Synopses & Reviews
Faith is the souls true country, and prayer is its native language.
With these words, author and theologian Donald Spoto begins his wide-ranging exploration of the most intimate form of communication and the deepest level of spiritualityprayer. With revolutionary insight, Spoto applies his scholarship in a book that addresses complex spiritual matters seriously but engagingly.
In Silence investigates the various forms and types of prayer: prayer as dialogue, as petition, as forgiveness, as suffering, as abandonment, as serenity, as love, as transformation, and as silence. It also explores the role of prayer in the worlds great religions, drawing on those who have written compellingly about it: the compiler of the Book of Psalms, Augustine, Teresa of Ávila, John of the Cross, Maimonides, Rumi, John Chapman, and dozens of others.
Anyone attempting to live on a deeper level will welcome this inspiring book from one of the most popular and original thinkers in contemporary religion.
About the Author
Donald Spoto, who earned his Ph.D. in theology at Fordham University, is the author of nineteen books, including The Hidden Jesus: A New Life and Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi.
Table of Contents
Contents Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xiii
chapter one: Of Time and Memory
Some Historic Aspects of the Interior Life 1
chapter two: Prayer as Dialogue (I)
The Experience of Israel 15
chapter three: Prayer as Dialogue (II)
The Experience of Christianity and Islam 29
chapter four: Prayer as Dialogue (III)
The Living God Speaks 38
chapter five: Prayer as Petition 51
chapter six: Prayer as Forgiveness 80
chapter seven: Prayer as Suffering 94
chapter eight: Prayer as Abandonment 116
chapter nine: Prayer as Serenity 135
chapter ten: Prayer as Loving 145
chapter eleven: Prayer as Transformation 172
chapter twelve: Prayer as Silence 189
Notes 203
Bibliography 221
Index 231