12/9/2023 0 Comments David taylor pastor obamaThe Christian liturgy soaked in the theme in the centuries that followed. “It’s just one nighttime story after another–amazing.”įrom the moment God declared, “let there be light,” Scripture christened light as holy and condemned darkness to hell. “God and darkness have been friends for a long time,” Taylor says. It is easy to forget, amid “the Easter lilies, the sound of trumpets and bright streaming light,” she notes, that the Resurrection happened in a dark cave. But she is also taking on the sometimes far-too-sunny fashion in which churches tell their most important stories. She doesn’t shy away from big issues, and her honesty is disarming.”Ĭertainly, Taylor’s new memoir, Learning to Walk in the Dark–on spirituality and self-help shelves in time for Good Friday–challenges the broad theological belief that darkness is evil, scary and just plain bad. Taylor, says Randall Balmer, chair of Dartmouth’s department of religion, “belongs in the pantheon of spiritual writers that includes such luminaries as the late Will Campbell, Anne Lamott and Frederick Buechner. And 13 books on, she has chronicled her own fascinating and complex faith journey for hundreds of thousands of readers. She is the most requested Sunday speaker at New York’s Chautauqua Institution and draws both atheists and divinity students to her book signings. For years, her sermons have been required reading at seminaries nationwide, and she often lectures at Princeton, Duke and the National Cathedral in Washington. The reasons, she says, are that contemporary spirituality is too feel-good, that darkness holds more lessons than light and that contrary to what many of us have long believed, it is sometimes in the bleakest void that God is nearest.įew who have heard or read Taylor are surprised that she is nudging people down a path toward endarkenment. For the past four years, the popular 62-year-old preacher and New York Times best-selling author has explored wild caves, lived as if blind, stared into her darkest emotions and, over and over, simply walked out into the night. But this Eastertide, Taylor, who ranks among America’s leading theologians is encouraging believers and nonbelievers not only to seek the light but to face the darkness too, something that 21st century Americans tend to resist. Most spiritual seekers spend their lives pursuing enlightenment. The lights in her northern Georgia farmhouse are off, the chickens have been cooped, and her husband Ed has cleaned the kitchen and gone upstairs to bed. It’s 10:45 on a Sunday night when Barbara Brown Taylor sets off from her front porch. But as one of America's leading theologians believes, it may save us all But as Barbara Brown Taylor believes, it may save us all Darkness is often treated as evil, a vast unknown and the Ultimate spiritual enemy. SHARE Marco Grob for TIME Darkness is often treated as evil, a vast unknown and the Ultimate spiritual enemy.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |