My Bright Abyss Meditation of a Modern Believer [Paperback]

Eight years ago, Christian Wiman, a well-known poet and the editor ofPoetrymagazine, wrote a now-famous essay about having faith in the face of death.My Bright Abyss, composed in the difficult years since and completed in the wake of a bone marrow transplant, is a moving meditation on what a viable contemporary faithresponsive not only to modern thought and science but also to religious traditionmight look like.
Joyful, sorrowful, and beautifully written,My Bright Abyssis destined to become a spiritual classic, useful not only to believers but to anyone whose experience of life and art seems at times to overbrim its boundaries. How do we answer this burn of being ? Wiman asks. What might it mean for our livesand for our deathsif we acknowledge the insistent, persistent ghost that some of us call God?

One ofPublishers Weekly's Best Religion Books of 2013

In this provocative work, the award-winning poet Christian Wiman reflects on the nature of faith and versehis two lifelong constantsand his shifting relationship to them in the face of a potentially terminal illness. The editor ofPoetrymagazine, Wiman was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer just as his literary life was coming to fruition. Immersed in both the comforts and the bewildering aspects of matters of the soul, Wiman began to probe the limits of his Christian beliefs and his love of poetry. Written in the wake of a bone marrow transplant, during a time when Wiman was convinced his death was imminent,My Bright Abyssis a powerful examination of what it means to face mortality, uncertainty, and the mysteries of undying love. Interwoven with excerpts from diverse poems, Wiman's chapters give voice to the deeply human questions that few have the courage to confront. We hope that the following discussion topics will enhance your reading group's experience of this radiant meditation.