Marjory Zoet Bankson has been a potter for 30 years. She is also president of Faith at Work. In This is My Body: Creativity, Clay and Change she notes, "Clay helped me to discover my body and my creativity because clay is direct, sensual and dimensional — as we are." In this unusual book, Bankson offers spiritual insights she has gleaned from her craft of pottery and from the study of 14 women in the Old and New Testaments.
The author establishes the links between creativity, clay, and change with chapters on grounding, kneading, centering, shaping, finishing, glazing, and firing. Bankson sees imagination as the key to soul-making. Her meditations on the spiritual journeys of Eve and Mary, Miriam and Elizabeth, Naomi and Lydia along with other women in the scriptures are attuned to the struggles these individuals encounter as they listen to their inner voices and express their feelings. Bankson thanks them for helping her "reclaim my feminine sense of self."
This is My Body reveals how the craft of pottery and the lives of other women can serve as spiritual teachers.