The Best Spiritual Writing 2000 - Softcover

Philip Zaleski

3.93

15 ratings by Goodreads

9780062516701: The Best Spiritual Writing 2000

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062516701 ISBN 13: 9780062516701

Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco, 2000

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The acclaimed anthology series that Publishers Weekly's starred review called 'a significant addition to the spiritual literature of our time' returns with the year's outstanding prose and poetry on prayer, enlightenment, love, holy places, and other s

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Review:

This third installment in Philip Zaleski's The Best Spiritual Writing series continues to live up to its admirers' expectations. What makes spiritual writing stand up and deliver is not exotic epiphanies in reclusive settings or the recounting of ecstatic communions. The real litmus test is how the narrator can take a flesh-and-bones life story and craft it into something that has spiritual meaning for the collective. "For myself I trust the path through the daily muck much more than the route that goes around it or above it or passes through it like an angel gliding transparently through a solid door," explains Thomas Moore in his Introduction (which, incidentally, warrants inclusion in The Best Spiritual Writing award in and of itself).

Year after year, this series becomes more solid and trustworthy--like a spiritual teacher who always has something age-old to offer in contemporary language. Ann Hood goes in "Search of Miracles" to heal her father of cancer and discovers the true meaning of miracles. In sparse, clean writing Natalie Goldberg tells the story of traveling to Japan to pay homage to her deceased Zen teacher. Jacques Lusseyran speaks from a blind man's perspective, helping us to see the light within instead of always relying on the light beyond. Other contributors include Linda Hogan, John Updike, Annie Dillard, Bill McKibben, and Mary Gordon. --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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