Short Trip to the Edge: A Pilgrimage to Prayer

Item No. 007010

by Scott Cairns

Poet and literature professor Scott Cairns ran headlong into a midlife crisis, but his crisis was not a desperate attempt to recapture youth, as often occurs among men nearing the age of fifty. Instead, Cairns realized his spiritual life was advancing at a snail's pace and time was running out. Midlife crisis for this this Baptist turned Eastern Orthodox manifested as a desperate need to seek out prayer.

Originally published in 2007, this new edition of Short Trip to the Edge includes photos, mapss and an expanded narrative of Scott's spiritual journey to the mystical peninsula of Mt. Athos. With twenty monasteries and thirteen sketes scattered across its sloping terrain, the Holy Mountain was the perfect place for Scott to seek out a spiritual father and discover the stillness of the true prayer life.

Told with wit and exquisite prose, his narrative takes the reader from a beach in Virginia to the most holy Orthodox monasteries in the world to a monastery in Arizona and back again as Scott struggles to find his prayer path. Along the way, Cairns forged relationships with monks, priests, and fellow pilgrims.

Scott Cairns is not only one of the most vital poets of our time but also a prose writer of uncommon vision, and in Short Trip to the Edge, his account of his pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain of Athos, in northern Greece, he weaves together a personal history of faith, a wealth of learning, and the wisdom of the ages to create a book for spiritual seekers from every religious denomination. What better guide, and travel companion, than Scott Cairns? I would follow him to the edge – and beyond.

-Christopher Merrill, author of Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain

Mt Athos is 'the edge' in more ways than one, a place both beautiful and ruggedly challenging, alive with spiritual power that shares the same qualities. Cairns is the ideal guide — relaxed, invitingly conversational, and often amused, but always evoking the awe that these mysteries deserve.

-Frederica Mathewes-Green

Author: Scott Cairns

Format: Paperback

Dimensions: 5.4 X 8.4 inches

Page Length: 256 pages

Publisher: Other Publisher

AFP SKU: 007010

Retail Price: $16.99