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Sonorous Desert: What Deep Listening Taught Early Christian Monks―and What It Can Teach Us
Enduring lessons from the desert soundscapes that shaped the Christian monastic tradition
For the hermits and communal monks of antiquity, the desert was a place to flee the cacophony of ordinary life in order to hear and contemplate the voice of God. But these monks discovered something surprising in their harsh desert far from empty and silent, the desert is richly reverberant. Sonorous Desert shares the stories and sayings of these ancient spiritual seekers, tracing how the ambient sounds of wind, thunder, water, and animals shaped the emergence and development of early Christian monasticism.
Kim Haines-Eitzen draws on ancient monastic texts from Egypt, Sinai, and Palestine to explore how noise offered desert monks an opportunity to cultivate inner quietude, and shows how the desert quests of ancient monastics offer profound lessons for us about what it means to search for silence. Drawing on her own experiences making field recordings in the deserts of North America and Israel, she reveals how mountains, canyons, caves, rocky escarpments, and lush oases are deeply resonant places. Haines-Eitzen discusses how the desert is a place of paradoxes, both silent and noisy, pulling us toward contemplative isolation yet giving rise to vibrant collectives of fellow seekers.
Accompanied by Haines-Eitzen’s evocative audio recordings of desert environments, Sonorous Desert reveals how desert sounds taught ancient monks about solitude, silence, and the life of community, and how they can help us understand ourselves if we slow down and listen.
For the hermits and communal monks of antiquity, the desert was a place to flee the cacophony of ordinary life in order to hear and contemplate the voice of God. But these monks discovered something surprising in their harsh desert far from empty and silent, the desert is richly reverberant. Sonorous Desert shares the stories and sayings of these ancient spiritual seekers, tracing how the ambient sounds of wind, thunder, water, and animals shaped the emergence and development of early Christian monasticism.
Kim Haines-Eitzen draws on ancient monastic texts from Egypt, Sinai, and Palestine to explore how noise offered desert monks an opportunity to cultivate inner quietude, and shows how the desert quests of ancient monastics offer profound lessons for us about what it means to search for silence. Drawing on her own experiences making field recordings in the deserts of North America and Israel, she reveals how mountains, canyons, caves, rocky escarpments, and lush oases are deeply resonant places. Haines-Eitzen discusses how the desert is a place of paradoxes, both silent and noisy, pulling us toward contemplative isolation yet giving rise to vibrant collectives of fellow seekers.
Accompanied by Haines-Eitzen’s evocative audio recordings of desert environments, Sonorous Desert reveals how desert sounds taught ancient monks about solitude, silence, and the life of community, and how they can help us understand ourselves if we slow down and listen.
168 pages, Hardcover
Published July 12, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
April 20, 2023
In her new book, Sonorous Desert: What Deep Listening Taught Early Christian Monks—and What It Can Teach Us, Kim Haines-Eitzen thinks about the way hermits and monks in antiquity used to take to the hills and flee to the desert to remove themselves from the noise of everyday life; for in the midst of the city, how can a person hear the voice of God?
It wasn’t just the Christian mystics and desert fathers either. The Stoic philosopher Seneca described in great detail the noises coming from a bathhouse just below the room where he was writing, expressing his irritation at the distracting “babel” all around him.
Reading from early, mainly Greek, texts, Haines-Eitzen unpacks the way that more often than not, when an ancient seeker removed themselves from the hissing (surittousin) and roaring (brukhe) cacophony of everyday life in the world, it wasn’t silence they found. Often the deserts were ablaze with noise. There was the terror of thunder and the roar of pulsating rivers. But it was also beautiful in the music of birdsong and wind rustling through canyons.
As Haines-Eitzen herself spends more and more time in the sky islands of southern Arizona, as well as in the deserts outside of Jerusalem, she asks:
What does home sound like? How do we recognize home by listening? For each of us, the answer will be different. When I hear pigeons and doves at a desert spring, or the chatter of sparrows in a single acacia tree, I am reminded of my childhood. These days home is standing on a remote gravel road listening to thunder across the desert valley, the songs of birds in the late afternoon, and the calls of crickets at night, winds move through juniper sage and cactus.
