Silence and Honey Cakes : The Wisdom of the Desert

by Rowan Williams

In this text, Rowan Williams goes back to the 4th century Desert Fathers and Mothers for inspiration and insight. He rediscovers that the spirituality of the desert resonates strongly with aspects of the modern spiritual search.

Genres: Theology, Religion, Spirituality, Christianity, Nonfiction, Christian, Philosophy

125 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, is an Anglican bishop, poet, and theologian. He was Archbishop of Canterbury from December 2002-2012, and is now Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge and Chancellor of the University of South Wales.

Reviews

[Elliot Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Transcribed from a talk RW gave, you would not think this is one of RW's more important works. To be sure, it's not. The four chapters in the book weave together RW's favorite themes, presented elsewhere in different words for different occasions. Also, the publisher did a god-awful job in transcribing and proofreading the talk. This book is a revision of an earlier book Silence And Honey Cakes: The Wisdom Of The Desert, and there are many typos here that were not corrected. The only difference between the two books comes from an interview that RW did being chopped up and arbitrarily drafted into the chapters themselves. I have no idea why the publishers thought this is a task worth their time and what benefits were foreseen from doing this (it seems entirely trivial). I would've been satisfied with the more mundane task of... well... proofreading the source material. Anyhow, if some sentence in the book does not make sense while reading, the chances are that it's not RW being especially profound (e.g. "The life of intimacy with God in contemplation is both the fruit and the course of a renewed style of living together." which makes no sense. "Course" should be "source." The audio lecture makes this clear).
In spite of all this, I love this book and count it among my favorites. I actually think this book also serves as a good entry point into the thought-world of RW, which is admittedly opaque and difficult. Reading RW is a holistic project meaning that the parts themselves really start making sense only as the whole becomes clearer. The end result is absolutely beautiful and gorgeous--what you get is not just some vaunted metaphysical vision of reality, but a growing conviction that we should occupy an unguarded space before God and an equally humble trust that this is a good place for us to occupy.
The heart of this vision is one where our healing, and our neighbors' healing, are seen as one. It's a thoroughly sacramental and communal vision of things where ethics, perception, and right thinking come together. This book goes a long way in establishing the basic foundation of this vision with the added assurance that this is not the result of some superficial re-visioning of Christianity (who is closer to the "heart" of Christianity than the desert fathers & mothers?).
RW has once said, "In 50 years of doing theology, one thing I have learned is that good theology is theology oriented to the healing of human wounds." And I know RW's theology is good theology, pure theology, and ultimately theology to live by because it heals me to live the kind of life I was meant to live: A life freed of its obsessive preoccupations with defensiveness, consciously given over to others and emptied of itself as is revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I asked someone who was a fan of Rowan Williams and his works what the most accessible book in his canon was and they came up with this. This short book is based on a series of seminars that Williams gave in Sydney, 2001 for the World Community for Christian Meditation. Around the beginning of the 3rd century A.D. hermits, ascetics and monks, seemingly inspired by the founder St.Anthony set themselves up in the Egyptian desert. Their purpose was experiential, didactic and also one of renunciation. They were there for a particular purpose, not to elevate themselves, they were very wary of pride. They became a paradigm for Christian Monasticism throughout Europe a model which spread as far as the West coast of Ireland.

The desert was an open place where one could live without fear and search for spiritual truth without having to live up to a standard. Our understanding of spirituality must be connected to the neighbour (to others) there is no point in isolating yourself and not using it as a way of staying connected to the community.

What I found most interesting was that the desert fathers would have balked at the modern love for self discovery and self help literature, books that provide easy truths and tell us what we want to hear about ourselves. The monks found the quest for truth frightening and they understood the pitfalls and self deception of searching out easy truths. 'the truth is rarely pure and never simple' - Oscar Wilde. Silence and solitude are about examining what is false and what is true within. They learnt to control rash thoughts and to forgive. Listening to our hearts is a way of finding deeper selfishness. Their lives weren't all solitary they met with each other occasionally. Williams tells us that the Monks used the practice of 'manifesting thoughts' to an Elder and receiving advice but not collusion in selfish fantasies.

My favourite story. A monk had committed a fault and Abba Moses was invited to attend a meeting on the matter. He took up a leaking jug and started to walk and said 'My sins run out behind me and I cannot see them, yet here I am coming to sit in judgement on the mistakes of somebody else'. In a sense these Monks were rebels and trail blazers. Christians today could do worse than follow these simple teachings.

There was a good balance between intellectual rigor and readability in this work. There is also a helpful Q & A at the end. I would recommend this as a good introduction to the 'Sayings of the Desert Fathers' which I am looking forward to reading.

[Ida · Rating 5 out of 5]

En bok jag garanterat kommer läsa pånytt efter något år. Williams lyckas visa hur ökenfädrarna och mödrarnas vishet kan hjälpa oss att gå lite djupare, lite närmare och lite modigare mot sanningen om vem vi är och vad ett liv med Gud är.

[Phil Aud · Rating 5 out of 5]

Silence and Honey Cakes is Rowan Williams wonderful little book – based on his lectures to The World Community of Christian Meditation – which explores the wisdom of the desert fathers and mothers. It is one of the most compelling books on Christian community that I have read. One of the great aspects of this book is it’s presentation of holiness. By looking at the writings and lives of the desert monastics, Williams presents the call to be saints as ‘non-heroic.’ I immediately thought of a book title I had once seen (but have not read) called “The easy burden of pleasing God” (Patty Kirk). While the desert dwellers did not live easy lives, we begin to understand that the locus of their wisdom was not in the big moments, but the simple and mundane moments of each day. So it can be for us.

Throughout the book Williams put teeth on the always important question of ‘how does one love their neighbor?’ We learn that it is by becoming honest, first and foremost, with ourselves. Only when we do that can we learn how to deal with the weaknesses in others. There is no room left to judge such weaknesses, explains Williams, if we have learned to rightly judge ourselves. This ties in with the theme of “fleeing.” Williams writes that “there is all the difference in the world between running from responsibility and ‘fleeing’ for the sake of truth or honesty – that is, for the sake of responsibility…what you are ultimately ‘running’ from is just this, your compulsions…of anxious comparison, status-seeking and chatter” (pp. 78,79). He ‘fleeing’ is rooted in one of his final chapters on ‘staying.’

Aside from drawing wisdom from the desert monastics, Williams also gleans from the Orthodox church. His writing on Vladimir Lossky’s distinction between ‘person’ and ‘individual’ is worth the price of the book. This distinction challenges our all too common consumeristic individualism with a beautiful understanding of varied ‘personhood’ (rooted in Trinitarian theology), and provides not just a deep concept to chew on, but important pastoral insights.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book.

I plan to write more on this later (really!) when things have had time to settle in my mind. Perhaps read it once more, first.

Anyway. The book contains four lectures, very much edited so that they make a really good book, and then afterwards the Q&A copied literally from what was said after those lectures. These latter gave quite a lively and personal touch to the book.

Rowan Williams explained a lot of things that I had been puzzled about, especially my worries about asceticism, and seemingly fleeing from human contact by the desert fathers and people who follow their sayings. Rowan Williams explains that they were really fleeing from the simple solutions that we humans resort to when we don't want to face the truth.

A few important lessons that I take away from this book : (in the arbitrary order they now come to mind)
* each of us has a different vocation
* try to help, not hinder, other people finding theirs
* being a person means having a relation with God. Each of us has a different relation, that makes us unique.
* self accusation needn't be morbid, but it can be helpful in trying to come closer to the truth.
* we spend too much energy on self-justification, which isn't necessary at all, since Jesus loves us and died for our sins. If we could only stop that, we would carry a much lighter burden.

[Emily Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didn’t know what to expect picking up this initially, but it quickly became a hugely influential read. I will be re-reading this for years to come!

[Aaron Cliff · Rating 4 out of 5]

It came as highly recommended by several people, now I highly recommend it to you.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A piercing book! Written by a former Archbishop of Canterbury, Williams is a profound thinker and and exceptional writer. Borrowing a better description from Amazon about this book, “Rowan Williams goes back to the 4th century desert fathers and mothers for inspiration and insight, discovering that their spirituality resonates strongly with aspects of the modern spiritual search. He uses examination of their stories and sayings as a starting point for his own reflections on topics such as: living in relationship with others; discovering the truth about ourselves; reassessing our priorities; silence and the importance of language; living in a fearless community; living within our limitations; life and death; staying and leaving.” Highly recommend.

[Becca Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not something I would have picked up on my own, but I'm glad it was recommended. Rowan Williams shares ideas about the desert fathers and what it means to live a monastic life. He reflects on some of the words of the desert fathers and I find some of them to be really moving. I'm sure I'll come back to it again and that it will continue to be impactful.

One of my favorite quotes in the book that I'll be chewing on for a while (It is advice given to young people today): "Only in taking time can you realize how much more you are than an individual."

One more quote: "Self-justification is the heavy burden, because there is no end to carrying it; there will always be some new situation where we need to establish our position, dig the trench for the ego to defend."

[Dylan Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will read this book many times during my life. This I can tell from finishing William’s abundantly rich book full of spiritual wisdom in just over one day. If any one wants to see how Christians understand what life with God to be, this book will show this.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful orientation towards some of the wisdom of the desert mothers and fathers. I will surely be listening to these voices, listening alongside them for God's voice, for a lifetime.

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profound reflections on the nature of embodied, everyday holiness and transformation.

