Silence: A Christian History

Silence is at the heart of the history of Christianity. Some silences are holy, some skirt the borders of evil: besides prayer and mystical contemplation, there is shame and evasion, even purposeful forgetting. In this daring and moving history, Diarmaid MacCulloch draws us into a polyphony of silences from the whole span of Christianity and beyond, from ancient Jewish and Greek beginnings to Jesus' ministry, from the monastic movement to the eruption of the Reformation, and on to more troubling silences.  
  
*Silence*shows the history of Christianity in a fresh and fascinating new light.  
  
'Erudite and witty ... brilliantly wide-ranging. MacCulloch has written a clever, demanding and insightful book.' **Nick Rennison, *Sunday Times***  
'I found it wonderful ... a rich engaging book. Read it.' **Sara Maitland, *Spectator***'A masterly account full of surprises ... MacCulloch is a superb raconteur, full of imagination, wit, irony and fun, who entertains, challenges, enlightens and occasionally enrages his readers.'**Ursula King, *Times Higher Education***  
'Compelling ... MacCulloch's account is peppered with the kind of delicious asides that make him such a compulsively readable historian.' **Richard Holloway, *The Times***  
'Engaging and poetic; deeply personal and yet profoundly scholarly ... leaves us yearning for more.' **Candida Moss, *The Tablet***'Diarmaid MacCulloch proves how real scholarship is never dry, as long as the ideas and the writing are powerful.' **James McConnachie, *Sunday Times*Books of the Year**Read less