Like Haines-Eitzen, sounds even more than smells connect me to place and “home.” I remember as a child in Los Angeles, I kept my windows open on warm evenings to listen to the peaceful sound of the crickets singing in the wet grass out back. Then later, living in Japan, it was frogs singing in the paddies on summer nights and autumn insects pining that grounded me in place.
This book is incredibly meaningful to me. For the rest of my review link: please see my essay on the Rumpus
It wasn’t just the Christian mystics and desert fathers either. The Stoic philosopher Seneca described in great detail the noises coming from a bathhouse just below the room where he was writing, expressing his irritation at the distracting “babel” all around him.
Reading from early, mainly Greek, texts, Haines-Eitzen unpacks the way that more often than not, when an ancient seeker removed themselves from the hissing (surittousin) and roaring (brukhe) cacophony of everyday life in the world, it wasn’t silence they found. Often the deserts were ablaze with noise. There was the terror of thunder and the roar of pulsating rivers. But it was also beautiful in the music of birdsong and wind rustling through canyons.
As Haines-Eitzen herself spends more and more time in the sky islands of southern Arizona, as well as in the deserts outside of Jerusalem, she asks:
What does home sound like? How do we recognize home by listening? For each of us, the answer will be different. When I hear pigeons and doves at a desert spring, or the chatter of sparrows in a single acacia tree, I am reminded of my childhood. These days home is standing on a remote gravel road listening to thunder across the desert valley, the songs of birds in the late afternoon, and the calls of crickets at night, winds move through juniper sage and cactus.
Like Haines-Eitzen, sounds even more than smells connect me to place and “home.” I remember as a child in Los Angeles, I kept my windows open on warm evenings to listen to the peaceful sound of the crickets singing in the wet grass out back. Then later, living in Japan, it was frogs singing in the paddies on summer nights and autumn insects pining that grounded me in place.
This book is incredibly meaningful to me. For the rest of my review link: please see my essay on the Rumpus
November 15, 2023
Good book that put in memories of truly silent places. Where I live now in a monastery in upstate New York. After everyone and their dogs have gone to sleep this place is silent!
There was an error on page 78, that I alerted the author to. It reads, “They also sang the Anastasia, a hymn to Mary…” The hymn is actually an Akathist. Anastasia is a female name, as in St. Anastasia celebrated in the Christian Orthodox church in the December feasts leading up to Christmas.
There was an error on page 78, that I alerted the author to. It reads, “They also sang the Anastasia, a hymn to Mary…” The hymn is actually an Akathist. Anastasia is a female name, as in St. Anastasia celebrated in the Christian Orthodox church in the December feasts leading up to Christmas.
January 21, 2023
Airbnb (vacation rentals) lets both the renter evaluate the owner and the owner evaluate the renter. Goodreads in essence is readers grading authors (books), but if there were an evaluation of me as a reader of this book, it would be low marks.
To wit: I must have been woefully distracted as I listened to Sonorous Desert because I can't, for the life of me, give a two-sentence synopsis. I enjoyed what I read, especially the field recordings KHE made while in the desert. I admire people who can sit in quiet for long swathes of time and observe their surroundings. I wish I had any ornithological knowledge.
Perhaps I will revisit this in a different season.
Fun intersection: Kim met Donald Kroodsma at an event and references his book The Singing Life of Birds. I jumped right up and grabbed it from my shelf. It's technical and in the "serious read" category. I'm reinvigorated to read it.
To wit: I must have been woefully distracted as I listened to Sonorous Desert because I can't, for the life of me, give a two-sentence synopsis. I enjoyed what I read, especially the field recordings KHE made while in the desert. I admire people who can sit in quiet for long swathes of time and observe their surroundings. I wish I had any ornithological knowledge.
Perhaps I will revisit this in a different season.
