I hope you enjoy our every-other-week podcast, “Three Books from Hearts & Minds” where a host from the CCO invites me to tell about three books, usually on the same topic, giving listeners on Apple or Spotify (or those who watch on YouTube) a description of three books which I recommend on the theme. The last show highlighted three books on immigration and refugee work, drawn from the much bigger list I did in the last BookNotes. These are informal and off-the-cuff conversations about books that matter. We are glad for those who have shared the links with others. Some say it’s more fun than QVC.
The next one, which will drop in a week or so, will be related to the upcoming Jubilee Conference and its adjacent Jubilee Professional event (in Pittsburgh, February 21-23.) You probably know that Beth and I have been involved in Jubilee since we helped plan the very first one back in the late 1970s. A Dutch neo-Calvinist philosopher in our circles had been reading John Howard Yoder’s The Politics of Jesus in which the Mennonite author makes a properly big deal about Jesus’s first sermon in his old home town (found in Luke 4, a lectionary text a few Sundays ago) in which He fulfills the dream of Isaiah 61, which draws on the Old Testament Year of Jubilee text from Leviticus 25. To be inaugurated on the Day of Atonement, most of the literal text of Leviticus’s Jubilee mandate calls for merciful and Godly social policy— debts cancelled, land restored, prisoners pardoned, animals getting to rest —and this vision of cultural renewal and social reformation gave us not only a name for our student conference but a hope: that students would reject conventional views of typical faith and embrace a wholistic Kingdom vision, at once more Biblical, more robustly engaged in the issues of the day, both pious and political, relevant for every major and academic discipline, across every zone of culture, connecting Sunday and Monday. It’s not a surprise that this year’s Jubilee swipes its tag-line from the great old Dutch Prime Minister, Abraham Kuyper, that reminds us that Christ claims “every square inch” of social and cultural space.
The risen Lord, not unlike Narnia’s Aslan, is good, even if maybe not so safe, and is on the move. Anyway, stay tuned to “Three Books from Hearts & Minds.” I always post links at both the Hearts & Minds Facebook page and my own personal age; in the next one to drop I will name three titles that have been central to and indicative of the Jubilee vision. I think I use the word “emblematic.” Stay tuned!
Jubilee 2025 will be a blast with lots of good speakers and workshops, some by authors, from Kelly Kapic to Karen Swallow Prior, Lisa Fields to Steve Bouma-Prediger, from scientist S. Joshua Swamidass to Kuyper scholar Jessica Joustra and many more. We’re obsessed with this big event these days.
But even as we here at the shop plan and prep for this huge event — if you are near Pittsburgh February 21st – 23rd, stop by the convention center and say hi! — we also are preparing to enter a sacred season of deeper repentance, solitude, sorrow, even. The energy of Jubilee (and the delight of embodying hints of new creation that drives it) will soon give way to a time of more intentional prayer and practicing spiritual disciplines that allow us to more fully enter in to this significant (and surprising, even daunting) aspect of the Biblical story.
Our King — the Jubilee-bringer himself, what the excellent Bible Project video on “Messiah” calls “The Snake Crusher” — who has in His incarnation inaugurated the Kingdom of God, takes on the brute force of evil and it kills him. Jesus’s triumphant victory comes through laying down His life. What kind of King is enthroned on a cross, with a crown of thorns, after a last supper with friends where he washed their feet? This is unlike any political party we’ve heard of, that’s for sure. Moving into Lent and towards giving our attention to the pathos of Holy Week, is vital for mature Biblical spirituality and authentic Christ-like faith so each year we offer some resources to help you along the way. You can find previous lists from other years here or here, or here, for instance. Find more by using the “search” box at the website.
Moving into Lent and towards giving our attention to the pathos of Holy Week, is vital for mature Biblical spirituality and authentic Christ-like faith
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Lent: The Season of Repentance and Renewal Esau McCaulley (IVP) $20.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $16.79
Before suggesting some daily resources or weekly studies, we wanted to highlight two that we think are very, very useful to help us all understand this Lenten season, its history, value, and the point. This little square hardback, Lent, was the first released two years ago in the lovely and wise Fullness of Time series. Many adored Tish Warren’s Advent which was followed by one on Christmas (which was excellent, by Emily Hunter McGowin) and the famous Fleming Rutledge’s Epiphany. Last year saw the release of Pentecost by Emilio Alvarez and the brand new one (which we will describe later) is the triumphant Easter by the one and only Wesley Hill of Western Theological Seminary. The senior editor and curator of this whole “Fullness of Time” series is Rev. Dr. Esau McCaulley, who wrote the important Reading While Black and a stunning memoir, How Far to the Promised Land. His small-sized Lent is the first in the series and we obviously couldn’t let the season pass without offering this fine overview. The first paragraph reminds us that “Lent is inescapably about repenting.”
