Summary

Part I, called "Baptism", begins with Chapter One, “Water”. The author begins this chapter with references to several Biblical stories of water, for example how God created the world from water and how God cleansed it with great floods. She describes how ancient cultures depended deeply and profoundly on water, and integrated it into their spiritual practices, going on to suggest that while “it is naïve” (4) to think of all such stories as being literally true, it is possible for them to be metaphorically and spiritually true. After describing the many positive and negative ways water influences human life, she describes how “water carried another baby from a woman’s body into an expectant world” (5). She narrates experiences from that baby’s life, including how he was baptized by “a wild-eyed wilderness preacher” (5), an experience that brought the spirit of God to...