Fun intersection: Kim met Donald Kroodsma at an event and references his book The Singing Life of Birds. I jumped right up and grabbed it from my shelf. It's technical and in the "serious read" category. I'm reinvigorated to read it.
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March 9, 2025What does it take to cultivate a more profound presence in this life? For starters, one can learn to appreciate stillness not as absence but an opportunity for deeper engagement. It could also mean learning to thrive in the liminal spaces, in the paradoxes of a place like the desert—between solitude and community, refuge and risk, silence and noise.
"But the line between experience and reflection, between feeling and thinking, has never been straightforward or even a line at all."
"But the line between experience and reflection, between feeling and thinking, has never been straightforward or even a line at all."
November 23, 2025
This book was an exploration of deep listening and how it effected ancient monks. I loved the exploration of antony, and how the desert itself sounds, but the most profound takeaway was about the word silence itself.
Silence is the absence of sound, or the presence of quiet. In pursuing silence with field recordings going to increasingly desolate locations, the author found herself frustrated with how much noise was constantly present. Silence was impossible to find in the natural world; the noises that we refer to as “noise” are typically human made, or anthropophonies. When people think of somewhere peaceful, or quiet, the presence of birds, or a stream in the distance, crickets, or an ocean monotonously sending sound waves fit perfectly into the thought. Natural sounds are peaceful, and quiet, even when they themselves are measurably loud in SPL. This was what this book, at its core, was about. The pursuit of silence was actually the pursuit of escape from the word that humans established, and this was the exact pursuit that the monks traveling into the desert were a part of. It’s not about ‘silence’ in the literal sense, because unless it’s made artificially (even in anechoic chambers, our bodies produce enough noise to fill our eardrums with seemingly thunderous sound), silence does not exist. Wind makes sound in our ears. Perhaps on the ocean, in the calmest of waters there would be silence? But then is that a ‘natural environment’ for a human?
Silence therefore doesn’t exist, and when people refer to a quiet environment, they are referring to the absence of human sound. Deep into the book, the author comes to this conclusion, though it is not stressed upon, which I thought did an injustice to how impactful this idea is for those who study x-phonies, or simply audio itself.
Great read, lovely book, and a cornel professor which I thought was cool!
Silence is the absence of sound, or the presence of quiet. In pursuing silence with field recordings going to increasingly desolate locations, the author found herself frustrated with how much noise was constantly present. Silence was impossible to find in the natural world; the noises that we refer to as “noise” are typically human made, or anthropophonies. When people think of somewhere peaceful, or quiet, the presence of birds, or a stream in the distance, crickets, or an ocean monotonously sending sound waves fit perfectly into the thought. Natural sounds are peaceful, and quiet, even when they themselves are measurably loud in SPL. This was what this book, at its core, was about. The pursuit of silence was actually the pursuit of escape from the word that humans established, and this was the exact pursuit that the monks traveling into the desert were a part of. It’s not about ‘silence’ in the literal sense, because unless it’s made artificially (even in anechoic chambers, our bodies produce enough noise to fill our eardrums with seemingly thunderous sound), silence does not exist. Wind makes sound in our ears. Perhaps on the ocean, in the calmest of waters there would be silence? But then is that a ‘natural environment’ for a human?
Silence therefore doesn’t exist, and when people refer to a quiet environment, they are referring to the absence of human sound. Deep into the book, the author comes to this conclusion, though it is not stressed upon, which I thought did an injustice to how impactful this idea is for those who study x-phonies, or simply audio itself.
Great read, lovely book, and a cornel professor which I thought was cool!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 25, 2024
The topic sounds interesting but but the book will bore you to death with redundance. Very small base of thoughts, hardly enough for an essay, but each repeated dozens of times over and over again to fill pages, plagiating the previous chapters. Basically the account of a failed project (recording nature) - but claiming the failure to be a "lesson".
If you listen to an interview with the author, everything remotely interesting will already have been said, and the full book adds nothing to it. What a waste of time.
If you listen to an interview with the author, everything remotely interesting will already have been said, and the full book adds nothing to it. What a waste of time.
