Noise of Violent Human Speech and the Restraint of Contemplative Silence

Abstract

This essay assumes that violent human speech is a form of noise. It argues that linguistic integrity is primarily a function of a “silent mind” soaked in silence—a silence which is not a mere absence of words, a type of passive protest, or a state of unspeakable suffering, but the spacious, fertile, and transfiguring ground of human speech because it is the boundless yet contingent “temple of divine presence”. This study is developed through the Judeo- Christian praxis and theoria of contemplative silence, using biblical, early Christian, and contemporary sources: The First Temple tradition, those of the desert fathers/abbas and mothers/ammas, and from Anglican solitary Maggie Ross with her “work of silence.” Thus, contemplative silence is argued 1) in its more restraining reconstructive potential for some imagined social order and 2) beyond restraint, in the habit of contemplative silence that leads toward a more peaceful, compassionate society.