[Kara Tomlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

“There are all sorts of questions that arise in learning from the first teachers of the Christian desert, but they all point us to a future where both questions and answers will look different, the future of silently gazing on God.”

[Trey Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profound.

[Terrance Lively · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great lecture in the form of a book. Here we see Archbishop Williams articulate the desert monastics in a way that helps us to gain insight into our own spirituality. His insights are intriguing and profound and really challenge the church toward a new (old) place in God. The book is surprisingly deep for as short as it is and the question and answer section is particularly insightful. Well worth the read and a great addition to one's spiritual practices.

[Toby · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend once told me of his experience attending a theology class in London. The scheduled speaker was unable to make it at the last minute but the convener of the course, Jane Williams, happened to be married to the archbishop who, somewhat amazingly, had a free slot in his diary and so turned up and talked off the cuff for an hour about aspects of Eastern Orthodox theology. He spoke, apparently, with a verve, enthusiasm and lucidity that was too often lacking in his public persona.

I thought of that story as I read in the course of an afternoon this short but stimulating book on desert monasticism. The book (brilliant title) is a series of four lectures given shortly before Rowan became archbishop and has an infectious enthusiasm that clearly comes from a public lecture on a subject that he knows and loves. Having attended a few Rowan Williams lectures in my time I am well aware that the best parts are often the Q and A at the end, so it's a lovely touch to include these at the back. They are more than just padding.

The second chapter "Silence and Honeycakes" is one of the best chapters on Christian anthropology that I have read and needs to be re-read and pondered over. Finally, to discover a factual mistake in a Rowan Williams book is gold-dust, so I was delighted to see him refer to the eighteenth century cynic who said "God will forgive me; that is his job". The author of the quote (possibly apocryphal) was the Nineteenth Century cynic Heinrich Heine, though admittedly it does sound exactly like something that Voltaire or another eighteenth century Philosophe might say.

[Chad Grissom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is what I think Williams is really good at: he pushes past first impressions to really find the gold in an author. The Desert Fathers can be really off-putting on first encounter. This little collection of lectures identifies the genuine gifts these Christians have to offer the body of Christ. Focusing on what we might disagree with distracts from what we might really be able to learn. This book is a wonderful introduction to Williams and a wonderful introduction to the Desert Fathers.

My attempt at summarizing the essential teaching of each chapter:
1) Contrary to popular impression, the Desert Fathers were actually teaching the love of neighbor: only by solitude can I come to end habits of self-justification and so be freed to become a place where another might actually meet God.
2) There is incredible diversity among the Desert Christians; there is no prescriptive, harsh, controlling way they try to teach the way of holiness; instead there is mercy, kindness, wisdom, and gentleness.
3) The desert allows us to sit quietly in a room alone; that habit allows is to come to the end of our self-delusions and self-justifications to finally see God's patient grace and gaze; everything else we do is really fleeing from taking a long, hard look at ourselves in God's sight.
4) A great virtue and teacher is stability; stay where God has placed you, don't be tempted to think the grass will be greener elsewhere; even Our Lord Jesus Christ did not start over with new, more promising disciples or mission fields; he fell into that ground and died.

[Graham Shearer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book having listened to Rowan Williams' talks on the Desert Fathers view of the passions which I found transformative. https://mucknellabbey.org.uk/apatheia... This book reflects further (though it was written much earlier) on the practices of the Desert Fathers. There is much to learn from and grown in here. I am conscious of how the practices of 'fleeing' and 'staying' are so foreign to me and reflect a restlessness which speaks of a distance from God and Christ who offers me rest.

[Timothy Hoiland · Rating 5 out of 5]

“If we don’t really know how to attend to the reality that is our own inner turmoil, we shall fail in responding to the needs of someone else. And the desert literature suggests pretty consistently that excessive harshness—readiness to judge and prescribe—normally has its roots in that kind of inattention to ourselves.”

more at timhoiland.com

[Sam Cav · Rating 4 out of 5]

I made the mistake of reading the raw text of the 'Wisdom of the Desert Fathers' before reading this, and nearly tore my own oesophagus out with frustration at the stupidity of it all. It seems we need calm academics like Rowan Williams to help us digest what to the simple mind (eg my own) seems solely like the meanderings of critically dehydrated sand zealots.

The 'desert fathers' (and 'mothers' I suppose, as they weren't all male), as far as I could tell on reading their work, were a diaspora of third century dune-munching, hair-ripping hermits, who would write about God sorting everything out, and then go on an absolute sand dune -themed voyage of total self harm before wondering why God was being a bit quiet on the topic and perhaps they should find water. They would then tend to wander into the nearest village, have sex with anyone who was up for it, and then write a slightly guilt-laden diary entry for use over a thousand years later in interesting dinner conversation. Very human, slightly bonkers, almost-die-from-exposure -themed theology.

