Contents

Foreword by PHILIP ZALESKI

Introduction by STEPHEN PROTHERO

COLEMAN BARKS • November Nights

FROM The Georgia Review

ANNIE BOUTELLE • The Calling of Saint Matthew

FROM The Hudson Review

CARL DENNIS • New Year’s Eve

FROM The New Yorker

BRIAN DOYLE • Let It Go

FROM U.S. Catholic

TERRY EAGLETON • The Nature of Evil

FROM Tikkun

ADAM GOPNIK • Life Studies

FROM The New Yorker

JESSICA GREENBAUM • No Ideas but in Things

FROM The New Yorker

MALCOLM GUITE • Antiphons

FROM Christianity and Literature

LINDA HEUMAN • Whose Buddhism Is Truest?

FROM Tricycle

KATHLEEN HILL • Forgiveness

FROM Agni

EDWARD HIRSCH • The Custodian

FROM The Atlantic

JANE HIRSHFIELD • In Daylight, I Turned On the Lights

FROM The New Yorker

EDWARD HOAGLAND • When I Was Blind

FROM Portland

PICO IYER • Maximum India

FROM Condé Nast Traveler

MARK JARMAN • The Teachable Moment

FROM Image

CHARLES JOHNSON • Welcome to Wedgwood

FROM Shambhala Sun

JAMES LASDUN • Unbuilt Jerusalem

FROM Harper’s Magazine

SY MONTGOMERY • Deep Intellect

FROM Orion

FRANCESCA ARAN MURPHY • Oriental Aspects of Occidental Faith

FROM First Things

DAVID NOVAK • The Man-made Messiah

FROM First Things

P. J. O’ROURKE • God’s Engineer

FROM The Atlantic

VINCE PASSARO • Scorcese on the Cross

FROM Harper’s Magazine

MELISSA RANGE • Incarnational Theology

FROM New England Review

PATRICK HENRY REARDON • A Many-Storied Monastic

FROM Touchstone

MARILYNNE ROBINSON • What We May Be

FROM Harper’s Magazine

ABDULLAH SAEED • The Islamic Case for Religious Liberty

FROM First Things

NICHOLAS SAMARAS • Spiritual Bouquet

FROM The Antioch Review

ALGIS VALIUNAS • The Sanest Man Ever

FROM Commentary

GEORGE WEIGEL • All War, All the Time

FROM First Things

CYNTHIA ZARIN • From The Book of Knowledge

FROM The American Scholar

Contributors’ Notes

Other Notable Spiritual Writing of the Year