God is Not a Man in the Sky

God Is Not A Man In The Sky comprises two parts: a beautifully-illustrated, hardback children’s book, and the Companion Guide, an accompanying booklet for adults.

The children’s book, quite possibly the first of its kind, tells the story of existence from both scientific and biblical perspectives through the Franciscan lens. Beginning ‘before’ God’s creation of the universe, the narrative unfolds through the Big Bang, evolution, the development of humanity, and the covenant, culminating in redemption through Jesus Christ.

Suitable for five to thirteen year-olds, younger children are able to learn valuable truths through both text and artwork, while older readers may appreciate the book independently. The Companion Guide provides helpful explanations of the themes encountered in the book.

God Is Not A Man In The Sky is an innovative, fascinating and brilliant tool for any parent, teacher, or catechist seeking to present the fundamentals of Christianity to children. It would also make a wonderful Baptism or First Holy Communion gift.

‘Lizzy Peck has written the book we have all been waiting for. Those of us who have to do with the education of the young have heard all too often from them that religion… has been disproved by ‘science’. This is simply not the case; indeed Christianity, and especially Catholicism has played an immensely important role in the development of science; it was, of course, a Catholic priest who first drew our attention to the ‘Big Bang’, and the Church has always been in the forefront of scientific achievement, Galileo or not. This is a marvellous book, admirably directed at quite young children, with a really intelligent commentary for their long-suffering parents and teachers… and it should be widely read by those who care about this extraordinary ‘disconnect’ in our society between science and religion.’
Fr Nicholas King SJ, Fellow in New Testament Studies, Campion Hall, Oxford

‘I found the philosophical explanations admirably clear and easy to understand at a junior level, more straightforward than such explanations as Sophie’s World, which is saying a lot. I especially liked the page on essence and accidents, and also the one on relationships within God. The history of evolution up to the beginning of life is also very attractive and persuasive. I think this sort of thing should open up a world of philosophical and religious thought for intelligent young people.’
Dom Henry Wansbrough, Author and General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible 

‘This book is “a great and well-needed idea, which is well-written.’

Catholic Stuff You Should Know (Popular Catholic Podcast)

‘This work by Elizabeth Peck is very deceptive. At first sight it seems no more than an easy to read catechism designed to open up the treasures of Scripture and theology to young minds that are seeking to try to grasp and understand the inarticulable mysteries of the Divine and its relevance to today’s Church, world, and society. But you would be all too easily deceived, for this is a profound reflection not just on the orthodoxical content of Scripture and theology, but also its orthopractical profundity. Scripture does not exist in a vacuum; no less does theology. They are both rooted in an experience of the Divine which has manifested itself and its saving purpose through the history of a people and brought that history to completion in an historical person, Jesus of Nazareth, which Christian theology proclaims as Son of God made real flesh.

This book seeks to explore and examine the meaning both for the individual and the whole of creation of this person Jesus of Nazareth. Beginning at the beginning, Elizabeth Peck weaves her way through the key moments in the Pentateuchal literature, from Eden, to Abraham, and beyond. A serious mind is at work here asking questions, answering them, attempting to understand both the question and the answer in the mysteriousness of their own realities – at all times painstakingly keeping her language readable and understandable even to the young, untrained theological mind.

The author traverses the rich and fruitful landscapes of the gospels in obvious delight at what is to be discovered and revealed there about Jesus of Nazareth. Special attention is paid to the Prologue to the gospel of John and its semiotic in the language of Logos, Light, Darkness, Life, Incarnation. This is a fertile field, which even among the most specialised of Johannine scholars is endlessly harvested. The Word is explored in its pre-existent, transhistorical, transmundane mystery in being God, and in being with God in the beginning. The Word is light and life that was coming into the world, the source of all that is the opposite of the darkness which could not overpower it: chaos, disorder, lifelessness, and death itself. This Word is of the Father as only Son; and it is through him that life is given to all who believe. This Word enters into the time-bound, existential reality of the human condition in all its brutishness by becoming flesh and embracing that condition and human history as the named Jesus, who is the Christ, the Coming One who was promised in ‘Let there be light’.

The author mines this rich vein of gospel and theological gold carefully, methodically, and with great single-minded purposefulness, for she too is on a journey of discovery and enlightenment guided by that light which was not only in the beginning, which was coming into the world, which came into the world, and which is the Light of the world who enlightens all people coming into the world; and so she digs deeper into this vein of inestimable treasures through the Wisdom literature of the Hebrew scriptures and their significance for Christology in the image of Jesus as Wisdom.

Much more could be written about this work, but perhaps the best way to understand what Elizabeth Peck is trying to do, is read the work and allow her to take you as reader on the same journey she has been on across the wide and mysterious landscapes of Scripture, theology and spirituality which to my mind has something of a Franciscan-inspired ambiance about it. This is an unusual and striking work of great detail, thorough research and challenging reflections, yet at all times it is suffused by a deep spirituality where the person of Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary is at the centre of all things as the Incarnate pre-existent Word, through whom all things came to be, in whom all things are sustained in love, and for whom all things were created. The Alpha and the Omega, he who makes all things new. This work is not just theology as theos-logos, words concerning God or Divine things; it is also theos-philos, concerning love of God, in which this work is deeply embedded, mind, soul, and heart.

Fr Seamus Mullholland, OFM

“It is of utmost importance in the formation of our young people that the consonance between the insights of science and those of faith is made clear. This project aims to do that by telling the story of creation from a coherent philosophical and scientific perspective informed by the Catholic theological tradition. It can hopefully serve to aid children in forming a fuller picture of the universe in their imagination, one that includes God in His proper place as the ultimate ground of all existence.”

Fr Connor Danstrom, from Three Dogs North (Catholic Podcast)