The A-Z of Believing: Q is for Quietness

Ed Kessler, head of the Woolf Institute, presents the seventeenth part in a series on belief and scepticism

Silence offers a way to ponder and listen for the divine – the unsayable and inexplicable (Shutterstock/agsandrew)

There is a time to keep quiet, and a time to speak – Ecclesiastes 3:7

While silence is regarded as an authentic medium of prayer, it isn’t common religious practice, even though the ability to listen to God in quiet is a common biblical theme. “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him”, as the Psalmist says.

Being quiet is not something that is easily found where we are distracted by bright lights and pulled at by worldly matters, rarely hearing the music above the noise. This may be why Quietism, the name given in Roman Catholic theology to contemplation and intellectual stillness over vocal prayer, never became popular, and was even deemed a heresy by Pope Innocent XI in 1687. The movement appealed primarily to monks, religious hermits, and other ascetics. Its aim was to “quiet” the soul so that it could become one with God and eventually achieve a sinless state.

In Islam, the term political quietism has been used for the religiously motivated withdrawal from political affairs, or scepticism that ordinary people can establish true Islamic government. As such, it is the opposite of political Islam, which holds that Islam and politics are inseparable.

“What do you say to God when you pray?”, Mother Theresa of Calcutta was once asked. “I don’t say anything,” she replied, “I just listen.” “And when you listen,” she was asked again, “what does God say?” “He doesn’t say anything,” she replied, “He just listens.” Silence offers a way to ponder and listen for the divine – the unsayable and inexplicable. Christian Religious Orders regularly observe silence, especially during the night hours, or Great Silence, and Quakers are noted for their tradition of silent “waiting upon the Lord”. As Elijah discovered on a ledge in a cave, God is not to be found in the fire, or the whirlwind, or the earthquake, but in a still small voice. Some prefer silence because they believe in a God who speaks, albeit quietly.

Silence is also personally improving. The Prophet Muhammad told Muslims that, “One can greatly beautify himself with two habits: good manners and lengthy silence.” For Buddhists, silence teaches devotees to master their passions. Many forms of religious practice make use of silence; some, such as that of the Quakers, may consist of little else. Thomas Merton held that the only words required of a priest were those of the Mass, since some things are so mysterious that one must be silent to understand them. It is not power that compels silence here, but the inadequacy of any attempt at communication. As Ludwig Wittgenstein famously said, “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must remain silent.”

Mark Twain was somewhat more cutting: “It is better to keep one’s mouth shut and be thought a fool than open it and remove all doubt.” The Buddha would have called this “Noble Silence”. When asked a question the answer to which he believed the questioner incapable of understanding, he said nothing. Better no speech than speech that misleads, or answers that limit. But staying quiet can also refer to the absence of conversation within and between religions, demonstrating less a respectful silence than a desire not to listen. Henry III, King of England in the 13th century, whose reign saw the decline of medieval Jewry from a position of relative prosperity to one of complete ruin, ordered synagogue worship to be held quietly so that Christians passing by did not have to hear it.

But staying quiet can also mean failing to speak out and failing to resist evil, demonstrated by the failure of the churches, for the most part, to speak out and resist the evil committed by the Nazis before and after the Holocaust. During my first visit to Auschwitz some years ago, I walked into the former concentration camp and wondered how to pray to God in the context of such unimaginable devastation. An encounter with my friend, the Catholic priest Father Manfred Deselers, helped. He told me not to begin with prayer or dialogue but with quiet and listening. When we stood in Auschwitz, however different we were, in my case an English Jewish theologian and his a German Catholic priest, you could not escape the longing to recognise each other as brothers and the unspoken understanding, that whilst words of our prayers were different, our tears and our silence were the same.

The late Rabbi Hugo Gryn, a Holocaust survivor, told how on the Day of Atonement in the camp he fasted and hid, trying to remember the prayers he had learned as a child at synagogue, and asking God for forgiveness. And eventually he said, “I dissolved into crying. I must have sobbed for hours … then I seemed to be granted a curious inner peace … I believe God was also crying.” Hugo Gryn found God at Auschwitz, but God was crying. During my visit God was silent.

And each year on 27 January, Holocaust Memorial Day, I listen carefully to God’s silence again.

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Written and presented by Dr Ed Kessler MBE, founder and director of the Cambridge-based Woolf Institute, this compelling guide to religious belief and scepticism is a must-read for believers and nonbelievers alike.

Founded in 1998 to explore the relationship between religion and society, the Woolf Institute uses research and education to foster understanding between people of all beliefs with the aim of reducing prejudice and intolerance.

Says Dr Kessler: “Latest surveys suggest that 85 per cent of the world’s population identify themselves as belonging to a specific religion, and in many parts of the world the most powerful actors in civil society are religious. Understanding religion and belief, the role they play and their impact on behaviour and decision-making is, therefore, vital.”

Dr Kessler – who was awarded an MBE for services to interfaith relations in 2011 – is an affiliated lecturer with the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University, a principal of the Cambridge Theological Federation and additionally teaches at the Cambridge Muslim College.

He says: “This A-Z of Believing aims to show how the encounter between religions has influenced and been influenced by the evolution of civilisation and culture, both for good and for ill. I hope that a better understanding of believing will lead people to realise that while each religion is separate, they are also profoundly connected.”

Next week is: R is for Repentance

Listen to each episode of ‘An A-Z of Believing: from Atheism to Zealotry’ on the Woolf Institute podcast site or wherever you get your podcasts