"The author's own journey serves as a backdrop for a welcoming invitation to experience the spiritual restoration of solitude and silence. Her compelling invitation combines both a clear explanation of the purpose of solitude and seasoned guidance on how to practice it." -- James C. Wilhoit, Ph.D., Price-LeBar Professor of Christian Formation and Ministry, Wheaton College Graduate School
"Invitation to Solitude and Silence provides wonderful spiritual companionship on the quest for intimacy with God. Read it through to stir your appetite, then return to savor each chapter, engaging the practical steps into the silence where your soul can find rest in the Father's arms. Written in a style reminiscent of the spiritual guides of centuries past, yet current, vibrant, and alive with personal reflection and scriptural application. Ruth Barton has whispered a call to overcome the fear of solitude and follow the soul's deepest longing to experience God's presence. A passionate, transformational resource that will foster both personal spiritual growth and spiritual formation in a group setting." -- William R. Cutrer, Gheens Professor of Christian Ministry, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
"I find books in the genre of the contemplative life are often written by mystics who occupy some rarified, ethereal realm in which I don't seem to live. Not so with Ruth Haley Barton's Invitation to Solitude and Silence. Ruth takes us on her journey into solitude and silence as one, like most of us, who must learn to commune with God in the muchness of life." -- Greg Ogden, Author of Discipleship Essentials, and Executive Pastor of Discipleship, Christ Church of Oak Brook
"Ruth Haley Barton has gifted us with a vital way to deeper intimacy with God and our own true self in God through the neglected disciplines of solitude and silence. Along with her own honest biographical witness, she offers us a variety of concrete practices that can help the reader enter solitude and silence with greater ease and understanding of the ways God is present for us in such times, often in the face of our resistances. What she has given us can contribute significantly to a more mature andfull spiritual life. She convincingly shows us the vital spiritualimportance of an intentional rhythm of work and rest, solitude andcommunity, silence and word." -- Tilden Edwards, Founder and Senior Fellow, Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation, Bethesda, Maryland
"If you would really like to know the 'rest appropriate for the people of God' (Heb 4:9), then make the decision to leave all outcomes to God and enter the practice of solitude and silence with Ruth Barton as your guide. As you do so, call upon Jesus to be with you, and trust him for that. In a relatively short period of time you will come to know the 'rest unto your souls' promised by him who is meek and lowly of heart." -- From the foreword by Dallas Willard, author of Renovation of the Heart
"I have not otherwise found a more excellent and accessible guide for those who seek, as Elijah, to know and be known by God in solitude and silence. . . . I have given this book to all of our employees and it has become an integral part of what we call '8:30 Stillness.'" -- Gary A. Haugen, president of International Justice Mission
