Robertson, Anne 1959-

PERSONAL:

Born May 11, 1959. Education: Bucknell University, B.A., 1980; attended Wheaton College, 1990-92; Candler School of Theology, Emory University, M.Div., 1994.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Massachusetts Bible Society, 14 Beacon St., Ste. 510, Boston, MA, 02108. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Ordained United Methodist Church deacon, 1995, ordained elder, 1997. John Carter Brown Library, Providence, RI, reference assistant, 1980-84; Lomond Publications, Mt. Airy, MD, marketing director, 1985-87; Florida Bookstore, Gainesville, FL, trade book manager, 1988-91; First United Methodist Church, Cross City, FL, pastor, 1994-97; Trinity United Methodist Church, minister, Gainesville, FL, 1997-99; St. John's United Methodist Church, Dover, NH, senior minister, 1999-2005; United Methodist Church of Westford, Westford, MA, pastor, 2005-2007; Massachusetts Bible Society, Boston, executive director, 2007—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Harry Denman Award for Evangelism, Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church, 1995; Wilbur C. Ziegler Award for Excellence in Preaching, New England Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, 2000; accepted into Pastor-Theologian Program, Center of Theological Inquiry, 2001.

WRITINGS:

Blowing the Lid off the God-Box: Opening Up to a Limitless Faith, Morehouse Publishing (Harrisburg, PA), 2005.

God's Top Ten: Blowing the Lid off the Commandments, Morehouse Publishing (Harrisburg, PA), 2006.

Contributor to Unfinished Business: Sermons by Ziegler Award Preachers, Boston Wesleyan Press, 2001. Contributor to periodicals, including Interpretation, Zion's Herald, and Christian Herald.

SIDELIGHTS:

Anne Robertson, a United Methodist minister, is the author of Blowing the Lid off the God-Box: Opening Up to a Limitless Faith. "A God-Box is a metaphor for the ways that we experience and connect with God," Robertson told an interviewer on ExploreFaith.org. "So, for instance, if I always feel close to God when I hear Gospel music or Mozart, those are things that go in my God-Box." Robertson noted, however, that each person's God-box is limited by that individual's beliefs, perceptions, and agendas. "We can understand some of God, but not all," Robertson commented. "The problem is not the box, but the lid … closing off our experience of and beliefs about God and thinking we have all the answers. This is a book about taking off the lid, regaining humility and recognizing that God is big."

Blowing the Lid off the God-Box garnered strong reviews. Robertson "calls readers to spiritual balance as they learn to integrate others' experiences of God, rather than insisting on their own," observed an ExploreFaith.org contributor. "Robertson doesn't argue against taking stands or holding opinions," Scott Campbell similarly noted in CircuitRider Reviews. "She just wants us to be very clear that whatever we choose to place in our God box is provisional at best. We had best be humble about what we assert and be receptive to the truths of others, or we will inevitably get it wrong."

In God's Top Ten: Blowing the Lid off the Commandments, Robertson explores contemporary moral issues, including abortion, gun control, capital punishment, creationism, and stem cell research, through the lens of the Ten Commandments. "God's Top Ten is a book that should be cherished and studied in small groups: it offers wise Christian counsel and cogent material on the most pressing ethical issues of the day," remarked Spirituality & Practice reviewers Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

ONLINE

Anne Robertson Web site,http://www.annerobertson.com (July 7, 2007).

CircuitRider Reviews,http://www.umph.org/resources/publications/ (July 7, 2007), Scott Campbell, review of Blowing the Lid off the God-Box: Opening Up to a Limitless Faith.

ExploreFaith.org,http://www.explorefaith.org/ (July 7, 2007), review of Blowing the Lid off the God-Box; (July 7, 2007), "Interview with Anne Robertson."

Spirituality & Practice,http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/ (July 7, 2007), Frederic Brussat and Mary Ann Brussat, review of Blowing the Lid off the God-Box and God's Top Ten: Blowing the Lid off the Commandments.