The Good of Giving Up: Discovering the Freedom of Lent Aaron Damiani (Moody Press) $12.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $10.39
This is a great read — at a great price — explaining the history and importance of Lent by a former nondenominational guy who is now an Anglican priest. (See also his lively Earth Filled with Heaven: Finding Life in Liturgy, Sacraments, and Other Ancient Practices of the Church, a book we celebrated as a “Best Book of 2023.) Insofar as he was once skeptical of practices rooted in the Catholic liturgical calendar, he is an ideal spokesperson to advocate for this spiritual practice as a key aspect of the Lenten experience. Even for those practically engaged in some sort of “giving something up” for Lent, Damiani’s easy-to-read book nicely probes a bit deeper, inviting us to not only understand but to be intentional and discerning about our motives and habits, always rooted in grace and goodness. He suggests that, finally, spiritual practices of Lent, including fasting, leads us to greater, richer freedom. Very nicely designed and truly rewarding.
A Different Kind of Fast: Feeding Our True Hungers in Lent Christine Valters Paintner (Broadleaf) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99
I have written about this before but it is a lovely, evocative guide to spirituality, including getting in touch with our deepest hungers and longings. Painter is a creative, Roman Catholic mystic and has written widely about spiritual formation (and, by the way, the arts.) There are some great woodcuts and art in this compact paperback by artist Kreg Yingst (who I first learned about from Americana folk rocker Bill Mallonee, and whose own book Everything Could Be a Prayer is itself a standout of graphic design and poignant reflections.)
One reviewer of A Different Kind of Fast says it is “a multistory approach to contemplation that is sensitive, thoughtful, and inclusive.”
From Wilderness to Glory: Lent and Easter for Everyone N.T. Wright (WJK) $18.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $14.40
This is a wonderful collection of daily readings from N.T Wright’s popular “For Everyone” Bible commentaries. I sometimes say that they are not overly academic and truly are “for everyone” but yet, in the middle of almost every page, there is an apt metaphor, a provocative notion, a brilliant insight, making this both basic, but laden with an edge-of-your-seat expectancy that God will speak though his Holy Word.
Turning Over Tables: A Lenten Call for Disrupting Power Kathy Escobar (WJK) $17.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $13.60
This is a wild and provocative daily guidebook with prayer prompts and reflection questions and quotes and Biblical ruminations, all building up to a humble and prayerful discernment about how we, like JEsus, might disrupt the powerful and do the Godly work of transformative justice in the world. You’ll find lovely Biblical insights, inspiring gentle quotes from the likes of Henri Nouwen, and more prophetically challenging lines from Howard Thurman and James Baldwin, Cole Arthur Riley and Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Prone to Wander: Lenten Journey with Women in the Wilderness Joanna Harader, illustrated by Michelle Burkholder (Herald Press) $16.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $13.59
This is a thorough, extraordinary book of wonderful reflections on a very large array of Biblical women, grouped by themes (week by week.) Harader is a Kansas-based Mennonite pastor (and the very impressive illustrator is both artist and Mennonite pastor in Hyattsville, MD.) You may recall that they teamed up on a lovely Advent devotional and if that was good, this is even better.
These pages will renew. Your capacity to recognize the signs and wonders of God’s provision, sometimes as close as the hand of a friend or the generosity of a stranger. — Issac Villegas (author of the forthcoming Eerdmans title, Migrant God.)
Hunger for Righteousness: A Lenten Journey Towards Intimacy with God and Loving our Neighbor Phoebe Farah Mikhail (Paraclete) $18.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.19
There are a few things going on in this lovely, rich, profound new book published by our friends at Paraclete Press. Firstly it is written by a Coptic Orthodox woman, so it is rooted in the seriously spiritual sensibilities of ancient Egyptian fathers and mothers with all the iconography and profundity of their tradition at its best. Also, it is clear about one big thing: authentic intimacy with God surely works on us to make us more loving, more neighborly, more caring. Yes, yes — love of God and love of neighbor are not to be torn asunder and a hunger for righteousness (as Jesus promises in Matthew 5:6) will be fulfilling (and perhaps a bit exciting at times.)
This beautiful book acts as a guide through this hunger in Lent, gently intensifying our yearning for God” — Rev. Daniel Fanous, St. Cyril’s Coptic Orthodox Theological College, Sydney, Australia.
A Just Passion: A Six-Week Lenten Journey (IVP) $12.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $10.39
This is one of my personal favorites and I very highly recommend it. It is handsomely done, brief, inexpensive, and full of writers you should know. The short version is that the good folks at IVP collected nice excerpts from a whole bunch of their authors — women writers and authors of color, especially — and created a lovely daily reader drawn from their previously published volumes. (And there is a little thumbnail picture of each person, which is actually really nice, and the info about from which book the reading is drawn.) This really, really works!
Spend some time each day with Marlena Graves, John Perkins, Ruth Haley Barton, Sheila Wise Rowe, Tish Harrison Warren, Terry Wildman, Donna Barber, Eugene Peterson, Sandra Maria Van Opstal, Brenda Salter McNeil, Grace Ji-Sun Kim,Esau McCauley, Christina Edmondson, and more.
Injustice is rampant and we confront brokenness in our own souls even as we cry out about the problems in society. If Christ alone is our liberator, what does that look like? Where are the trails to follow? How can we deepen our walk with Christ in ways that make us useful in this complicated world?
The Bible readings are from the First Nations Version, arranged from repentance, lament, worship, and healing. I’m not kidding or wanting to sound pushy, but you should be a couple…
The Stones of the Last Week: Impediments to Easter Bonnie B. Thurston (Liturgical Press) $12.95 // OUR SALE PRICE = $10.36
Bonne Thurston has quite a story and is a great speaker and writer (and poet.) She is beloved for having taught vibrant classes at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (and is known for having shifted in her own theological orientation, moving from being Presbyterian to Orthodox.) This Roman Catholic publisher did this fabulous little book this season offering Thurston’s retreat presentations, plain and clear (with remarkable application for most of us.) Her theme is as the subtitle asks: what are the stones that get in the way of us moving well towards Easter? What are the impediments? It does this by exploring the “stones” that impeded Jesus’s own journey; each chapter is on a particular text from the gospel accounts. It is (as Dale Allison puts it, “winsome and wise.” What should be done?
Unrevealed Until Its Season: A Lenten Journey with Hymns James C. Howell (Upper Room Books) $14.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $11.99
This is a compact, small book, full of reflections on classic hymns. It came out a few years ago, I gather, but we just discovered it this season. I am sure some of our BookNotes friends will enjoy it.
Might I be so blunt as to say that older people who love the old hymns will especially like it? And may I be so bold as to say that younger Christians, perhaps attuned only to contemporary praise and worship songs, might benefit from these astute reflections on these often stunningly rich lyrics?
Howell is a long standing United Methodist pastor at a large church in Charlotte, NC. Unrevealed Until Its Seasons explores hymns about praising God, hymns about Jesus, hymns of forgiveness, hymns of beauty, and more. The “Stony the Road” chapter explores hymns of Holy Week and (of course) there is the upbeat last chapter called “Love’s Redeeming Work: Hymns of Easter.” A group could use and savor this and certainly any individual or family could enjoy dipping into these old (and some recent) hymns.
Faithful Families for Lent, Easter, & Resurrection Traci Smith (Chalice Press) $12.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $10.39
This is a quick little handbook, chock-full of ideas to help children grow in their faith. It’s a hands-on resource — a practical companion to Smith’s Faitfhful Families: Creating Sacred Moments at Home — by a PC(USA) pastor and mother of three kids. There are some common sense ideas here, a few tried and true suggestions, and some that our wonderfully creative. Parents with children of various ages can find prompts and practices for this season of the church calandar. Blurb on the back, by the way, are from Glenys Nellist (a fabulous artist and creator of children’s books), the popular Jennifer Grant, Cindy Wang Brandt (author of Parenting Forward.) I useful resource to have and use.
The Word in the Wilderness: A Poem a Day for Lent and Easter Malcolm Guite (Canterbury Press) $21.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $16.80
I have written about this before; we enjoy any excuse to highlight the great Malcolm Guite’s work. We have stocked his poetry (and literary criticism and more, such as his lovely exploration of the Christian imagination in a nicely illustrated book from Square Halo Books.) The Word in the Wilderness seems to be one of his most popular, bringing together as it does, classic and new poetry (only a few by Guite himself) and Fr. Malcolm’s thoughtful, devotional explorations on the poem of the day.
As it says on the back cover of the UK Canterbury Press paperback, Each poem and the accompanying rumination, “is a window into heaven to light our Lenten road.” This stretches from Shrove Tuesday to a few springtime saint’s days after Easter.
