Phyllis Tickle: Essential Spiritual Writings

by Jon M. Sweeney (Editor)

Phyllis Tickle is a prolific author, lecturer, founding religion editor for Publishers Weekly, and commentator on religious matters, whose writing has appealed to readers for six decades. She is especially known for her series, The Divine Hours, popularizing the observance of fixed-hour prayer, and for her analysis of Emergence Christianity, its precedents, history, and challenges. At every stage of her career — reflected here in essays and poems, sermons, lectures, reflections on the words of Jesus and the future of faith — her vocation has been to assist in the human struggle to come to terms with what it means to live a life with and for God. This collection will be a revelation to her newer readers, a treasury for those who have long admired and followed her work.

Genres: Theology, Nonfiction, Biography, Christianity, Book Club, Womens

184 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2015

About the author

Jon M. Sweeney is an independent scholar and writer of popular history. He is married, the father of three, and lives in Montpelier, Vermont. He has worked in book publishing for 25 years: after co-founding SkyLight Paths Publishing, he was the editor in chief and publisher at Paraclete Press, and in August 2015 became editorial director at Franciscan Media Books.

He has written more than 20 books, seven about Francis of Assisi, including "When Saint Francis Saved the Church" and "The Complete Francis of Assisi." HBO has optioned the film rights to "The Pope Who Quit."

Jon's first 20 years were spent as an involved evangelical (a story told in the memoir "Born Again and Again"); he then spent 22 years as an active Episcopalian (see "Almost Catholic," among others); and on the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi in 2009 he was received into the Catholic Church. Today, Jon is a practicing Catholic who also prays regularly with his wife, a rabbi. He loves the church, the synagogue, and other aspects of organized religion. He would never say that he's "spiritual but not religious."

In all of his writing, Jon is drawn to the ancient and medieval (see "The Road to Assisi," and "Inventing Hell"). Many of his books have been selections of the History Book Club, Book-of-the-Month Club, and Quality Paperback Book Club.

Reviews

[Erin Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the longer essays on the book rather than the short excerpts. I wish there had been more of the former. I’ve read one other of her books and it was very good. She reminds me of Barbara Brown Taylor, Wendell Berry or Marilyn Robinson.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good intro to the range of her writing — as with any collection like this, I liked some essays and didn’t love others. But Tickle’s thoughts about the church are consistently thought-provoking.

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to get info her works, and this was a good place to start. A bit of this, a bit of that, and a great way to get to know her.