
Our Hearts Are Restless
The Art of Spiritual Memoir
Richard Lischer(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 30. March 2023
Book
Hardback
400 pages
978-0-19-764904-6 (ISBN)
Description
A guided tour of spiritual autobiography that grants readers new insights and appreciation of the genre
The genre of spiritual autobiography has flourished ever since Augustine essentially invented it in the fourth century. In Our Hearts Are Restless, Richard Lischer--himself the author of two spiritual memoirs--takes readers on a guided tour of the genre, examining the life writings of twenty-one figures from the expected (Thomas Merton) to the surprising (James Baldwin); from the sublime Julian of Norwich and Emily Dickinson to the outrageous Anne Lamott.
Lischer is a perceptive reader and an engaging guide in the art and craft of spiritual writing. Our Hearts Are Restless shows readers how history's most brilliant spiritual writers have sought and found a pattern of meaning in the face of tragedy, conflict, and the responsibilities of daily life.
The genre of spiritual autobiography has flourished ever since Augustine essentially invented it in the fourth century. In Our Hearts Are Restless, Richard Lischer--himself the author of two spiritual memoirs--takes readers on a guided tour of the genre, examining the life writings of twenty-one figures from the expected (Thomas Merton) to the surprising (James Baldwin); from the sublime Julian of Norwich and Emily Dickinson to the outrageous Anne Lamott.
Lischer is a perceptive reader and an engaging guide in the art and craft of spiritual writing. Our Hearts Are Restless shows readers how history's most brilliant spiritual writers have sought and found a pattern of meaning in the face of tragedy, conflict, and the responsibilities of daily life.
Reviews / Votes
Lives--we learn to live by attending to lives. In our hunger for coherence we are tempted to simplify the lives of others as well as our lives. In this beautifully written book Richard Lischer's truthful account of lives, Christian and non-Christian lives, testifies to the complexity of what it means to live well. In this time when it is by no means clear what it means to live honesty as a Christian, Lischer's account of these lives gives us a way to go on. This is a book of wisdom that took a lifetime to write. * Stanley Hauerwas, author of Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir * Lischer has a storyteller's genius, a pastor's instinct for emotional authenticity, a preacher's eye for tracing gospel truth, a scholar's skill at critical inquiry, and a Christian understanding of love and suffering. As he opens up these faithful lives, he shows how true is John Donne's dictum: 'The art of salvation is but the art of memory.' * Ellen F. Davis, author of Opening Israel's Scriptures * A book holy and humane, reverential yet playful, absorbing but provocative, challenging and deeply affirming. After reading you feel wiser, more compassionate, more perceptive, more comfortable with your own struggles and shortcomings-but above all, eager to revisit your own yearnings and searchings, and recognise in them the loving patience of the Holy Spirit. Richard Lischer has shown us where treasure is to be found, and reignited our desire to find it. * Sam Wells, Author of Humbler Faith, Bigger God * This is an odd but oddly compelling book...Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, general readers. * Choice * There is much to ponder in this humane and challenging book. * Paradigm Explorer * Richard Lischer's new book, Our Hearts Are Restless: The Art of Spiritual Memoir, is a cross between academic monograph and devotional guide, annotated bibliography and narrative compendium. Guiding us enthusiastically through a broad range of spiritual autobiographies, Lischer is as committed to motivating us to read these works as he is to explaining how they ask us to rethink modern autobiography in general and Christian autobiography in particular. * Matthew Mullins, Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly * Lischer is a gifted stylist, who writes beautifully, and there are gems of wisdom and insight to be found on every page. This is an extraordinarily rich book, in which we are offered a window on the workings of God amidst the messiness and brokenness of a cast of flawed individuals, and in which its grittiness is evenly matched by its holiness. It is both deeply human and deeply authentic. For this reason, and for so many others, tolle lege. * Salvador Ryan, Studies in Christian Ethics * Lischer is a gifted stylist, who writes beautifully, and there are gems of wisdom and insightto be found on every page. This is an extraordinarily rich book, in which we are offered awindow on the workings of God amidst the messiness and brokenness of a cast of flawed individuals, and in which its grittiness is evenly matched by its holiness. It is both deeplyhuman and deeply authentic. For this reason, and for so many others, tolle lege. * Salvador Ryan, Studies in Christian Ethics *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 245 mm
Width: 168 mm
Thickness: 37 mm
Weight
734 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-764904-6 (9780197649046)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
11/2022
OUP eBook
€15.49
Available for download

E-Book
11/2022
OUP eBook
€15.49
Available for download
Person
Richard Lischer is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Duke Divinity School. He is the author or editor of fifteen books, including The Preacher King: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Word that Moved America (OUP, 1995, Expanded, 2020), as well as two spiritual memoirs, Open Secrets: A Memoir of Faith and Discovery and Stations of the Heart: Parting with a Son.
Content
Introduction: The Artistry of the Soul
Search and Surrender
1. Augustine: Restless Traveler
2. Augustine: Traveler's Rest
3. Thomas Merton: Journey Through Purgatory
Revelations
4. Julian of Norwich: Seeing is Believing
5. Emily Dickinson: Camera Obscura
How Goes the Battle?
6. John Bunyan: The Uncertainty Principle
7. Agnes Beaumont: Persecution and Defiance
The Stripping of the Altar
8. Peter Abelard: Ruined
9. Heloise of Paris: What Will Survive of Us is Love
10. Etty Hillesum: The Radiance of a Yellow Star
11. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Last Lessons
12. C. S. Lewis: Surprised by Death
13. Reynolds Price: An Illness and a Healing
Pilgrimages
14. Therese of Lisieux: The Little Way
15. Harriet Jacobs: Witness
16. Dorothy Day: A Life for the Poor
17. Kathleen Norris: A Revised Itinerary
New Every Day
18. Anne Lamott: Adventures with Jesus
19. Heidi Neumark: A Ministry in the South Bronx
Nomadic Faith
20. James Baldwin: Autobiography as Exorcism
21. Dennis Covington: A Snake Handler's Faith
22. Richard Rodriquez: The Long Way Home
Search and Surrender
1. Augustine: Restless Traveler
2. Augustine: Traveler's Rest
3. Thomas Merton: Journey Through Purgatory
Revelations
4. Julian of Norwich: Seeing is Believing
5. Emily Dickinson: Camera Obscura
How Goes the Battle?
6. John Bunyan: The Uncertainty Principle
7. Agnes Beaumont: Persecution and Defiance
The Stripping of the Altar
8. Peter Abelard: Ruined
9. Heloise of Paris: What Will Survive of Us is Love
10. Etty Hillesum: The Radiance of a Yellow Star
11. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Last Lessons
12. C. S. Lewis: Surprised by Death
13. Reynolds Price: An Illness and a Healing
Pilgrimages
14. Therese of Lisieux: The Little Way
15. Harriet Jacobs: Witness
16. Dorothy Day: A Life for the Poor
17. Kathleen Norris: A Revised Itinerary
New Every Day
18. Anne Lamott: Adventures with Jesus
19. Heidi Neumark: A Ministry in the South Bronx
Nomadic Faith
20. James Baldwin: Autobiography as Exorcism
21. Dennis Covington: A Snake Handler's Faith
22. Richard Rodriquez: The Long Way Home