Using poetry, story and philosophy to bring theology alive, this book shows that theology cannot be reduced to conventional forms, but is rather like the enigmatic illustrations of M.C. Echer, many of whose pictures the book reproduces. The book draws on the writings of Rainer Maria Rilke, Gabriel Garcia Marques, Emily Dickinson, Albert Camus, Sigmund Freud and the "Tao Te Ching", among other works, to show how good theology is best compared to the image of wild birds flapping their wings and refusing to be caged. This material was originally delivered at the 1990 Edward Cadbury Lectures in the University of Birmingham.
