This brief paperback contains the Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching given at Yale Divinity School in 1997. Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopal priest, has been named by Baylor University as one of the 12 most effective preachers in the English-speaking world. Here her theme is the challenge of conveying the word of God to people who are hungry for meaning.
Taylor begins by delineating the assault on the nobility of language by consumerism, journalism, and the deluge of words everyone must deal with every day. In addition, people don't seem to listen very well. The preacher is called to talk about God using this tattered language, but she still wonders whether the message will get through to the heart or be filtered out along the way.
Taylor then outlines the silence of God in the Old Testament and notes the ways Jesus created great pockets of silence with his indirect teachings. In the last section of the lecture, she admonishes preachers to honor God's silence by keeping their sermons brief, experiential, and open-ended, allowing the listeners in the pews to wiggle their way into the story. When God Is Silent cherishes the mystery of God and the spiritual practice of reverence.