March 1, 2023
I wanted to like this more than I actually did. While the premise is interesting, I really didn't come away with anything meaningful. A member of my book club said that it seemed like an academic paper that didn't quite find enough support for its thesis. I think that is a fair descriptor. The accompanying soundtrack for the book (available on spotify) was very relaxing. I actually listened to this audiobook, and the author had a nice narration.
March 23, 2023
This book is an interesting analysis of early Christian monasticism. The hook here is that Hanes-Eitzen considers what desert monks would have heard. Because an important aspect of monastic life is listening. So she took audio recording equipment to the desert and captured the sounds of the wind, the streams, insects, animals, etc.
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March 25, 2023This book sounded super cool when our book club chose it. The beginning held much promise - contemplative space such as monasteries in the desert. The audiobook had the author's recordings from deserts around the world. However, the writing was so dull that I could not continue this book & abandoned it.
October 3, 2023
Another book that while very good, did not meet expectations. The author mostly talked about her experiences with recording sounds in the desert. I was expecting more about the early monastic fathers. Unfortunately this book is not the one to read if you too are looking for more information about them.
March 7, 2024
A beautiful reflection on the ecology of soundscapes with some anecdotes that touch on intimate personal experiences I have shared with the author, including the final resting place of a mentor and dear friend. This book was a wonderful way to reengage with my love of the history of early Christian monasticism, the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, and the eternal mystery of the desert.
March 8, 2024
I enjoyed listening to this audiobook a great deal. It includes sounds of the desert and examples of what she is describing. It is a strange mix (my favorite kind of mix) of memoir, essay, historical theory, nature writing, religious philosophy, literary criticism - you name it! Probably more of a 4.5, but my geeky enjoyment pops it up to 5
February 13, 2025
I think a more accurate title for this book would have been “Sonorous Desert: Cornell professor explores deserts and writes memoir about her experiences”
This book was a bit all over the place for me. At times it seemed to just keep saying the same thing over and over and at other times it seemed to wander aimlessly.
This book was a bit all over the place for me. At times it seemed to just keep saying the same thing over and over and at other times it seemed to wander aimlessly.
September 24, 2022
Interesting and novel connections made between natural soundscapes and the wisdom of desert fathers. I would recommend getting the audiobook version because it includes sound recordings from the author who also narrates the book. I found it a worthwhile listen.
April 16, 2024
I love really niche subject matter.
I also love deserts, monasteries, the idea of silence, and I particularly love when people find Orthodox theology from really sideways directions. So this scratched quite a few spots for me. I was delighted.
I also love deserts, monasteries, the idea of silence, and I particularly love when people find Orthodox theology from really sideways directions. So this scratched quite a few spots for me. I was delighted.
May 20, 2024
I didn’t finish. Perhaps at another time I would enjoy it more, but I was a bit bogged down by the details of this one and personal narratives (as opposites to true applications and takeaways). Maybe in another time?
May 5, 2025
Quite good.
Wish there was a tad bit more elaboration on the Christian monastic texts - it would get interesting, but the author would move on a bit too quickly.
Luckily, she provides references for further reading.
The recordings are a wonderful addition - especially as an avid ASMR consumer 🙃
Wish there was a tad bit more elaboration on the Christian monastic texts - it would get interesting, but the author would move on a bit too quickly.
Luckily, she provides references for further reading.
The recordings are a wonderful addition - especially as an avid ASMR consumer 🙃
October 19, 2022
Hayduke lives
January 10, 2023
The writing is excellent!
November 8, 2023
Really a fantastic read
November 8, 2023
A really interesting idea that ultimately needed more evocative prose to completely work for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 12, 2024
Like visiting Disneyland in a F16 Fighter Jet.
April 27, 2025
evocative.
January 31, 2024
Is a really good book, it gives you a perspective of how the monastic movement in the church develop its practices in places like the desserts, mountains and caves. It allows you understand the anthropological experiences of these monks and how they interpret they spiritual journeys in the wilderness.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews