I received this as part of the Librarything Early Bird reviewer programme. I regret to say that it is very muddled and poorly written. I was completely unconvinced by its central premise that the numbers of letters in words found in the Bible has a deep meaning and significance. ( )

Summary: Explores the spiritual significance embedded into the letters, sounds, and structure of our language.

When I was young, the host of a local children’s program took the initials of a child having a birthday that day and turned it into an amusing drawing. I felt there was something of that sort going on with this book, but I could not say that I was amused with the letter play in this book and the supposed spiritual truths the author found in the vowels and consonants and words of our language.

The book is patterned on one by Carlo Rovelli titled Seven Brief Lessons on Physics. The book consists of seven short readings and a postscript. The author believes our language is encoded with spiritual truth for those whose eyes are opened, and through these “lessons,” the author proposes to offer the insights that will open our eyes.

The first chapter is on the alphabet, the vowels and consonants, how they are formed, phonetic pairs of consonants (important to the ideas he develops) and their connection to breath, water, and flesh. A clue to what he would be doing comes early, when through a series of transpositions he connects breath, water, and flesh to “father,” the one who speaks all into existence. Subsequent chapters reflect on the Alpha and Omega, the “I” that is both “I am” and the sinful human ego that needs to go from I to O, the One who is Three, Love, Believe, and Translate.

Here’s a brief example from the chapter on the Trinity of the kind of language play one encounters throughout the book:

“As when we place three Os together, we get G O D, so when we place three Is together we get I l l. We become ill when we are apart from God, when we turn our back on him” (p.53).

All of this seems clever letter and word play in service of a book on spirituality. The method seems to me arbitrary, and one that could be used to say almost anything. Also, much of the book focuses on the English alphabet and words while treating with spiritual concepts that are transcultural.

I assume the sincerity of the writer, and would agree with many of the spiritual insights as a fellow Christian. But the method would have us looking for phonetic clues to reveal spiritual meaning rather than the plain meanings of the words of the scriptures and the creeds, which feels more of “Gnostic” or hidden knowledge than Christian.

The book also felt a bit of a “bait and switch,” at least it’s title, modeled as it is on Rovelli’s book which really is on physics. These really are not, except perhaps for the first, lessons on language but spiritual reflections drawing upon the author’s wordplay.

For those who truly value language and its power to unveil spiritual reality, I would commend the works of Marilyn McEntyre (https://www.marilynmcentyre.com/books). As for this, I would take a pass. ( )

This book is a hot mess of incomprehensible etymologies, phonetic whimsy, and spiritual hooey. Dunne tries to show that the Christian God inhabits the structure of words and language through a strange mix of jumbling letters, shifting vowels, and alphabetic axioms that make no sense. The entire argument for the text that English is spelled the way it is now and not how it was at any point in the past. Irritatingly Anglo-centric and just plain baffling at times, this slim book is barely clever and rarely correct. Do not read. ( )

Little book with large font so a quick read. A unique work about intriguing word play to support different interpretations of our language and our spiritually, well at least that's what I take away from it. The author's own religious identity and profession surprise me as his theories seem to me, a layperson, to not mesh with what I think is a traditional viewpoint. I think it's great to put out bold and new ideas and I enjoyed this book. I have already recommended it to two people, who are open-minded as I think one has to be to consider what is proposed in this text.

Odd, though interesting little book. Not what I expected: seven brief lessons on either linguistics or etymology, but it turned out to be the author's theories on how language and spirituality [read Christianity] are connected through the manipulation of language. Theory of playing with language to suit the author's purpose of "proving" a thesis was fascinating but sometimes far-fetched. I did come away with some points that I will think about for a long time. I enjoyed more the author's discussions of certain Bible excerpts and of Orthodox Christian doctrine and interpretation. The author is, after all, a Bulgarian Orthodox deacon. ( )