrates diversity and, yet at the same time, the unity of all people.  It recognizes the conflict that divides different religions and denominations and invites the readers to listen to others, so everyone can have a better understanding of God.  It is about acceptance, openness, and reconciliation.

Theological conversation partners: In our faith journey, it is very easy to come to understand God from our own life experiences and limit the qualities of God to only what we see and know.  However, this book reminds readers that God is so much bigger than any one of us and can only truly be understood when we all come together to proclaim our knowledge of God with others.  In Exodus 3:14, God reveals Godself to Moses as “I AM” leaving the door wide open to our understanding and knowledge of  God.

Faith Talk Questions:

1.  There are a lot of names of God in this book.  Which name most ressonates with you and why?
2. Make a list of other names for God that are not listed in this book.

In God’s Name by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.