Silence A Christian History
- New York Viking 2013
- 337p
includes index and biblioraphy
Part one The bible 1. Silence in christian prehistory: The tanakh ..........11 Israel and the celebration of noise .......11 A god who speak ........16 Be still before the lord ......19 The suffering servant .....22 Silence, plato and the creator-god ........24 2 The earlist christian silences: The new testament ......30 Jesus: ending silence .......30 Jesus: Embracing silence .......33 The gospels interpret jesus ......37 Paul`s noisy christians .....41 About half an hour ........47 Part Two The triumph of monastic silence 3 Forming and breaking a church: 100-451 C E ......53 Ignatius, bishops and the great disappointment .......53 Gnostics and silence ........56 Catholic cristianity, silence and the philosophers .....61 Martyrs and confessors ......64 The first ascetics and monks .....69 Desert fathers .....74 That yonder .......78 Evagrius: Meditation and contemplation ......80 4. The monastic Age in east and west: 451-1100 ........84 Silence beyond chalcedon .....84 Dionysius versus augustine .......86 Monks in the latin west: The rule of st benedict .......92 Dionysius and cluny .....95 New orders for the western church .......98 Part three Silence through three reformations 5. From iconoclasm to erasmus: 700-1500 .......105 Icons: Contemplation for all ........105 The latin west: A different path ......108 Orthodoxy and hesychasm .....110 Gregorian reform in the west .......114 Monks and mystics ........119 The devotio moderna and erasmus ......124 6. The protestant reformation: 1500-1700 .......127 Justifying protestant noise ......127 Music and church buildings .....131 Protestants, inner silence and tolerance ..........136 Radical protestants: Word and spirit ......140 Stuart England and the quakers ......144 Tridentine catholicism: Defending traditions ......150 Tridentine mystics and their trials ........155 Part four Reaching behind noise in christian history 7 Silence for survival .........163 Nicodemism: Name and thing ......163 Iberian jews: conversos .....166 Nicodemites in reformation and counter-reformation ......167 England: A variety of nicodemites .......174 Reformation radicals: Word and silence ......178 Gay anglo-catholics: Let he who ears to hear .......184 8. Things not Remembered .....191 Building identity through forgetfulness ......191 Silence, sex and gender .....196 Shame: A dark theme ......202 Concealing clerical child abuse .....203 Western christianity and the holocaust ......207 Christians, the bible and slavery ......212 9. Silence in present and future christianities .......217 Retrospect: Wild-tracks ....217 Varieties of modern christian silence ......222 Whistle-blowing .......225 Ecumenism in silence .......228 Music and silence ......231 Patterns in scripture and sin ......234