Bede Griffiths' Images of God

This book reveals how the images Bede Griffiths OSB Cam used for God are richly embedded with concepts ancient and new, making them especially relevant for our current times. It prompts insight into the great deposit of wisdom and scholarship that was his source, and will benefit those interested in religious imagery, gender equality, monastic life, interfaith dialogue, evolution of consciousness, practical theology and spirituality, and integral thought.

Led by Christ, “the Golden String,” Griffiths made the sea-change from Great Britain to India, promoting “the marriage of East and West,” the essential value of the feminine, contemplative prayer, interreligious dialogue, and integral life. His initiation to Christian sannyasa and faith in the evolutionary process reflect his openness to change and to grow, and highlight this great sage’s masterful use of images grounded in his motto, to “always go beyond.”


Dr Beatrice Green, Dip Teach, BA, Grad Dip RE, MA, PhD, is affiliated with the Australian Catholic University. Her publications include Weaving Theology in Oceania: Culture, Context and Practice (2020); “Wisdom under Fire: Human Vulnerability as the Besieged Heart of the Icon of God” in Priest, Poet and Theologian: Essays in Honour of Anthony Kelly CSsR (2013); “‘I bring a sword’: ‘My peace I give’: experience the binding factor” in Dreaming a New Earth: Raimon Panikkar and Indigenous Spiritualities (2012); and “Bridging Difference” in Catalyst: Pastoral and Socio-Cultural Journal for Melanesia (2012). She is an Honorary Member of the Association of Practical Theology in Oceania and a member of the Australian Catholic Theological Association.

“Beatrice Green’s work on Bede Griffiths is well-rounded and well-founded. The result is the disclosure of an intercultural, interreligious, discerning, prophetic figure who foresaw the deleterious repetition of the missteps of the enlightenment but had the courage to lead his companions to face ferocious oppositions at home and abroad. Green’s matter-of-fact style avoids hagiography but discloses a personality that inspires and attracts in our confused and confusing age. Her research follows Griffiths’ gradual growth in his interreligious and intercultural journeys and discovers how these enabled him to seek the Christic Reality gradually in every being and every religion.”
Emeritus Professor Francis D'Sa, SJ
Director, Institute for the Study of Religion, Pune, India

“A delightfully useful book for introducing Bede Griffiths’ spiritual journey, his images of God, and his theological method that focuses on the experience of God. For women and feminists, the chapter “Divine Feminine” is central as Beatrice Green discloses Griffiths’ conviction that the feminine is vital for our journey towards the next level of consciousness. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to integrate the wisdom of the West and the East, to engage in dialogue with other religions, especially with the spiritual traditions of Hinduism as perceived and lived by Griffiths, and for anyone who looks for a spirituality that integrates mysticism and commitment to social justice and peace.”
Dr Rekha M Chennattu, RA
Professor of Biblical Studies, Superior General of the Religious of the Assumption, Paris

Buy This Book

ISBN: 1-5275-8710-X

ISBN13: 978-1-5275-8710-6

Release Date: 24th August 2022

Pages: 350

Price: £69.99

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ISBN: 1-5275-1735-7

ISBN13: 978-1-5275-1735-6

Release Date: 3rd June 2023

Pages: 350

Price: £34.99

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