Book Review: Psalms from my Seventies and other stuff, by Janet Dawson

“It is OK to be honest about what we really think and feel. Especially, to be honest with ourselves, and with God.”

The Book of Psalms in the First Testament is about faith and hope; it is also about pain, lament, praise, wonder and deep questions about God’s faithfulness and the purpose of our lives.

The same themes are reflected in Janet Dawson’s series of psalms, written over many years, helping us to be honest in our journey with the mystery we call God; and addressed to her fellow believers, fringe believers, non-believers – in fact, all who struggle with the challenges of faith in our time.

Above all, they are the writings of someone for whom the journey of faith combines challenge and comfort, exploring new ways of interpreting our traditions and fresh ideas of how to keep the tradition alive.

Janet’s psalms are vulnerable and empathetic, inviting tears and smiles amidst the uncertainty of an honest, open-hearted faith.
Rev Dr Jason John

Janet’s book is available at $18.95 plus postage from here: https://coventrypress.com.au/Psalms%20from%20my%20Seventies

Janet Dawson is a retired Minister of the Uniting Church in Australia. Born in England and educated in New Zealand, she travelled extensively before settling in Australia in 1983 with her husband George.  They have two daughters and five grandchildren.  Janet was ordained in 1991.  She ministered in several congregations in NSW and has served in various other ministries within the NSW Synod and the General Assembly of the Uniting Church.

Email: janet.dawson08@gmail.com

REVIEWS:

From Rev Dr Jason John: Author, Poet, Finalist Australian Poetry Slam 2019.  Forest Chaplain and Bellingen Landcare Coordinator

Janet invites us into her frank and wide-ranging conversations with God. If the church is a ship, these conversations are written from the life raft, by someone who was once a captain. From the grief of ageing and the fragility of happiness, to the delight of wine and blue tongue lizard’s feet, and the reminder that we don’t have to wait until New Year’s to make new beginnings. Janet’s psalms are vulnerable and empathetic, inviting tears and smiles amidst the uncertainty of an honest, open-hearted faith.

From Rev Dr John Squires: Editor, With Love to the World, former Principal, Perth Theological Hall, former Presbytery Minister and Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies

Janet Dawson lives as she writes. In this book, she exemplifies a deep spirituality in the ordinariness of life, with prayers about the closed blinds … sharing communion with a lizard … shedding tears in the fragility of life … reflecting on how hard it is to let go, especially to let go a life partner who is changing before her eyes. There is no pretence, no puffed-up terminology, no pious hope in these prayers; they are every day, grounded in the ordinary—and thus, so profound.

Janet especially grapples with her uncomfortableness—her sense of alienation—in the regular weekly routines of worship. Can there be a theology that offers something better than unthinking platitudes and unacceptable dogmas? Janet seeks to offer precisely this in her prayers, celebrating the music that has been “a joy and treasure all my life”, remembering “those who can’t rejoice”, questioning “what did Jesus think he was doing?”, imagining people as “beautiful round objects with so many exciting possibilities”, offering images of God as “Quantum God, Eternal Becoming, Infinite Possibility, Ultimate Consciousness”, and rejoicing as she leaves behind “the boat” of the church and immerses herself in “the Ocean” of the divine. And to close, a short, punchy drama about God in the ordinariness of life. Thank you, Janet.

From Rev Elizabeth Raine, retired Uniting Church Minister. Former Minister to Tuggeranong Uniting Church and Presbytery Minister, Mid North Coast Presbytery, NSW.

This broad-ranging collection of everyday psalms draws the reader/pray-er into many  life situations that may initially seem trivial, but can cause confusion, anger or despair in those that experience them. The grief associated with aging and dementia, the ephemeral nature of human happiness and the fragility and vulnerability of our natural world as we callously damage it along with the destructive force of racism are all identified and lifted up in prayer by Janet to the God of understanding presence. I loved Janet’s honesty and vulnerability as she prays her faith and life.