Product Description

Providence is Quinn's fascinating memoir of his life-long spiritual voyage. His journey takes him from a childhood dream in Omaha setting him on a search for fulfillment, to his time as a postulant in the Trappist order under the guidance of eminent theologian Thomas Merton. Later, his quest took him through the deep self-discovery of psychoanalysis, through a failed marriage during the turbulent and exciting 60s, to finding fulfillment with his wife Rennie and a career as a writer. In Providence Quinn also details his rejection of organized religion and his personal rediscovery of what he says is humankind's first and only universal religion, the theology that forms the basis for Ishmael.

Providence is an insightful book that address issues of education, psychology, religion, science, marriage, and self-understanding, and will give insight to anyone who has ever struggled to forge and enact a personal spirituality.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #372423 in Books
• Published on: 1996-05-01
• Released on: 1996-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Quinn's novel Ishmael, a cult favorite, elaborated an ecologically sound mythology for our time and won a Ted Turner award for fiction that offers solutions to global problems. In this windy, slow-moving memoir, Quinn summarizes Ishmael's vision of the universe, upholding the spirit-worship practiced by animist peoples as a viable alternative to Christianity and Judaism, religions he views as largely irrelevant. He tells how, as a 19-year-old Trappist novice in Kentucky, he received encouragement from a golden-headed guardian angel but was then ordered to leave the Gethsemani monastery by Thomas Merton, his spiritual director. Then came psychoanalysis in Chicago, a marriage whose failure he blamed on his sexual inadequacies, divorce and a successful career in educational publishing. Quinn's trajectory from "fundamentalist Roman Catholic" to animist marks an unusual odyssey.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Quinn's novel Ishmael (LJ 12/91) won the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship for fiction, which offers solutions for global problems; the book has since garnered a large and devoted following. Providence is Quinn's spiritual autobiography, rendered as a conversation with one of his followers. He uses the events of his life to frame a discussion of religion, history, and education. Quinn relates his search for a unifying vision, beginning with a dream he had as a child and culminating with the ideas expressed in Ishmael. He describes his evolution from a novice Trappist monk under the direction of Thomas Merton to a modern animist prophet. Although Quinn writes with precision and clarity, the conversational tone weakens his exposition. Still, his point of view deserves attention. Libraries where there is interest in Ishmael will want this book.
Wendy Knickerbocker, Rhode Island Coll. Lib., Providence
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher
Praise for Daniel Quinn's Ishmael

"Wonderfully earnest and engaging. Think of Robert Persig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance or B.F. Skinner in Walden Two."
-- Los Angeles Time Book Review

"A thoughtful, fearlessly low-key novel about the role of our species on the planet"
laid out for us with an originality and an clarity that few would deny."
-- The New York Times Book Review

"Deserves high marks as a serious--and all too rare--effort that is unflinchingly
engaged with fundamental life-and-death concerns."
-- The Atlanta Constitution Journal

Daniel Quinn's novel Ishmael is one of today's most beloved novels of spiritual adventure. Winner of the half-million dollar Turner Tomorrow Award, the book has become a backlist bestseller and garnered rave reviews. "From now on," wrote Jim Britell in the Whole Earth Review, "I will divide the books I have read into two categories--the ones I read before Ishmael and those read after." Thousands of readers have responded to this unique and captivating story of a man who enters into a dialogue with a full-grown gorilla about humanity's place in nature. Now Daniel Quinn follows Ishmael with another story of a spiritual quest--this time his own--in PROVIDENCE: The Story of a Fifty-Year Vision Quest.

Customer Reviews

A New Level
_Providence_ takes _Ishmael_ to a whole new level by explaining what you can do with yourself after _Ishmael_. Quinn explains that the reason for this work is to fill the void that _Ishmael_ leaves: if it shattered your beliefs (in a good way, of course), _Providence_ gives you something to take its place.

After reading Quinn's first four books, this was welcome, because for me, it fills the void that _Beyond Civilization_ tries to work into, but somehow fails. Many people complain that Quinn never tells you what to do wth these new ideas in his books, and here, he gives the reader ways that he has made them work. I found it very easy to take them and mesh them with my own interests. To find out Quinn's entire argument for saving ourselves and our planet, it's really necessary to read his five major books - if you read this one last, it brings the whole argument together nicely. He just doesn't give you an easy way out. You have to find it for yourself.

Read this to understand the man who wrote Ishmael.
For those of you who were also stunned and fascinated by Daniel Quinn's Ishmael, this book is required reading. It tells the marvelous story of how Quinn came to be the man who could write Ishmael. Part mystery, part comedy, Providence keeps you wondering how the story of Quinn's life will end (not completely, of course, just up to the writing of Ishmael). Written in an easy conversational style, Providence is the essential sequel to Ishmael, because it provides an extension and context for the ideas introduced in Ishmael. Read Ishmael first, and then you will read this book over and over again

An interesting "how he got here" book
If you are fan of Daniel Quinn (I am) then you will be interested to see his background. His monastic life seems more like an attempt to hide from the problems of the world than a desire to serve God, and he recognizes it. If you want to read the story of how a man could get from feeling as powerless and victimized as the rest of the world to finally seeing alight at the end of the tunel, this is your book. If you want to know what the light looks like for yourself: read Ishmael, The Story of B or My Ishmael.