Keeping God's Silence.Keeping God's Silence Rachel Muers Blackwell Publishing, 2004. 246pp. In Keeping God's Silence, Rachel Muers probes the issue of communication and silence and their implications for the moral life. A lecturer at the University of Exeter and herself a practicing Quaker, Muers posits silence as a path to more ethical modes of communication, both among individuals, and between individuals and God. She challenges us to consider silence as something more than the absence of speech or a gap in conversation; it is, she argues, a powerful means of communication in its own right. Drawing heavily upon the work of Nelle Morton and Dietrich Bonhoeffer Noun 1. Dietrich Bonhoeffer - German Lutheran theologian and pastor whose works concern Christianity in the modern world; an active opponent of Nazism, he was arrested and sent to Buchenwald and later executed (1906-1945) Bonhoeffer , the book opens with an examination of what Muers appealingly terms the "garrulous gar·ru·lous adj. 1. Given to excessive and often trivial or rambling talk; tiresomely talkative. 2. Wordy and rambling: a garrulous speech. silencing of God," whereby the universe of language we employ to define God, from the colloquial col·lo·qui·al adj. 1. Characteristic of or appropriate to the spoken language or to writing that seeks the effect of speech; informal. 2. Relating to conversation; conversational. to the liturgical li·tur·gi·cal also li·tur·gic adj. 1. Of, relating to, or in accordance with liturgy: a book of liturgical forms. 2. Using or used in liturgy. , paradoxically confines con·fine v. con·fined, con·fin·ing, con·fines v.tr. 1. To keep within bounds; restrict: Please confine your remarks to the issues at hand. See Synonyms at limit. or "silences" God. She encourages us to cease using words to silence others in this way, opting instead for an attentive or expressive silence through which we become open to others, inquiring of ourselves who hears and who is heard. Though she uses both Christological and feminist viewpoints to frame her arguments, her message is universal, clearly articulated, and conveyed in accessible prose. |
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