Learning to Walk in the Dark - by Barbara Brown Taylor (Paperback)

About the Book

From the New York Times bestselling author of An Altar in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor s Learning to Walk in the Dark provides a way to find spirituality in those times when we don t have all the answers.

Taylor has become increasingly uncomfortable with our tendency to associate all that is good with lightness and all that is evil and dangerous with darkness. Doesn t God work in the nighttime as well? In Learning to Walk in the Dark, Taylor asks us to put aside our fears and anxieties and to explore all that God has to teach us in the dark. She argues that we need to move away from our solar spirituality and ease our way into appreciating lunar spirituality (since, like the moon, our experience of the light waxes and wanes). Through darkness we find courage, we understand the world in new ways, and we feel God s presence around us, guiding us through things seen and unseen. Often, it is while we are in the dark that we grow the most.

With her characteristic charm and literary wisdom, Taylor is our guide through a spirituality of the nighttime, teaching us how to find our footing in times of uncertainty and giving us strength and hope to face all of life s challenging moments."

Book Synopsis

"Few souls are as synched to the world's mysteries as Barbara Brown Taylor's.... Taylor writes spiritual nonfiction that rivals the poetic power of C.S. Lewis and Frederick Buechner." -- TIME

"Offers a different way of looking at darkness, not as something to be feared, but as something to be embraced." -- Interfaith Voices, NPR

New York Times bestselling author Barbara Brown Taylor's Learning to Walk in the Dark provides a way to find spirituality in those times when we don't have all the answers.

Taylor has become increasingly uncomfortable with our tendency to associate all that is good with lightness and all that is evil and dangerous with darkness. Doesn't God work in the nighttime as well?

In Learning to Walk in the Dark, Taylor:

• Asks us to put aside our fears and anxieties and to explore all that God has to teach us "in the dark."
• Argues that we need to move away from our "solar spirituality" and ease our way into appreciating "lunar spirituality" (since, like the moon, our experience of the light waxes and wanes).

Through darkness we find courage, we understand the world in new ways, and we feel God's presence around us, guiding us through things seen and unseen. Often, it is while we are in the dark that we grow the most.

With her characteristic charm and literary wisdom, Taylor is our guide through a spirituality of the nighttime, teaching us how to find our footing in times of uncertainty and giving us strength and hope to face all of life's challenging moments.

From the Back Cover

Follow Barbara Brown Taylor on her journey to understand darkness, which takes her spelunking in unlit caves, learning to eat and cross the street as a blind person, discover-ing how "dark emotions" are prevented from seeing light from a psychiatrist, and reread-ing scripture to see all the times God shows up at night. With her characteristic charm and wisdom, Taylor is our guide through a spirituality of the nighttime, teaching ushow to find God even in darkness, and giving us a way to let darkness teach us what we need to know.

Review Quotes

"Few souls are as synched to the world's mysteries as Barbara Brown Taylor's.... Taylor writes spiritual nonfiction that rivals the poetic power of C.S. Lewis and Frederick Buechner." - TIME

"Taylor challenges our negative associations with darkness and our attraction to light in this thought-provoking new book. She draws on her own experiences--from exploring caves and experimenting with blindness, to her questioning of her own religious training and faith--to explore what might be gained by embracing darkness . . . the possibilities of emotional healing, a deeper appreciation of silence, living in the now, and peace of mind where there once was fear." - Spirituality & Health

"Taylor challenges our negative associations with darkness and our attraction to light in this thought-provoking new book. She draws on her own experiences--from exploring caves and experimenting with blindness, to her questioning of her own religious training and faith--to explore what might be gained by embracing darkness." - Spirituality & Health

"An elegant writer with the common touch, Taylor is always a wonderful guide to the spiritual world, and this book is no exception. Here she encourages us to turn out the lights and embrace the spiritual darkness, for it is in the dark, she maintains, that one can truly see." - Booklist

"Taylor continues her unconventional, outside-the-pulpit Episcopalian ministry, so successful in her best-selling Altar, by showing readers how she has learned from the darkness: learning to cross the street as if blind; looking for God's nocturnal appearances in the Bible; wondering at the Black Madonna; and contemplating the dark night of the soul. Taylor writes with consistent charm and an unobtrusive faith in God; her work is certain to appeal to some church groups and to fans of Annie Dillard and Anne Lamott." - Library Journal

"Taylor writes with consistent charm and an unobtrusive faith in God; her work is certain to appeal to... fans of Annie Dillard and Anne Lamott." - Library Journal

"Compellingly makes the case for why darkness is as necessary to our well-being as light. . . . A charming, witty and wise guide into the heart of darkness. . . . There is plenty here to ponder." - Shelf Awareness

"Reading Barbara Brown Taylor's writing stuns me, challenges me, and heals me, both with the beauty of her prose and the depth of her wisdom. Learning to Walk in the Dark is a gift to every person who's felt the darkness but not had the words to articulate it, which is to say it's for all of us. A truly beautiful book." - Shauna Niequist, author of Bread & Wine

"Reading Barbara Brown Taylor's writing stuns me, challenges me, and heals me, both with the beauty of her prose and the depth of her wisdom. A gift to every person who's felt the darkness but not had the words to articulate it... A truly beautiful book." - Shauna Niequist, author of Bread & Wine

"Eyes wide open, Barbara Brown Taylor has written a precise and evocative field guide to the dark. Exploring the complex and generative terrain of twilight and absence on her own terms, she generously includes us on her journeys, and encourages us to make our own." - Sharon Salzberg, author of Real Happiness and Lovingkindness

"What kind of holiness do we find in the dark? What kind of friendship with God do we forge in the middle of the night? What do we see about God and ourselves in midnight darkness that we cannot see at any other time? The Christian tradition holds hints of answers to those questions, and here, Barbara Brown Taylor turns those hints over and inside out and offers them to us. For which I am grateful. I have needed to read this book for a long, long time." - Lauren Winner, author of Still and Girl Meets God

"Beautiful. Profound. Nourishing. I have needed to read this book for a long time." - Lauren Winner, author of Still and Girl Meets God

"Offers a different way of looking at darkness, not as something to be feared, but as something to be embraced." - Interfaith Voices, NPR

"Barbara Brown Taylor shows readers that dark times can be great times of learning. The former Episcopalian priest shares her experiences of walking through the dark in her own life. ... She takes the reader on a journey to explore and understand the 'dark' better." - CBA Retailers magazine

"Taylor is one of those rare people who truly can see the holy in everything." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Taylor offers no consolation for those who demand the banishment of darkness. But to those willing to enter the darkness and wait in silence, she gives hope." - The Covenant Companion