Review: Psalms from My Seventies and Other Stuff, Coventry Press
Janet Dawson’s collection of psalms is a profound and deeply personal exploration of faith, loss, and hope. With vulnerability and empathy, her words invite both tears and smiles, offering solace in the uncertainty of an open-hearted spirituality.
Dawson’s prayers go beyond conventional theology, challenging unthinking platitudes and rigid dogmas. Instead, she seeks a faith that is expansive and transformative—one that celebrates music as a lifelong treasure and embraces the divine not within the confines of institutional religion but in the vast, limitless “Ocean” of the sacred.
Her psalms do not shy away from the complexities of human experience. With raw honesty, she lifts up prayers for those facing the grief of aging and dementia, the fleeting nature of happiness, and the fragile beauty of the natural world—so often disregarded and damaged. She also confronts the destructive force of racism, bringing these deep concerns before a God of understanding and presence.
Echoing the themes of the biblical Psalms—lament, praise, wonder, and questioning—Dawson’s work is for all who wrestle with faith. Whether believer, seeker, or skeptic, her words offer a space for honesty and reflection, reminding us that faith is both a challenge and a comfort, a journey of continual reinterpretation and renewal.
Dawson’s lifelong commitment to ministry and her deep engagement with the traditions of the Uniting Church shine through in this collection. Her psalms serve as an invitation: to embrace faith with both courage and curiosity, to find meaning beyond dogma, and to seek the divine in both the depths of grief and the heights of joy.
Praise for the book:
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.
The book is available from Coventry Press here and is $18.95 plus postage and handling.
