cover image COME TO THE QUIET: The Principles of Christian Meditation

COME TO THE QUIET: The Principles of Christian Meditation

John Michael Talbot, . . Putnam/Tarcher, $15.95 (304pp) ISBN 978-1-58542-144-2

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time: a book about Christian meditation that unites Christian West and Far East and weaves in a separate treatment of the Christian East, a traditional religion drawing fresh attention in the 21st century and whose venerable monastic history is germane to Western meditation. Also appropriate would be to have this book written by someone with an eclectic spiritual background who lives in a hermitage: Talbot is a musician (quite successful, with four million recordings sold) who was an evangelical Christian before converting to Catholicism and who later adopted Eastern spiritual practices. But this good idea flounders in poor execution; the book has numerous flaws. Ideas from one section are more or less repeated in another, and exposition within chapters is a grab bag of topics. The book contains some questionable interpretations; for example, the growth of American interest in Eastern religions is presented as a disenchantment with Christianity, an explanation many Jewish-born teachers of American Buddhism would find dubious. Talbot presents exercises to help readers apply his ideas, although the directions in some exercises can be rather abstract ("Bring the false self to the cross of Christ"). Descriptions of his own practices, however, more helpfully illustrate meditation techniques. Some readers may appreciate Talbot's inclusive approach, which gives more or less equal time to Western and Eastern Christianity while also exploring Eastern religions such as Taoism. But readers who are primarily interested in Christian meditation would do better with Thomas Keating or, going even deeper, Thomas Merton. (Apr.)