Silence - BookWyrm

337 pages

English language

Published Dec. 18, 2013

ISBN:: 978-0-670-02556-5
OCLC Number:: 834432824

(2 reviews)

In this essential work of religious history, the New York Times bestselling author of Christianity explores the vital role of silence in the Christian story.

How should one speak to God? Are our prayers more likely to be heard if we offer them quietly at home or loudly in church? How can we really know if God is listening? From the earliest days, Christians have struggled with these questions. Their varied answers have defined the boundaries of Christian faith and established the language of our most intimate appeals for guidance or forgiveness.

MacCulloch shows how Jesus chose to emphasize silence as an essential part of his message and how silence shaped the great medieval monastic communities of Europe. He also examines the darker forms of religious silence, from the church’s embrace of slavery and its muted reaction to the Holocaust to the cover-up by Catholic authorities of devastating sexual scandals. …

In this essential work of religious history, the New York Times bestselling author of Christianity explores the vital role of silence in the Christian story.

How should one speak to God? Are our prayers more likely to be heard if we offer them quietly at home or loudly in church? How can we really know if God is listening? From the earliest days, Christians have struggled with these questions. Their varied answers have defined the boundaries of Christian faith and established the language of our most intimate appeals for guidance or forgiveness.

MacCulloch shows how Jesus chose to emphasize silence as an essential part of his message and how silence shaped the great medieval monastic communities of Europe. He also examines the darker forms of religious silence, from the church’s embrace of slavery and its muted reaction to the Holocaust to the cover-up by Catholic authorities of devastating sexual scandals.

A groundbreaking work that will change our understanding of the most fundamental wish to be heard by God, Silence gives voice to the greatest mysteries of faith.

3 editions

Sean Bala reviewed Silence by Diarmaid MacCulloch

Review of 'Silence' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Originally given as the Gifford Lectures, Dairmaid MacCulloch's "Silence: A Christian History" uses the idea of silence in a variety of forms to understand the unfolding of Christian history and theology. It is not only looking at actual silence but also the silences in the historical record - what is not spoken about or remembered. The book focuses more on Western Christianity but does touch upon other parts of the Christian world. Part 1 deals with silence within the Bible. Parts 2 and 3 look historically from about 400 CE to the end of the Reformation. Part 4 is the most interesting because the author creatively looks silences for survival (i.e., hidden converts in Spain, gay Anglicans, pietist sects, etc...) and silences in the historical record on women and child abuse. It is a book that could only have been written by a scholar completely and totally in command of …

Originally given as the Gifford Lectures, Dairmaid MacCulloch's "Silence: A Christian History" uses the idea of silence in a variety of forms to understand the unfolding of Christian history and theology. It is not only looking at actual silence but also the silences in the historical record - what is not spoken about or remembered. The book focuses more on Western Christianity but does touch upon other parts of the Christian world. Part 1 deals with silence within the Bible. Parts 2 and 3 look historically from about 400 CE to the end of the Reformation. Part 4 is the most interesting because the author creatively looks silences for survival (i.e., hidden converts in Spain, gay Anglicans, pietist sects, etc...) and silences in the historical record on women and child abuse. It is a book that could only have been written by a scholar completely and totally in command of his subject. May benefit from having some familiarity with general Christian history.

Simon

rated it

Sept. 3, 2014

Subjects

Christianity
Silence
History