From Within the Heart of God

About the Book

The Jesus who lives in the pages of From Within the Heart of God is a radical, perhaps even shocking Jesus, revealed through words that he himself might have written in this imaginal journal. This book, this journal, was inspired by the stories of Jesus in the New Testament: stories that portrayed a man who was steeped in integrity and courage. A man who relentlessly sought the truth and challenged hypocrisy. A man who would not give into temptation. A man whose every experience was filtered through his ultimate passion--the continuous and growing presence of God into this world.

Those who read From Within the Heart of God will come to know Jesus in an entirely new way. They will enter his emotional and physical reality and discover how it might have felt to walk in Jesus’ sandals. They will meet a man who is mentally healthy, robust, and mature. A man in whom and through whom God chose to dwell. A man who knew God directly and intimately. A man who possessed extraordinary powers and spoke of God, not in religious terms, but as synonymous with the deepest structures of reality.

It is clear, throughout this book that Jesus’ passion and compassion for God were driven, not by God’s perfection, but rather by God’s vulnerability, God’s woundedness and struggle. From Within the Heart of God invites the reader to share this passion and compassion for God, and extend them to Jesus, as well. To revision God as ever-present, ever-intimate, ever-becoming. And Jesus as a man who was both fully human and fully God.

Michael Dwinell, in his book From Within the Heart of God, invites the reader to move right into and through the agony and the ecstasy of what it means to surrender oneself to God. He uses powerful and riveting images that ask the reader to feel, to imagine and to explore what it might have been like for Jesus. In doing so, he helps the reader find words and images for the very thing we so often cannot find words for - an experience of God. What happens, of course, is that anyone who reads this book is asked to plumb the depths of one's own heart. Michael's images are unique, poignant and daring.

Ellie Mercer, Scarborough, Maine

A bold and courageous book that reads like a love poem to God. The writing is terse, intimate, honest and passionate. Dwinell has chosen pivotal events in the life of Jesus. He imagines Jesus describing His conflicts, desires, pains, and joys as He comes to understand the meaning of each event on the deepest level. Jesus is described as fully human and fully divine whose relationship with God is powerfully all-consuming. Through the words of Jesus, we come to know God as vulnerable, wounded and in need of our love. Dwinell writes, "These meditations come from the psychic life of Christ within me." He invites each of us to use his writings as an inspiration to spark our own imagination, not only to understand Jesus but also to deepen and intensify our relationship with God. This is a brilliant book that will speak to those who know God as well as to those who are honestly searching.

A Reader from Yarmouth, Maine

Just before Holy Week, reading Michael Dwinell's imaginative journal of Jesus, FROM WITHIN THE HEART OF GOD swept away the roadblocks in my mind It gave me a new perspective on Jesus - on what he might have been thinking, and feeling, at 15 points during his life. Jesus' relationships with his mother, father, cousin John, and yes, Mary Magdalene are all explored. This book started me journalizing on what I was thinking and feeling. It enriched my devotions and inspired my writing.

FROM WITHIN THE HEART OF GOD is a slim volume of poetry and prose, divided into chapters of 2 to 8 pages each, so it is also good for meditating upon.

A Revie