To the Cross: Proclaiming the Gospel from the Upper Room to Calvary Christopher J. H. Wright (IVP) $16.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $13.59
As much as I love the great N.T. Wright, a former Bishop and leading New Testament scholar, pushing us all towards living with a missional vision which embodies new creation realities in Christ, his cousin Christopher J.H. Wright is another extraordinarily prolific church leader from the UK whose work you should know. He has written thoughtful popular titles on any number of topics (including books of the Bible, prayer, the fruit of the Spirit, and more), a few larger works on application of Biblical faith to modern injustices, and an academic project or two. To the Cross is a collection of sermons delivered in the church with which he has been affiliated, All Souls Church, in London. You may know that the great John Stott was pastor there Wright is a director at Stott’s international ministry, Langham Partnerships. If anyone has taken up the mantle of Stott’s wholistic Biblical passion, applied to contemporary culture, it is Christopher Wright.
This fine book of solid, clarifying, (even, dare I say, inspiring) messages guides readers through Jesus’s journey from the Last Supper to the cross. He uses the lens of the Older Testament to help us understand the Gospel accounts and helps us more fully appreciate Christ’s death and redemption. This is very good news, indeed.
(There is also lengthy appendix for those who may be preparing to preach or teach these passages, offering insight on sermon preparation as he tells his own process of attending to these texts and their proclamation. I’m not even a preacher and I read that part first.)
Where the Eye Alights: Phrases for the Forty Days of Lent Marilyn McEntyre (Eerdmans) $20.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $16.79
We have lauded dear Marilyn’s many books and this little hardback one is handsome to hold and even more luscious to read, enjoy, and ponder. I want to say it is sheer poetry, at times, and the poets do come up. But this is a curious little volume of ruminations on phrases — thoughts that come to mind that are worth pondering. Here is how she invites us to it all; enjoy this:
“Lent is a time of permission. Many of us find it hard to give ourselves permission to pause, to sit still, to reflect or meditate or pray in the midst of daily occupations — most of them very likely worthy in themselves — that fill our waking minds and propel us out of bed and on to the next thing. We need the explicit invitation the liturgical year provides to change pace, to curtail our busyness a bit, to make our times with self and God a little more spacious, a little more leisurely, and see what comes. The reflections I offer here come from a very simple practice of daily meditation on whatever has come to mind in the quiet of early morning.”
The Undoing of Death Fleming Rutledge (Eerdmans) $26.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $21.59
If Rev. Rutledge’s massive collection of deep and rich Advent sermons (Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ) is one of my all time favorite books, this equally hefty collection of her Holy Week sermons stands alongside it in my heart and mind. My old copy is dog-eared and precious.
There are art pieces included as in several of these many sermons she alludes to scenes as depicted by older masters. One or two are simply brilliant and I’m so glad they show the art (if only in black and white.) Her faithful exegesis and lovely wordsmithing combine to make this a very, very fine book — who knew there could be so much good stuff said about the key events of the last week of the life of Jesus. And then there are a bunch of Easter sermons and several for the week after Easter. Wow. The Undoing of Death is a book to have for a lifetime; it may even be a lifeline.
Coloring Lent: An Adult Coloring Book for the Journey to Resurrection Christopher Rodkey, illustrated by Jesse Turri (CBP/Chalice Press) $12.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $10.39
Okay, I’ll admit, I’ve happily promoted this one other years as well. Since I haven’t mentioned it for a while, I thought I’d bring it back out and share it with newer readers. This really is something!
(If you’d like to read my breathy overview of my friend Chris Rodkey — then a UCC pastor and neighbor serving here in Dallastown — and his genius and well down coloring book idea, see here.)
The short version is that this is imbued with a liturgical sensibility you won’t find in any other coloring book — even relaxing ones with Bible verses. This has footnotes of the church fathers and mothers, and if you are attentive, you’ll learn something about the ancient and global church. The art is splashy, moving, at times, and fun to use. Hooray.
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Here are a few that, while they are not about Lent as such, seem to me to be titles you might want to consider in your own reading during this special season. I do hope you make time for some intentional alone time, reading.
Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human Cole Arthur Riley (Convergent) $22.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $17.60
I have often celebrated the very good, wonderfully, wonderfully written memoir This Here Flesh by former Pittsburgh and friend, Cole Arthur Riley. We named her second (and very significant) book, Black Liturgies, one of the Best Books of 2024; it has been acclaimed all over, with fabulous endorsements from important black leaders (from Imanai Perry to Michael Eric Dyson to Tina Miles, who calls the words “luminous. The beauty of this book is only topped by its utter urgency, “balm for our troubled times” as one black preacher put it.
