The history of silence

G Gordon Steel reviews Diarmaid MacCulloch’s scholarly work 'Silence: A Christian history'

by G Gordon Steel 9th August 2013

Sometimes, as Quakers, we may be inclined to think that we have a corner in silence, that this marks our special place within the broad range of Christian practice. But that is hardly so and this remarkable book puts us in our place. It is the latest work by Diarmaid MacCulloch, a well-known authority on the history of Christianity, and is almost worth its price just for the wonderful dust-cover.