DESCRIPTION
Too often, Christians who discover melancholy or skepticism occupying a place in their hearts are perplexed, troubled, or even ashamed.
Knowing Darkness is a frequently provocative apologetic for the benefits of both skepticism and melancholy for biblical, Christian faith.
Arguing that these phenomena are not detrimental to faith but are often decidedly helpful, Addison Hart draws from such figures in Scripture as Job and Qoheleth of Ecclesiastes, and from the well known life and experience of Mother Teresa. Understanding the challenges that melancholy and skepticism present to those who experience them, he reflects on the need for genuine human friendship in the life of faith.
Writing in a forthright, engaging style, Hart inspires us to look more deeply into troublesome matters of the heart and soul -- emotions we would often rather ignore or condemn -- and therein find a far more authentic faith.
"Alongside the biblical injunctions to adhere, as the normative standard of faith, to what I will call 'conventional piety,' the Scriptures also present a much more complex and variegated interaction with God. On the level of adult faith, nothing is monochrome or monolithic when the canon is taken as a whole. The approach to God includes uncertainties of doubt and darkness, and melancholy and skepticism are unapologetically present in these holiest books of Christianity and Judaism."
-- from chapter 1
REVIEWS
Fr. Patrick Henry Reardonsenior editor of Touchstone
"In the sustained dialogue within this work, we hear the alternating voices of ancient sources and modern concerns. Father Hart's close familiarity with the former is matched by his critical evaluation of the latter. Thus, his investigation of Ecclesiastes and Job — the 'problem books' of Israel's Wisdom literature — follows closely on his sharp analysis of contemporary skepticism. .�.�. An eminently pastoral work."
Library Journal
"Hart persuades us not to mistake faith for hope or orthodoxy but to take it as itself, lived during times of joy and desolation alike. Recommended for the Christian or spiritual seeker."