The Light of God's Shadow: Musings, Stories, and Poems on Waking Up

by Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann

Jinks is a Jungian psychotherapist and Spiritual Director. Her book is written they way she speaks and since she is my Spiritual Director, it's like she is talking directly to me. It traverses topics including: Jewish Mysticism, Buddhist thought, dark night of the soul and finding the "gold" in our darkest parts. Beautifully written and wonderful for those of any religious background, or none, to work on deepen themselves and being open to the greater unknown.

325 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in brief, readily accessible prose sections interspersed with poems, The Light of God’s Shadow reads like an eloquent, intimate diary of a life lived “waking up,” a life centered on spiritual awareness and relationship with divine presence. For Hoffmann, God is a luminous constant, present even when Hoffmann finds herself in “God’s shadow,” struggling through cancer, the death of her son, the pandemic, and severe anxiety and depression.But though God is always there, Hoffman’s relationship with God is rich and varied, sometimes playful, sometimes tender, sometimes challenging her to “plant seeds of uncertainty and unknowing,” sometimes confronting her with what she calls the “schmutz” of old wounds, limiting patterns, behavior she regrets, and often inspiring the question she asks God again and again: “What now, my Beloved?”

Hoffman’s relationship is so palpable and dynamic that what we call “faith” seems irrelevant to it. God, for Hoffmann, is not something that requires belief but a fact, the only constant of existence. Rather than God, Hoffmann’s faith is directed toward humanity. After many years as a psychotherapist, analyst, and spiritual direction, she never wavers in her belief that no matter how lost we feel in the darkness of daily life or our own past traumas, we can awaken to the divinity that is always with us.

This sense of God’s presence, the sense that God is present not only despite but in our struggles, is both the heart of the book and the heart of Hoffman’s therapeutic practice. In her spiritual direction, Hoffman guides her clients to listen for the divine presence, to hear what God is saying not despite but through the struggles that can make God feel impossibly far away. No matter where you open it, this guidance is everywhere in the book, reminding us that no matter how lost or alone we may feel in God’s shadow, God is always there, whispering and singing and sometimes shouting, waiting for us to hear.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jinks is a Jungian psychotherapist and Spiritual Director. Her book is written they way she speaks and since she is my Spiritual Director, it's like she is talking directly to me. It traverses topics including: Jewish Mysticism, Buddhist thought, dark night of the soul and finding the "gold" in our darkest parts. Beautifully written and wonderful for those of any religious background, or none, to work on deepen themselves and being open to the greater unknown.