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A Sunlit Absence

Silence, Awareness, and Contemplation
by Martin Laird
A Sunlit Absence: Silence, Awareness, and Contemplation. Oxford Univ. Aug. 2011. c.208p. ISBN 9780195378726. $18.95. REL
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Laird (theology, Villanova Univ.) provides a sequel to his Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation, which deals with distraction and boredom in contemplative prayer. Here, he focuses more on the contribution that "negative" emotions make to true surrender to reality or to God. In such surrender, one no longer identifies oneself with the series of emotions one feels during meditation but rather develops a "sunlit absence" that deepens into the divine presence. Laird provides encouragement for those beset by all manner of distracting difficulties, sleepiness, and doubts during prayer. He shows how, with spiritual maturity, the mind and heart expand into perceiving the divine luminosity that pervades reality.
VERDICT Especially intended for beginners and intermediates but useful to anyone on the contemplative path, this book deals profoundly yet simply with matters treated only superficially, if at all, in many other guides to contemplation. Laird writes within a Christian worldview, but the book may help other contemplatives both in their practice and in their perception of the role of contemplation in life itself.
Reviewed by Carolyn M. Craft, formerly with Longwood Univ., Farmville, VA , Jul 01, 2011
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