The Sounds of Silence
One of the great things about February is that it is the month when you finish the books that came at Christmas. For me, this has meant coming to the end of Sara Maitland's wonderful 'A Book of Silence'. Maitland is a Catholic, a novelist and short-story writer and a committed feminist. She also went to Oxford with Bill Clinton, which has no relevance to her book but since she manages to mention it, I don't see why I shouldn't.
What is so powerful about this book is the way Maitland situates herself as a contemporary pilgrim, hovering somewhere between secular explorer and faith adventurer; finding the spiritual in all kinds of unexpected places. There is a deep, throbbing note of conviction at the heart of the piece,like a bassoon sounding out beneath a broad orchestral symphony, but this doesn't stop Maitland from finding and enjoying all kinds of other sounds. I loved the book not only as a personal journey of discovery, but also as a model of how spirituality should be done in the contemporary world. I think Teillhard de Chardin was the last writer I found who could so flawlessly blend secular enquiry with spiritual aspiration: and that, as I'm sure Sara Maitland would agree, is praise indeed.
