Knowing Beyond Words: Reflections on the Inexpressible

"God employs many translators," said John Donne. In his new book Knowing Beyond Words, John McQuiston, bestselling author of Always We Begin Again, has collected inspired and inspiring prose and poetry from many of the brilliant men and women who have tried to translate the inexpressible for us.

The words of any one person, McQuiston says, may simply be inadequate to talk about the nature of God, the creation of joy, the search for meaning, giving, prayer and meditation, humility, and death. But we are compelled to try to say something. The contributors here, representing the variety of world religions and philosophies, attempt to bring illumination to what is ultimately difficult or impossible to say.

McQuiston uses the classic images and language of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as a starting point, and proceeds to the words of writers and thinkers across centuries and traditions. These include Teresa of Avila, T.S. Eliot, Reinhold Niebuhr, Rabbi David Cooper, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Confucius, Thomas Merton, John Shelby Spong, Annie Dillard, Krishnamurti, The Dalai Lama, St. Francis of Assisi, Karl Rahner, Shakespeare, and many more.

In Knowing Beyond Words, McQuiston helps readers discover more of the true spirit behind these words—words that help us to understand the inexpressible.