Enter Rowan Williams, who seems to understand this stuff far better than most people, and who helps us ponder the ramblings of equally wild-eyed characters like St Augustine and Julian of Norwich ... and who calmly and respectfully brings their thoughts together into a gentle few hundred pages. Lovely! Cheers Rowan. I canoed through sea caves to an isolated beach called the Witch's Cauldron and sat there ploughing through this book and cooking sausages one summer's day. Highly recommended.

[Scott Rushing · Rating 5 out of 5]

If this book were to be summarized in one sentence, here it is from page 33:

“You “flee” to the desert not to escape neighbors but to grasp more fully what the neighbor is - the way of life for you, to the degree that you put yourself at their disposal in connecting them with God.”

Rowan Williams interacts with the sayings of the desert fathers and mothers. That was enough to get my interest. But he also engages modern readers on why this it is so crucial for us to read this in our very non-late antiquity world. Our struggles are somehow the same as their struggles.

This book is worth wrestling with. On most pages I found myself reading paragraphs 2 or 3 times to ensure I was wringing out as much life-giving water as possible.

[Laura S · Rating 4 out of 5]

One part I found interesting is that the first-generation monastic community did not leave the city to escape people…they actually moved to the desert to intentionally foster deeper, more Christ-focused relationships. One community (there were 5 connected in the region) had about 5,000 inhabitants and they regularly hosted visitors from the city who came seeking wisdom and instruction. In this case it seemed to be more like a commune. Over time, the monastic community evolved to what we know it as, today.

Beyond that, there’s a lot more going on in this book…a good balance between the wisdom on the desert fathers/mothers and how it relates to modern life.

[Paul Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Silence and Honey Cakes is a quite sophisticated but clear reflection on how the wisdom of the ancient desert fathers and mothers can help the spirituality of the modern person. It is an earlier Rowan Williams from 2003. How did the desert fathers living a solitary life in the desert, discover the truth about themselves?
For the new reader to the desert fathers and mothers, I would recommend looking at the Question and Answer Section at the end of the book as an introduction.

[Rachel Ciampoli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first book by Rowan Williams, and I have heard it is his most accessible. It definitely is accessible reading, and partially because it is basically transcribed from a series of lectures he had given.

Its accessibility in no way diminishes the depth of the content and so many of his insights are challenging, encouraging and connect us in our current time to the desert fathers and mothers. I really recommend this book as such an enriching read.

[Reagan Vernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rowan Williams does it again! This excellent little book conveys the wisdom of the desert fathers and mothers to modern believers. It works against the assumption that early monastics despised their neighbors, showing how their approach to community might benefit us today. Interestingly, my copy of the book was simply subtitled, "Discovering Christ in One Another," so the emphasis on the desert fathers came as a (welcome) surprise. I can see why the copy on Goodreads adds them to the subtitle.

[Daniel Burton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A charming and concise introduction to the worldview of the desert fathers and mothers and how their spirituality can be applied to contemporary life. Not much more than this can be got out of reading this book though. For some more details and history on the subject I would definitely look elsewhere (although in all fairness Williams does not claim that this is a historical book but more a spiritual reading exercise).

[M Ohman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvelous reflection on the Desert Fathers and Mother’s

Rowan Williams has written a marvelous little book reflecting on the Desert Fathers and Mothers. Dr. Williams chooses several anecdotes and sayings of these early monastics, and then reflects upon them and gives the reader much rich food for thought. Wonderful book!

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I expected some songs of the desert fathers and mothers (which can sometimes, frankly, be so far removed from my experience as to be bizarre and unhelpful), but this interpretation was so personally meaningful and relevant that I will return to this again and again. Profound and pointing to the heart of Jesus' teaching.

[John Howes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, is about the desert fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries. Rowan Williams, in a series of talks, attempts to apply their teachings to modern life.

I found it fairly enlightening and there were plenty of passages to highlight as I read through it. Of particular interest was the question and answer session at the end, with questions such as: how do you handle acedia (gloom, despondency, a feeling of hopelessness). Williams’s is: “to be drawn deeper into the present moment.” I’m not sure how helpful that is, but he does on to say:

“Here I am. This is what I am. This is what I do next. Here is God.”

This is what he would say to God. He would just be himself – and there is a lot of sense in that.

“God meets me in this moment and nowhere else.”

His comments about silence are particularly valuable – and how silence can take us into God. How do we tell the difference between types of silence? Is there any difference? Interesting.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful insights into desert spirituality: lecture style with a helpful Q&A (presumably transcription of a real one) as an epilogue.

Again (see The Truce of God), incredibly perceptive about our psychology, foibles, false trails for the mind, and the dangers of pride and self-deception even in the midst of a pursuit of holiness.