{"product_id":"9780679463054","title":"Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain","description":"“If I had learned anything during the war, it was that our walk in the sun is brief, and so I resolved to wander from monastery to monastery, a sojourner in the world of last things.”\u003cp\u003eSo poet and journalist Christopher Merrill tells us near the beginning of this gripping account of the transforming pilgrimages he made to Mount Athos, in Greece, in the aftermath of the Balkan wars of the 1990s. “It was time for me to come to terms with the way my life had turned out: the love I had squandered, the misgivings I had about my vocation and my faith, the dread I felt at every turn.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn despair and out of a longing to end his spiritual desolation, Merrill became one of a handful of visitors permitted entry to Mount Athos–a mysterious land that for more than a thousand years has been the secret heart of the Eastern Orthodox Church. There, amid the beautiful terrain, the ancient rhythms, and the spiritual rigor of this holy place, he found a haven in dramatic contrast to the rest of the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs Merrill’s story unfolds, we, too, hike the rough trails of Athos, exploring a place and a way of life scarcely altered since medieval times. We share encounters with monks, wolves, and spiritual seekers; visit Athos’s twenty monasteries, where exquisite art treasures are sequestered; make our way to lonely hermitages that clutch the cliffs above the sea. And like Merrill, we come to consider existence in a new and different light.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePart journal of personal discovery, part meditation upon the history and traditions of the contemplative life, \u003ci\u003eThings of the Hidden God\u003c\/i\u003e takes us where the temporal and the eternal intersect, where community and solitude coexist, and where centuries-old practices provide insight for how to live today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Random House Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47024813048048,"sku":"9780679463054","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780679463054_p0.jpg?v=1763606100","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780679463054","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}