The Fingerprints of God: Tracking the Divine Suspect Through a History of Images

How do we understand God? The Trinity? The Bible? The basic tenets of the Christian faith? Much of the time we use images to think about them―and much of the time, unfortunately, they're the wrong images. In The Fingerprints of God best-selling author Robert Farrar Capon takes readers on a fascinating sleuthing project, using his own uniquely developed history of images to find evidence of the Divine Suspect in our midst.

Capon first explores various images that prompt proper talk about God and the nature of Scripture. The Bible, he says, is the myster story of God's hidden presence as the Divine Suspect behind all of history. Capon discusses the misuse of Scripture due to literalist interpretation, looks at the ways Christ has suffered at the hands of human image-makers, and proposes a novel understanding of salvation history that clarifies the proper roles of Scripture, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus.

In the second part of the book Capon turns his magnifying glass on major thinkers from church history―Irenaeus, Athanasius, Anselm, Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, Julian of Norwich, and others―pointing out both the strong and the weak images they have produced. Throughout the centuries, Capon sees God as the “Divine Bowler” trying to knock down the faulty “pins” of ideas that have been set up in the lanes of religious history, while also disclosing himself in profound and powerful ways.

Novel, wise, and written in the entertaining style for which Robert Farrar Capon is well known, The Fingerprints of God offers an engaging presentation of faith and the panoply of images that either strenthen or erode it.

Robert Farrar Capon (1925–2013) was an Episcopal priest and prolific author. Over the course of his career, he held a variety of roles, including parish priest at Christ Church in Port Jefferson, dean of the George Mercer Jr. Memorial School of Theology, assistant to the rector at St. Luke’s Church in East Hampton, and canon theologian to the Episcopal Bishop of Long Island. His many books included The Supper of the Lamb, The Fingerprints of God, and The Foolishness of Preaching.