Nicola Slee - Making Nothing Happen: Five Poets Explore Faith and Spirituality

MAKING NOTHING HAPPEN

All the authors in this collection agree that being committed to a religious form of words and practices is not simply the conscious occupation of the mind praying (Eliots phrase) but a set of habits that allows, and eventually demands, space in us. The authors write, poetry and prose alike, to demonstrate that these habits bring something to life, make space for others. So this is a book about a coming to life and a coming to stillness, together and inseparable; a serious and joyful gift, for which this reader is deeply grateful.

From the Foreword by Rowan Williams,

Master of Magdalene College Cambridge

This thoughtful, generative interaction of poets is a welcome entry into the current struggle for and with faith among us. It is clear that the long-standing prose attempts of memo and proposition produce certitude and absolutism, but not much in the way of energy or courage or wisdom. These poets are knowing in thick ways, elusive enough to invite us to move with them, and critical in ways to hint at fresh connections. In all, a welcome resource.

Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus,

Columbia Theological Seminary, USA

Is religious poetry a brand of minor poetry as TS Eliot feared? Or can it, through forging new metaphors and enlivening old ones, provide a new music for this age of fragile faith and doubt? These are vital questions for Christianity, a faith founded on the poetry of the Bible, and this book by five leading poet-theologians is a timely and challenging contribution to the debate.

Michael Symmons Roberts, Professor of Poetry,

Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

Making Nothing Happen is a conversation between five poet-theologians broadly within the Christian tradition Nicola Slee, Ruth Shelton, Mark Pryce, Eleanor Nesbitt and Gavin DCosta. Together they form The Diviners.

Each poet offers an illuminating reflection on how they understand the relation between poetry and faith, rooting their reflections in their own writing, and illustrating discussion with a selection of their own poems. The poets open up issues for deeper exploration and reflection, including: the nature of creativity and the distinction between divine and human creation; the creative process as exploration, epiphany and revelation; the forging of identity through writing; ways in which the arts reflect, challenge and dialogue with faith, and faith can inform and challenge the arts; power and voice in poetry and faith; and ways in which race, gender and culture interact with and shape poetic and theological discourse.

This book will be of interest to poets and theologians, to all interested in the connections between literature and faith, to those seeking inspiration for preaching, liturgy and pastoral care, and to those committed to the practice and nurturing of a contemplative attitude to life in which profound attention and respect are offered to words and to the creative Word at work.

Five Poets Explore Faith and Spirituality

GAVIN DCOSTA
University of Bristol, UK

ELEANOR NESBITT
University of Warwick, UK

MARK PRYCE
Diocese of Birmingham, UK

RUTH SHELTON
Nottingham, UK

NICOLA SLEE
Queens Foundation, Birmingham, UK

ASHGATE

Gavin DCosta, Eleanor Nesbitt, Mark Pryce, Ruth Shelton and Nicola Slee 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

Gavin DCosta, Eleanor Nesbitt, Mark Pryce, Ruth Shelton and Nicola Slee have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work.

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ISBN 9781409455172 (hbk)

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Nicola Slee

Ruth Shelton

Mark Pryce

Eleanor Nesbitt

Gavin DCosta

Gavin DCosta started writing poetry while at school and has continued since. He has written one unpublished novel and dabbles with oil painting. He taught a religion and literature degree course for some years. He is a Roman Catholic married to a Quaker and has two teenage children. He is consultant to the English and Welsh Bishops and the Vatican and also the Anglican Church on matters of theology and religious pluralism. Gavin is Professor of Catholic Theology at the University of Bristol. His publications include Vatican II: Interpreting the Roman Catholic View on Other Religions (Oxford University Press, 2014); Christianity and World Religions. Disputed Questions in the Theology of Religions (Blackwell, 2009); Theology in the Public Square (Blackwell, 2005); Sexing the Trinity (SCM, 2000) and The Trinity and the Meeting of Religions (T & T Clark, 2000).

Eleanor Nesbitt has read and written poetry since her primary school days. When religious labels are called for she sometimes explains that she is a Quaker, of Anglican background, that Sikh tradition has left a deep imprint and that she is part of a Hindu family. Her poems have appeared as Turn But a Stone (Hilton House, 1999) and in Gemini Four (OnlyConnect, 2011), in Of Faith and Friendship: In Memory of David Bowen (Bradford College, 2000) and Bare Feet and Buttercups: Resources for Ordinary Time (Wild Goose Publications, 2008). Eleanor is Professor Emeritus (Religions and Education) at the University of Warwick. Her publications include Sikhism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2005); Intercultural Education: Ethnographic and ReligiousApproaches (Sussex Academic Press, 2004); and Interfaith Pilgrims (Quaker Books, 2003). Co-authored volumes include (with Robert Jackson) Hindu Children in Britain (Trentham, 1993); (with Gopinder Kaur) Guru Nanak (Bayeux Arts, 1999) and (with Kailash Puri) Pool of Life: The Autobiography of a Punjabi Agony Aunt (Sussex Academic Press, 2013).

Mark Pryce grew up in Oswestry, in the Welsh Marches, where his poetic imagination was shaped by the liturgy and music of the Anglican choral tradition and the remote beauty of the Shropshire-Montgomeryshire hills. He read English at the University of Sussex and trained for ordained ministry in the Church of England at Westcott House, Cambridge. He has served as a University Chaplain and inner-city parish priest. His poetry explores themes in Christian spirituality and worship, rooted in his work as a pastor, teacher and practical theologian. In Finding a Voice (SCM, 1996) Mark offers poetry as one source for reimagining masculinity. His Literary Companion to the Lectionary (SPCK/Fortress, 2001) and