The Greatest Longing

What is the deepest hunger of the human heart? What does the soul long for when everything else falls away?

The Greatest Longing is the second book in Dr. Alan Altany's Christian Poetry of the Sacred series, a contemplative exploration of divine desire, human yearning, and the God who meets us in our deepest need.

Dr. Altany, a recently retired professor of Comparative Religions with a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, brings decades of theological reflection and literary craft to this meditation on longing, love, and the sacred. His poetry has appeared in Beltway Poetry Quarterly, North Dakota Quarterly, Montreal Review, and other respected journals.

This is poetry for those who hunger for mystical encounter beyond surface religion, wrestle with faith, doubt, and divine silence, seek intellectually rigorous spiritual literature, and want poetry that doesn't shy away from life's hardest questions.

Ideal for contemplative prayer groups and spiritual direction, Catholic university theology departments, readers of Commonweal, America Magazine, Christian Century, and anyone seeking depth in Christian poetry.

The Complete Christian Poetry of the Sacred Series:
1. A Beautiful Absurdity (2022)
2. The Greatest Longing (2023)
3. Intimations (2024)
4. Poems to God (2025)