With The Best Spiritual Writing 2002, Parbola magazine editor Philip Zaleski continues to deliver an annual anthology worthy of the utmost praise. In his preface to this edition, Zaleski explains his criteria for inclusion in the series: First, the writing must come from careful cultivation and lived experience. Second, it should "bring forth truth, beauty, and goodness." Zaleski has also assembled numerous writings that accomplish yet another lofty feat. Regardless of the reader's spiritual orientation, this collection expands our vision of the divine. Wallis Wilde-Menozzi reminds us that God's voice can be heard in a cello solo. In his poem "Gospel," Philip Levine convinces us that spiritual comfort can be found in the west wind "soughing" through pines. We discover that God's workers can take the form of a football coach (in Gary Smith's "Higher Education"), or even a fisherman's wife (in Susan Pollack's stunning essay, "The Wives of Gloucester").

Not surprisingly, this year's selections also speak to the events of September 11. In "Leap," Brian Doyle writes of two people joining hands as they jumped from one of the burning towers. "Their hands reaching and joining are the most powerful prayer I can imagine, the most eloquent, the most graceful. It is everything we are capable of against horror and loss and death." And when Toni Morrison speaks directly to "The Dead of September 11" we realize that even the most eloquent among us sometimes feels that words are not enough. (Other contributors include Pattiann Rogers, Bill McKibben, Seamus Heaney, Barry Lopez, and Natalie Goldberg.) --Gail Hudson


From Publishers Weekly
Zaleski's fifth annual collection of the best spiritual writing achieves something memorable and fresh in a year marked by an upsurge in the sheer quantity of spiritual writing. A number of the essays of course deal with last autumn's terrorist attacks; Vincent Druding's "Ground Zero: A Journal" chronicles the 24-year-old author's first day at work in downtown Manhattan. The day was September 11, and he was coming out of the subway when the World Trade Center was hit. Other essays don't address September 11 specifically, but seem particularly timely in its aftermath: Joseph Epstein analyzes the spectrum of fear and courage in "What Are You Afraid Of?", and Amy Schwartz pays tribute to C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters in "Screwtape Instructs Scrapetooth," a skillful analysis of the banality of evil. As usual, Zaleski's collection is to be applauded for its diversity; there are contributions from Christian, Muslim, Jewish, secular and pan-Hindu perspectives, and various pieces tackle spirituality as it impacts the environment, relationships, politics, creativity and literature. Contributions have been culled from a panoply of periodicals and newspapers, from the tony (New Yorker and Vanity Fair) to the plebeian (there's even a selection from Sports Illustrated). There are some fascinating biographical essays, such as Bill McKibben's "The Muslim Gandhi" and Sarah Davidson's "The Making of an American Swami." Perhaps the wisest, most understated piece is Walter Wangerin's homage to his deceased father-in-law in "One Man on a Tractor Far Away." Fans of Zaleski's series will not be disappointed with the highly literary quality of this anthology.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
The latest entry in the very successful "Best Spiritual Writing" series, selected by Parabola editor Zaleski and Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones), is a worthy successor to its predecessors and, like them, so various as to defy easy summary or description. Suffice it to say that its authors range from Seamus Heaney to composer John Luther Adams, and that the subjects of its many poems and essays range from the environment to sports to the story of Adam and Eve, all turned so that their spiritual lessons or questions are uppermost. Another fine collection; for most libraries. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Editor Zaleski says that what he seeks every year for this anthology is good writing that reflects "mastery over the self" and "the three platonic virtues of beauty, truth, and goodness." Sometimes such mastery is hard to see in an essay or poem, because the writer's persona barely registers. Gary Smith's portrait of a white Ohio community's first black basketball coach, who won every heart with his profound goodness, is just fine, objective human-interest reporting. Amy Schwartz's entry, taken off the Web, is a new set of correspondence between the senior devil Screwtape, whom C. S. Lewis introduced 60 years ago, and another of his juniors. If Bill McKibben doesn't fully suppress his aw-shucks persona, he stands aside for most of his timely profile of the great Muslim pacifist Abdul Ghaffar Khan, an associate of Gandhi. Real mastery over the self shows in the pieces about 9/11, whose writers ask readers to witness with them; of these, Brian Doyle's "Leap" is a call to prayer as compelling as any muezzin's. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


San Francisco Chronicle
An inspiring new collection with just the right combination of truth, beauty, and goodness.


Book Description
Hailed as "a significant addition to the spiritual writing of our time", (Publishers Weekly), this inspiring series brings together profound and lyrical writing about art, intimacy, prayer, love, meditation, and faith from some of the world's most distinguished writers. This provocative volume includes: Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison's elegy of love for The Dead of September 11; Bill McKibben's "The Muslim Gandhi," the moving story of the Afghan liberator Abdul Ghaffar Khan, one of the greatest nonviolent leaders of the twentieth century; "Prayer," a poem by the Nobel Prize-winner Czeslaw Milosz; Barry Lopez on the role of the modern naturalist as an emissary for nature; from The New Yorker, Philip Levine's poem "Gospel"; and Harvey Cox on a Christian appreciation of the Torah.


About the Author
Philip Zaleski is senior editor of Parabola magazine, coauthor of Gifts of the Spirit, and author of The Recollected Heart. His writing on the subject of religion and culture appears regularly in such national publications as The New York Times Book Review and Reader's Digest. He teaches religion at Smith College.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Hailed as "a significant addition to the spiritual writing of our time", (Publishers Weekly), this inspiring series brings together profound and lyrical writing about art, intimacy, prayer, love, meditation, and faith from some of the world's most distinguished writers. This provocative volume includes: Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison's elegy of love for The Dead of September 11; Bill McKibben's "The Muslim Gandhi," the moving story of the Afghan liberator Abdul Ghaffar Khan, one of the greatest nonviolent leaders of the twentieth century; "Prayer," a poem by the Nobel Prize-winner Czeslaw Milosz; Barry Lopez on the role of the modern naturalist as an emissary for nature; from The New Yorker, Philip Levine's poem "Gospel"; and Harvey Cox on a Christian appreciation of the Torah.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Zaleski's fifth annual collection of the best spiritual writing achieves something memorable and fresh in a year marked by an upsurge in the sheer quantity of spiritual writing. A number of the essays of course deal with last autumn's terrorist attacks; Vincent Druding's "Ground Zero: A Journal" chronicles the 24-year-old author's first day at work in downtown Manhattan. The day was September 11, and he was coming out of the subway when the World Trade Center was hit. Other essays don't address September 11 specifically, but seem particularly timely in its aftermath: Joseph Epstein analyzes the spectrum of fear and courage in "What Are You Afraid Of?", and Amy Schwartz pays tribute to C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters in "Screwtape Instructs Scrapetooth," a skillful analysis of the banality of evil. As usual, Zaleski's collection is to be applauded for its diversity; there are contributions from Christian, Muslim, Jewish, secular and pan-Hindu perspectives, and various pieces tackle spirituality as it impacts the environment, relationships, politics, creativity and literature. Contributions have been culled from a panoply of periodicals and newspapers, from the tony (New Yorker and Vanity Fair) to the plebeian (there's even a selection from Sports Illustrated). There are some fascinating biographical essays, such as Bill McKibben's "The Muslim Gandhi" and Sarah Davidson's "The Making of an American Swami." Perhaps the wisest, most understated piece is Walter Wangerin's homage to his deceased father-in-law in "One Man on a Tractor Far Away." Fans of Zaleski's series will not be disappointed with the highly literary quality of this anthology. (Sept.)

Library Journal