{"product_id":"9781497676671","title":"The Presence of Absence: On Prayers and an Epiphany","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe story of an ecstatic spiritual moment—and the search to experience it again\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e When she was twenty-seven years old, writer Doris Grumbach had an epiphany. It was as if God were right there beside her, and she had a “feeling of peace so intense that it seemed to expand into ineffable joy.” After this fleeting moment, Grumbach became determined to recapture what she had felt. \u003ci\u003eThe Presence of Absence \u003c\/i\u003eis the story of her fifty-year search.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Grumbach is an open-minded and skilled seeker, and she writes candidly of the people she has met along the way. She details how she lost her path after decades of going to her Protestant church and writes of her turn to personal spirituality. In her quest to find God, she encounters a multitude of philosophies and gives all of them their due. She reads the works of Thomas Merton and Simone Weil, seeks the advice of her seminary-attending daughter, and studies the Psalms. Despite the setbacks of disease, injury, and ego, Grumbach perseveres in her pursuit of beauty and proof in the absence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  ","brand":"Open Road Media","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47126951756016,"sku":"9781497676671","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781497676671_p0.jpg?v=1763708123","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781497676671","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}