The Presence of Absence: On Prayers and an Epiphany [Hardcover]

Doris Grumbach (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1998

Named a "Reader's Choice" for 1998 by The Boston Globe

When she was twenty-seven, Doris Grumbach was visited by what she recognized as the presence of God. For a woman with no religious education or faith, the event was as unexpected as it was joyful. It was also never repeated. In The Presence of Absence, Grumbach recollects her quest to recover the sense of God's presence through formal worship, private devotion, and the study of literary accounts of epiphany. Her account is a moving and inspiring journey through "spiritual radiance," faith, and love.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

As a 27-year-old, the poet Doris Grumbach had a fleeting yet undeniable experience of God's presence. In order to recapture that experience, she began a frustrating few decades of churchgoing, and eventually she abandoned formal prayer--only to begin an equally frustrating search for God in private. The Presence of Absence: On Prayers and an Epiphany is a slim memoir of her ongoing search. Grumbach is most interesting when she reflects on the writers and thinkers--from Meister Eckhart to Kathleen Norris--who have shaped her understanding of the risks and rewards of solitary prayer. And although her unyielding integrity has trapped her in a loneliness that sometimes sounds terrifying, Grumbach's stringent refusal to be glib about God will serve as an inspiring corrective example for many. --Michael Joseph Gross

From Publishers Weekly

More than half a century ago, novelist and essayist Grumbach (Coming into the End Zone, etc.) experienced an overwhelming "feeling of peace so intense that it seemed to expand into ineffable joy." In that fleeting moment, she felt the presence of God, and this book is an extended meditation on her longing for a renewed sense of God's presence. After years steeped in the liturgy and clamor of the institutional Protestant church, Grumbach abandoned communal prayer in favor of solitude and the Psalms and found guidance in the works of Simone Weil, Dag Hammarskjold and Thomas Merton, whose assertion that "prayer means yearning for the simple presence of God" guided her contemplative journey. In telling of her fight against the intrusions of her ego and of her struggle to pray through the intense pain of neuralgia, Grumbach achieves a determinedly patient, honest and down-to-earth voice. She wants God wholeheartedly, but she also refuses any experience of God less than the "heart-churning" experience she felt so long ago. For Grumbach, the absence of this epiphanic experience calls into question God's presence. It is not until she discovers psychotherapist James Hillman's idea that "absence is the first form of knowing" that she can accept the possibility of God's presence even in the apparent absence of an epiphany. Grumbach's graceful and elegant prose records the agonies and the joys of her search for God's presence.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 126 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080707084X
• ISBN-13: 978-0807070840
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,191,006 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Reluctant Reviewer, December 23, 2000

By 

Tom Herren - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Presence of Absence: On Prayers and an Epiphany (Hardcover)

It is a little scary to review a book written by someone of Doris Grumbacher's stature. Saying something about the work of a noted novelist, NPR book reviewer and essayist is a little humbling. It is only because of her honesty in print that I can write this review.

It is interesting that the customer reviews of all her books listed on Amazon.com that two had a rating of five stars and the average was four stars. However, one book received only a star and a half and that was this book. The reason, I think, is that this is an honest writing about a subject very sensitive to most of her readers.

This is a very brave book about religion. You won't find many of these works. The honesty of her writing makes some people very uncomfortable, because they perceive themselves in her writing. What did a distinguished author write that made the reviewers only rate the book at a star and half?

It is in the bibliography that the mystery unfolds. Most of her quoted references relate to western religious writings. It is difficult to walk through the Cathedral or Monastery then walk out the back door and into the world of spirituality. The synonym for mysticism is experiential. The very experience that Doris Grumacher expected for so long after her epiphany at age 27, is experienced by many people in the garden of Nature everyday.

Spirituality is being connected to the universe that you live in. That could mean your relationship, your family, your community, your country, your concept of the universe, your feelings about God and yes, your religion. Religious doctrine is a confining space. Spirituality in its simplest form is liberating and at the same time a new territory for most of us. Many of us seek comfort like Doris Grumbach in the writings of western theology. The fundamental problem is should we pray for epiphany from up there or should we seek the epiphany from where we are. It is difficult to take your religion with you on the journey. However, the end result of your journey will be a spirituality that will increase the sacredness of your religion. Keep an open mind and take the journey. It will enhance your religion. Cross the threshold of expectation and simply enjoy the wonder of the life all around you, for isn't that the epiphany?

Enclosed is a poem I wrote from "In and Out of Time" to be published in early 2001. Hopefully it makes the point of this review.

"Reprieve"

The stars are in my sight. The universe is in my mind.

Through the labyrinth The images do wind.

Release me from the rules Let my mind and spirit fly.

To escape beyond my fate And soar to the edge of why.

6 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Utterly disappointing, November 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Presence of Absence: On Prayers and an Epiphany (Paperback)

I got this book expecting something as good as Nora Gallagher's or Kathleen Norris's work and instead found self-absorbed, immature and disorganized maunderings. The theme of this book is Ms. Grumbach's fifty-year effort to recreate a spiritual experience she once had. She wanders aimlessly and apparently uncomprehendingly through bits and pieces of Western spiritual thinking, mostly complaining about the fact that she's "lost that lovin' feelin'." This seems to me to be on a par with dedicating your life to trying to recapture the feelings you had when you first tasted chocolate. Let go. Move on.

Meanwhile she takes a very defensive and often patronizing attitude toward all the many (and far more mature) spiritual writers who counsel patience and participation in the life of the religious community as doors to a true spiritual experience. She seems to honestly believe that the main point of Christianity is to produce in oneself a feeling of pleasurable religious awe.

If she didn't have a name, I doubt this book would ever have found a publisher.

1 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars another boring book, June 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Presence of Absence: On Prayers and an Epiphany (Hardcover)

I wonder how many more books she can write about her life, and yet avoid reality