Virgin Time: In Search Of The Contemplative Life - Softcover

Hampl, Patricia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0865477167 ISBN 13: 9780865477162

Publisher: North Point Pr, 2005

Synopsis

Virgin Time goes to the heart of one of the most profound yet least discussed issues of contemporary American life: the individual's search for faith. It is a passionate inquiry into the sources of wonder that cause a person to say, "I believe."
Patricia Hampl's quest, which begins as an attempt to shake off a Catholic upbringing, takes her to the "old world" of Catholicism in Italy and France, introduces her to fellow pilgrims at Lourdes and elsewhere, and inevitably brings her back to America, where, in a visit to a Northern California monastery, she discovers the contemplative silence that had eluded her. With its emphasis on religious experience beyond the ambit of religious institutions, Virgin Time is even more pertinent today than when it was published in 1992.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Virgin Time is a book that goes to the heart of one of the most profound yet least discussed issues of contemporary American life: the individual's search for faith. It is "a passionate inquiry", as Patricia Hampl puts it, "into the sources of wonder that cause a person to say, 'I believe.'" Hampl's book begins as a grudging quest - not to find something, but to shake the indelible brand of a Catholic upbringing. In her search, she travels to the "old world" of Catholicism, in Italy and France, and inevitably her pilgrimage is peopled with other pilgrims - crotchety English agnostics, American Franciscan friars and nuns, the surging crowds of Lourdes with their candles and incurable illnesses, and the eccentric seekers that fill every charter flight. Inevitably, too, she finds the "old world" right at home, in the very past she had tried to escape. Finally, on a visit to a monastery near the Lost Coast of Northern California, she is able to settle into the real goal of her search: the silence of prayer. Virgin Time meets head-on the challenges to spirituality raised by contemporary life and responds to them searchingly, honestly, and movingly. Patricia Hampl's new book has unforgettable resonating power.

About the Author

Patricia Hampl is Regents' Professor at the University of Minnesota.

Edition details

• Publisher: North Point Pr
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0865477167
• ISBN 13: 9780865477162
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 242