A review by moonrattle
The Night in Gethsemane: On Solitude and Betrayal by Massimo Recalcati

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

Short little meditation that takes a post-modern view of Christianity, especially in how Christianity gets define by Recalcati towards the end of this work. I always like reading analyses about the Garden of Gethsemane so I, of course, am glad to have read this and enjoyed how Recalcati approached the subject matter. He left me with some interesting things to think about, especially regarding the paradoxes of God’s absence/distance and the nature of prayer. I am by no means someone that has a deep knowledge of religious philosophy and I do get nervous when references to Lacan get brought up. Yet, this book did seem accessible to me, or at least accessible enough.

A moment that I really was moved about when reading was on the nature of betrayal, and how betrayal by its nature is a type of trauma. In fact, it was Recalcati’s focus on the traumatic experiences in the Gethsemane that were emotionally resonant and enabling me to understand some of the more challenging explorations of Law.