David Brooks wrote a beautiful essay called “Poetry for Everyday Life” about metaphor in language.  He discussed the different kinds of metaphor that we use when talking about different  things — food metaphors for ideas, health metaphors for relationships, war metaphors for arguments, liquid metaphors for money.

As I was reading, I wondered if he would talk about metaphor in religion, which  he did, quite beautifully.  He began: “Metaphors are things we pass down from generation to generation, which transmit a culture’s distinct way of seeing and being in the world.”

He went on to talks about metaphor in Judaism.  Instead of telling you all about it, here’s a link.  It’s well worth your time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/opinion/12brooks.html?_r=1&hp

And here’s a link to his blog, if you’re interested: http://brooks.blogs.nytimes.com/