My Books - Brent Bill

Coming in 2023!

Amity: Stories from the Heartland is a collection of short stories by well-known Quaker writer Brent Bill. Each story is set in the Midwest of the United States, a region known for its honest, hardworking, plain-speaking, religious people who are as complex and thoughtful as the most urbane city dwellers. These stories are about 1930s housewives, modern day priests, 1960s kids, and more -- as well as the varieties and vagaries of their lives' trials, triumphs, failings, joys, sorrows, and surviving -- and the beauty and mystery of it all.

This book invites all people of faith to consider how our personal and communal faith practices in growing deeper spirituality should bring us to a fresh engagement with the needs of this world. This includes being active in promoting those values which align with our understanding of the gospel and standing against injustice, oppression, and evil inflicted on any of God’s children. Such activism, rooted in deep spirituality, may include being what Quaker civil rights activist Bayard Rustin called “angelic troublemakers.”

Do you long to live the abundant life that Jesus promised his followers? If so, then you will want to weave the threads of beauty, truth, life, and love into the tapestry of your life. When these essentials are each present in some measure in our relationships, ministries, vocations, and life choices, then we are more likely to find ourselves living a good and abundant life with God.This is what life—and following Jesus—are all about.

When beauty, truth, life, and love weave throughout your life, you will see a difference in your relationships,vocational direction, and life choices.

On experiencing more fully the life-changing power of sacred silence

J. Brent Bill's Holy Silence is a contemporary classic on sacred silence. With warmth, wisdom, and gentle humor, Bill presents the Quaker practice of silence and expectant listening to a wider Christian audience. This revised and expanded edition includes new spiritual silence practices and a new section on incorporating holy silence into worship. Written by one of the most respected interpreters of the Quaker tradition, Holy Silence opens up for readers a fresh way of connecting with God.

On quick observation, the Quaker lifestyle boasts peace, solitude, and simplicity—qualities that are attractive to any believer of any denomination or religion. Yet living a life of faith is not as simple as it may look. In fact, it’s often characterized more by the stumbles than the grace.“

When someone asks me what kind of Christian I am,” says Quaker author J. Brent Bill, “I say I’m a bad one. I’ve got the belief part down pretty well, I think. It’s in the practice of my belief in everyday life where I often miss the mark.”

In Life Lessons from a Bad Quaker, a self-professed non-expert on faith invites readers on a joyful exploration of the faith journey—perfection not required. With whimsy, humor, and wisdom, Bill shows readers how to put faith into practice to achieve a life that is soulfully still yet active, simple yet satisfying, peaceful yet strong.

For anyone who is bad at being good, this is an invitation to a pilgrimage toward a more meaningful and satisfying life . . . one step—or stumble—at a time.

"Brent Bill has written one of the finest books on discernment and divine guidance that I have seen in a very long time."
—Richard J. Foster

How do you discover God's will for your life—every day?Sacred Compass offers a fresh and deeper way of living a God-directed life. J. Brent Bill draws on the quiet beauty of the Quaker path to show how spiritual discernment is more about sensing God's gracious presence than it is about making the right decisions. As you use this book to chart your own spiritual course, you will find yourself led to unexpected places, comforted by the knowledge that God uses all of our experiences to bring us close.

It's high time the traditional Publishers of Truth as Quakers originally called themselves published something for today's general readers outside the Quaker fold. Bill's anthology picks up where the Quaker Reader (edited by novelist Jessamyn West) left, focusing on writings from the latter half of the 20th century. The prose mix is lively: nonfiction devotional slices from modern mystic Thomas Kelly are served up along with such fiction as an excerpt from the murder mystery Quaker Testimony by Irene Allen, pen name for geologist Elsa Kirsten Peters. Such dizzying range makes the point that contemporary Quakers liberal, pastoral, evangelical can be mildly or wildly different despite common core beliefs in peace, simplicity, truth telling and ongoing divine revelation. At the same time it offers excerpts from such better known Quaker believers as James Michener and Richard Foster, the anthology introduces such unsung writers as children's book specialist Elfrida Vipont Foulds, one of a notably large cadre of women who have always been empowered in Quaker tradition to speak or write.

Anthologies are necessarily arbitrary, acknowledges editor Bill, an Earlham College writing program graduate who provides helpful biographical introductions.

This collection is a welcome reminder that the small Society of Friends, as Quakers are also known, continues to offer creative and relevant witness to the truth as found within and practiced in community.