"The first half of this book is a ... wide-ranging yet concise survey of the idea of silence in Christian theology and in the practices of all kinds of Christians through the centuries. In the second half, different kinds of quiet in Christian history come under scrutiny"--Review, Sunday Times (London).

Originally published: London : Allen Lane, 2013.

The witness of Holmes's dog -- The Bible. Silence in Christian prehistory : the Tanakh ; The earliest Christian silences : the New Testament -- The triumph of monastic silence. Forming and breaking a church : 100-451 CE ; The Monastic Age in East and West : 451-1100 -- Silence through three reformations. From iconoclasm to Erasmus : 700-1500 -- The Protestant Reformation : 1500-1700 -- Reaching behind noise in Christian history. Silences for survival ; Things not remembered ; Silence in present and future Christianities.