The Best American Spiritual Writing 2006

Philip Zaleski, an acclaimed writer and the editor of the series, has once again assembled an outstanding collection of thirty-five pieces that range far and wide in subject matter and style. In "The Cellular Church," Malcolm Gladwell takes a look at the pastor Rick Warren, and Mary Gordon"s "Moral Fiction" explores the place of value judgments in literature. Michael Chabon describes his childhood fascination with the darkness and "silliness" that pervade the world of the Norse gods, and Katherine Paterson, an award-winning children's book writer, describes how faith plays a role in her work. Miles Hoffman and Wendell Berry both decry the loss of soul, the former speaking of modern music and its dire need for a miracle, and the latter of modern agriculture, which has strayed perilously far from its roots. The range of the volume is immense, stretching from Edward Hoagland"s discussion of America's social breakdown to Helen Tworkov"s analysis of the inherent conflict between feminism and Buddhism to Corby Kummer"s deliciously simple recipe for kosher almond cake. The poems, too, run the gamut of human experience, with contributions from such distinguished poets as Mark Doty, Charles Martin, V. Penelope Pelizzon, Louis Simpson, C. K. Williams, and John Updike. The Best American Spiritual Writing 2006 is sure to please not only lovers of spiritual writing, but also those who long for writing that illuminates a vast range of issues beyond our immediate line of sight.

Foreword	p. x
Introduction	p. xvii
A Fitting Desire	p. 1
from Orion
Renewing Husbandry	p. 3
from Orion
The Big Tent	p. 14
from The New Yorker
On Making The Martyrdom of Saint Polycarp: Writing the True Icon	p. 38
from Image
After Strange Gods	p. 46
from The New York Review of Books
Pipistrelle	p. 51
from Ploughshares
Eddy	p. 54
from Portland
A Manna for All Seasons	p. 59
from Touchstone
The Cellular Church	p. 68
from The New Yorker
Moral Fiction	p. 84
from The Atlantic Monthly
The Tragic Fate of John Ruskin	p. 93
from Salmagundi
Arguing with Milosz in Vilnius	p. 113
from Ploughshares
This Soul Has Six Wings	p. 117
from Portland
The Glue Is Gone	p. 124
from The American Scholar
Music's Missing Magic	p. 135
from The Wilson Quarterly
Waking	p. 149
from Parabola
Reading Ruskin in Los Angeles	p. 152
from The Hudson Review
Into the Wonder	p. 154
from Christianity Today
The Kosher Conversion	p. 162
from The Atlantic Monthly
Our Near-Death Experience	p. 169
from the New York Times
After 9/11	p. 173
from The Hudson Review
The Secret of the Self	p. 177
from First Things
Our American Babylon	p. 187
from First Things
Are You There, God?	p. 200
from Harvard Divinity Bulletin
Seven Penitential Psalms	p. 211
from Poetry
The Lost Buddhas of Bamiyan	p. 214
from Harper's Magazine
Ishi	p. 235
from The Atlantic Monthly
Ten (Possible) Reasons for the Sadness of Thought	p. 237
from Salmagundi
Just Power	p. 266
from Tricycle
Angel Bones	p. 275
from The American Scholar
The Church's Way of Speaking	p. 276
from First Things
Marina	p. 287
from The New Yorker
East Boston, 1996	p. 289
from The New Yorker
20, 40, 60, 80	p. 295
from The Sun
Contributors	p. 303
Notable Spiritual Writing of 2005	p. 307
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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The Best American Spiritual Writing 2006

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