Overview

From award-winning authors and Yale Divinity School colleagues Christian Wiman and Miroslav Volf—two world-renowned scholars exchange letters on the problems of faith today and the presence of divine love that persists through it all.  Whether you’re seeking something to believe in or no longer feel at home in your traditions, the spiritual search can be deeply lonely. In Glimmerings, leading Christian theologian Miroslav Volf and celebrated poet Christian Wiman engage the tensions of belief felt by many. In an exchange of personal letters, Volf and Wiman give voice to and validate the most pressing spiritual questions of our time. Close friends and Yale colleagues, they reveal through their letters visions of faith that are sometimes sharply divergent, yet always honest and punctuated by warmth, humor, and apology. The result is a vivid, consoling collection in which questions are dignified and the spiritual search in all its complexities is honored. Whether they’re discussing Scripture’s most problematic texts, Christianity’s most preposterous claims, or their own experiences of God’s presence and absence, Volf and Wiman are united in their shared refusal to oversimplify the realities of human pain. Instead, we are invited to share an honest hope: While certainty can never be ours, perhaps God shows up in “glimmerings.” As we accompany each other in our tensions, we can find strength in solidarity, beauty in mystery, and love that persists even as our faith perplexes.

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9780063458291

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Reviews

“Reading the letters between two of the finest minds and souls of our times—Volf, a renowned theologian, and Wiman, an inscriptional poet—feels like curling up in front of a fire, unseen, to half-overhear and half-understand two contemporary ancients groping toward meaning. In the profound friendship so alive in these tender epistles, a poet and a theologian wrestle with their distinct understandings of God, faith, and faith’s absence. Glimmerings is an act of devotion and of divine consciousness at play.” — Eliza Griswold, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Circle of Hope “For decades as both poet & proser, Chris Wiman has infected nonbelievers and believers alike with books that mesmerize with both salvation and catastrophe. So I devoured Glimmerings—a marvel of discourse between him and theologian Miroslav Volf in one sitting—beautiful & wise, provocative, bold, and haunting. It’s destined to become a classic. Buy this book!” — Mary Karr, New York Times bestselling author of The Liar's Club, Cherry, and Lit ""'We are trying,' writes one of the authors of this remarkable exchange, 'trying to understand each other—to articulate and make plausible... our experience with God, Christ, faith, and the lack of it.' What results, wondrous to behold, is lived theology in the making. Thanks, one writes, for 'helping me to understand what love of God looks like.' They are not afraid to disagree; but their disagreements are never impasses but prods to explore more deeply the matter at hand. Probing intelligence, rhetorical eloquence, passages of extraordinary self-disclosure, expressions of affection. I know of nothing like it. Take, read, and savor."" — Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology, Yale University ""Arresting in beauty and remarkable in its all-too-rare honesty, Glimmerings is a gem of a book I will be returning to time and again. Miroslav Volf, a renowned theologian, and Christian Wiman, a celebrated poet, invite us to listen in as they wrestle with faith and doubt, with yearning and disappointment, with embracing life and confronting death. This is a deeply Christian book yet, as a non-Christian, I was able to find both challenge and inspiration on almost every page. What a beautiful book this is."" — Shai Held, President of the Hadar Institute and author of Judaism Is About Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life

""'We are trying,' writes one of the authors of this remarkable exchange, 'trying to understand each other—to articulate and make plausible... our experience with God, Christ, faith, and the lack of it.' What results, wondrous to behold, is lived theology in the making. Thanks, one writes, for 'helping me to understand what love of God looks like.' They are not afraid to disagree; but their disagreements are never impasses but prods to explore more deeply the matter at hand. Probing intelligence, rhetorical eloquence, passages of extraordinary self-disclosure, expressions of affection. I know of nothing like it. Take, read, and savor."" — Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology, Yale University

Author Information

Miroslav Volf is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School and the founding director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. His books include Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation, winner of the 2002 Grawemeyer Award in Religion.

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