Posted on February 28, 2022 by PLT Staff

Lecture given by Charles Marsh at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA (May 1, 2019). Marsh uses Psalm 46:10 (“Be still and know that I am God.”) to provide a comprehensive overview of philosophical and theological perspectives on silence, solitude, and contemplation. He cites and expands upon figures such as Thomas Merton, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Max Picard, and Howard Thurman. Marsh advises that although we must take care when talking about silence because of the possibility of its misuse, silence can also serve a higher purpose. It can interrupt chaos, clarify vision, find energy, demonstrate protest, question the status quo, expose falsehoods, call us into a state of mindfulness, and invite us to encounter the holy each day. To find a listing of all our Occasional Lectures, click here.

Excerpt: “Being still and knowing enables us to see with heightened awareness the concrete places in the world that cry out for wholeness and redemptive action. Being quiet, being still can be lonely, can make one feel lonely, but in a certain kind of loneliness, empathy is born and a sense that loneliness is a quality shared with others and in so doing, there is a heightened awareness of the loneliness of the world, of a way that all creation cries out for wholeness and for redemption. Being still and knowing enables us to see everything in a new light.”

• Audio Information
• Date Recorded:May 1, 2019
• Location Recorded:Charlottesville VA
• Audio File:Download File »