The Best Spiritual Writing 2002 - Softcover

Zaleski, Philip

3.57

14 ratings by Goodreads

9780060506032: The Best Spiritual Writing 2002

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060506032 ISBN 13: 9780060506032

Publisher: HarperOne, 2002

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Hailed as "a significant addition to the spiritual writing of our time", (Publishers Weekly), this inspiring series brings together profound and lyrical writing about art, intimacy, prayer, love, meditation, and faith from some of the world's most distinguished writers. This provocative volume includes: Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison's elegy of love for The Dead of September 11; Bill McKibben's "The Muslim Gandhi," the moving story of the Afghan liberator Abdul Ghaffar Khan, one of the greatest nonviolent leaders of the twentieth century; "Prayer," a poem by the Nobel Prize-winner Czeslaw Milosz; Barry Lopez on the role of the modern naturalist as an emissary for nature; from The New Yorker, Philip Levine's poem "Gospel"; and Harvey Cox on a Christian appreciation of the Torah.

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Review:

With The Best Spiritual Writing 2002, Parbola magazine editor Philip Zaleski continues to deliver an annual anthology worthy of the utmost praise. In his preface to this edition, Zaleski explains his criteria for inclusion in the series: First, the writing must come from careful cultivation and lived experience. Second, it should "bring forth truth, beauty, and goodness." Zaleski has also assembled numerous writings that accomplish yet another lofty feat. Regardless of the reader's spiritual orientation, this collection expands our vision of the divine. Wallis Wilde-Menozzi reminds us that God's voice can be heard in a cello solo. In his poem "Gospel," Philip Levine convinces us that spiritual comfort can be found in the west wind "soughing" through pines. We discover that God's workers can take the form of a football coach (in Gary Smith's "Higher Education"), or even a fisherman's wife (in Susan Pollack's stunning essay, "The Wives of Gloucester").

Not surprisingly, this year's selections also speak to the events of September 11. In "Leap," Brian Doyle writes of two people joining hands as they jumped from one of the burning towers. "Their hands reaching and joining are the most powerful prayer I can imagine, the most eloquent, the most graceful. It is everything we are capable of against horror and loss and death." And when Toni Morrison speaks directly to "The Dead of September 11" we realize that even the most eloquent among us sometimes feels that words are not enough. (Other contributors include Pattiann Rogers, Bill McKibben, Seamus Heaney, Barry Lopez, and Natalie Goldberg.) --Gail Hudson

About the Author:

Philip Zaleski is senior editor of Parabola magazine, coauthor of Gifts of the Spirit, and author of The Recollected Heart. His writing on the subject of religion and culture appears regularly in such national publications as The New York Times Book Review and Reader's Digest. He teaches religion at Smith College.

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