David Group: What inspired you to write this novel?

Elissa Elliott: It was an email from my agent, who asked, on a whim, “What about Eve?”  Of course, my immediate response was, “You mean the Eve?  Hasn’t she been done already?”  But no, she hadn’t been written the way I wanted to write her, which was as a mother, wife, and woman with the same human emotions we experience today.  I wanted to tell the story (partially) in her voice, since Bible and Torah stories are notorious for leaving women in the shadows.

DG: That was one of the interesting aspects of the story I found as I read – here you are, a 21^st century wife and mother – attempting to let us in on an entire realm of thought, feelings and challenges of what Eve must have been confronted with. How difficult was it to place yourself so far back in time and yet connect with present-day readers?

EE: Well, the research, of course, allowed me my framework (of how things were back then).  But when it came to the emotional makeup of Eve and her daughters, I went no further than my sisters, my girlfriends, my mother, and me.  Human emotions are exactly that—human—so I drove close to the bone, as it were, while writing.

To read the rest – where we go into comparative creation stories, and much more – click here!

Certainly it is true that the gifts of God are many, and that God knows everything – ranging from our needs to the desires of our hearts – before we even utter a thought regarding them. And I believe it is true that God blesses us with a constant stream of gifts so numerous that many of them are taken for granted: our senses of sight and sound, taste and touch, sunrises and sunsets, friends and family. The list is infinite, really.

Even so, in the midst of all of this great gifting, we would benefit from pausing to give ourselves a heart-check:

Do we sometimes mistake the gifts of God for a relationship with God?

In other words, how much of our thought-world regarding God is based upon some sort of give-and-take relationship (God gives, we take)?

Relationships, even the most common, are rigorously complex. How much more a relationship with a Source infinite in being-ness… not only that, but one who does not audibly respond to the persistent dialogue and chatter of our minds?

We have our sacred texts. We have our intuitions. We have spiritual friendships and perhaps fellowships. We have an inner consciousness or spirit upon which we draw for understanding of how God might be guiding us. But ultimately what we really have is a well-intentioned faith that somehow continues to draw us nearer to the heart of what we perceive as “G-D.”

Maybe this is why people of faith so often frame their relationship with God based upon how they perceive they are being blessed by abundance or lack, or by what doors are being opened versus closed and why all that might be. Maybe it’s just easier to frame things this way because these seem to be a more concrete way of keeping score with whether we are walking with God or not – maybe they are the closest to a tangible response we can discern or discover?

But is this way of relation with God really relational? Are there other ways to have relationship that might take us more deeply into the way of this mysterious G-D we seek?

For instance, when I think of a relationship with God, I think of how I understand God’s unfolding or Presence within the universe. If God is love as my sacred text (the Bible) declares, then what does love do and what does love look like in action? This is an important question because when I seek to answer it by the way I live my life, in a very real and concrete way I am joining with and entering more deeply into my relationship with God: Sort of a ‘like father, like son’ kind of relationship.

By framing relationship with God in a way that calls me to enable God to extend into the world through me, I am opening myself up to be more relationally involved with God as God’s love becomes my love – and the same with God’s empathy, compassion, peacemaking, forbearance, embrace, etc.

And so as each day comes to a close I can sit back and reflect upon the ways and depth of my relationship with God via my participation in God’s activity and presence. The gifts of God are still there, but they are secondary to the ultimate and deeply intertwined call to be God to a world so much in need of God’s presence, of God’s touch.

On the other hand, if you’re up for a ‘sacred cow barbecue’ that challenges our notions of the Sacred in service of greater insight, by all means watch this video by Cheryl Weaver!

She raises some important questions in this hilarious monologue/song –  ”How do we hear God?” and, “Shouldn’t that give us ’cause for pause’?

And yet, mimetics as I’ve encountered them leaves me wanting more. I want to see the conversation expand from philosophy, lit-crit and theology into other social sciences – even the so-called ‘hard’ sciences, like brain sciences. And I want to see some examples of positive mimesis, darn it! Surely we’re capable of imitating more than just the ‘bad.’

I think I may have discovered the bridge to ‘something more’ that I’m looking for – Jeremy Rifkin distilling his latest ground-breaking work, The Empathic Civilization. I won’t say much more except to watch this video! It’s over ten minutes long; get over it.  It’s ten minutes well-spent. You will be mesmerized! And just maybe, your entire outlook on life and what motivates people will be transformed.

This is what guides my passions, in both Presence and The David Group International – to see a new earth and a new humanity being birthed, a people with a deeper trust in a more expansive God, where common humanity creates the deepest of ties. Viva la empathetic mimesis!

Though July 4^th has come and gone, my friend Shane Claiborne wrote an excellent piece on Huffington Post this past week that is certainly worth a read at any time of the year. I hope you’ll read it as it is full of thought provoking ideas for working toward the greater good of ‘all.’

After you check it out, feel free to post any thoughts or comments here.

Blessings!