Conventional wisdom associates light with good, while darkness represents evil and danger. Theologian Barbara Brown Taylor believes otherwise. In Learning to Walk in the Dark, she compellingly makes the case for why darkness is as necessary to our well-being as light--to have one without the other is to live only half a life.
When Taylor told people she was writing a book about darkness, reactions were uniformly negative, but Taylor continued exploring physical, emotional and spiritual darkness, and reveals the beauty and riches to be found there, sharing the life-shaping lessons she would never have learned in the light.
Taylor has filled Learning to Walk in the Dark with fascinating facts and anecdotes, from the origin of the word "night"--which comes from Greek myth--to insights on insomniacs like Mark Twain and Van Gogh, who often did their best work during the darkest hours, to why she learned as much about human nature working as a waitress at an underground bar as she did writing papers for seminary classes. Ultimately, Taylor challenges us to think differently about a subject we've largely shied away from, with an impassioned plea to embrace darkness, both metaphorical and literal. --Shannon McKenna Schmidt, contributing writer, Shelf Awareness