This is a collection of readings, meditations, of sorts — most written as letters — followed by a set of morning and evening devotionals which follow the church calendar, with citations and poems and lines from black authors, old and contemporary. These new prayers and blessings, meditative questions, breath prayers, spiritual exercises, and proactive ruminations (aided by her fluency of extraordinary breadth in black literary figures and activists) make this exciting (especially, I’d think, for white folks to read) but also, may I say, sobering. There is stuff here about grief and loss, about injustice and realistic hope, about a spirituality that is rooted in beauty and yet not afraid of voicing pain. In the second half which offers liturgies and readings for the liturgical calendar, there are entries specifically for Lent. So this is ideal, truly. It’s a great book to own, a fabulous companion for your journey, and some of it quite directly written for this time of year

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Drawing Near: A Devotional Journey with Art, Poetry, & Reflection edited by John Roth & Eileen Linch (Herald Press) $20.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $16.79
This isn’t a Lenten book but it is brand new and it seems perfect for this list of suggested resources for the upcoming season. At this price, too, this slightly oversized hardback with exceptional black and white linocuts and lithographs is one of the best (and classy) bargains we’ve seen. Congrats to the Mennonite publisher (celebrating soon the 500th year of Anabaptism’s development in reformation-era Europe) for offering this extraordinary, rich collection of devotional writing, essays, open-minded Scripture reflections, poems, and striking art. That the prominent (Anabaptist) poet Julie Kasdorf Spicher wrote the foreword shows the gravitas and importance of this stellar volume.
As I said, it is slightly oversized. The art is by different designers but most have a look that reminds me of old Catholic Worker woodcuts. Do you know the feel of that liturgical folk art? Some of these are classic, others more modern, all starkly and richly black and white. I have to admit I paged through with my mouth agape before I even got to the text, running over to show Beth as we exclaimed to each other how very much we appreciated the whole design and some of the stunning art pieces.
The artists who contributed Drawing Near include a Mennonite Catholic Worker from California, a Goshen College art teacher, an artist from Treaty One land in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a Korean-Canadian artist from British Columbia and a mid-western community organizer/artist and pastor who founded The School for Rural Culture and Creativity in Matfield, Kansas.
The Biblically-based devotional reflections and poems and the prayerful prompts and discussion questions are by nearly 40 contemporary Anabaptist writers, pastors, thinkers, and social activists from around North America. They each invite us to explore the creative edges of our faith; as it says on the back, “allow the Spirit to stir your soul.” Yes.
Midwinter Light: Meditations for the Long Season Marilyn McEntyre (Broadleaf Books) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99
I’ll admit I didn’t want to list this among Advent devotionals because, well, it isn’t exactly an Advent or Christmas project (although there is a good piece on “Blue Christmas” which I have read more than once.) And then we did end of the year “best of” lists in January, and important new titles and books about immigration to give us Biblical and humanitarian basis to resist current meanness. Alas, it is now deep mid-Winter — in more ways than one, I’d say — and this lovely collection of eloquent reflections is perfect to help us “slow down, sit, and savor the beauty and wisdom of winter — around us and within.”
I’ve written often about my friend Marilyn McEntyre and I bet a week doesn’t go by that I don’t tell somebody about Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies or its urgent sequel, Speaking Peace in a Climate of Conflict. I love her fascinating When Poets Pray and we stock several of her own poetry volumes, devotionals, little books like Make a List, Dear Doctor, and one Beth read last year, The Mindful Grandparent, which she co-wrote with a woman from Pennsylvania.) She’s a good writer and while she has done a Lenten one (see above) I had to mention this. I think I’m going to start it this week, here in this lousy, cold February. Jeff Crosby writes that it is a book “that teems with wisdom, wonder, and light and prompts us to pay attention to landscapes both internal and external in whatever season we may find ourselves.” Maybe you need to stand on holy ground these days, and, as another reviewer noted, “Marilyn is a trusted guide and gentle witness for the depths of winter.”
Beautiful, Disappointing, Hopeful: How Gratitude, Grief, and Grace Reflect the Christian Story Drew Hyun (ZondervanReflective) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99
While not a Lenten book at all, this new title is fascinating, well written, moving, even raw, at times, and, frankly, a very helpful way to retell the Biblical story in emotionally-honest ways. It is written by a Korean-American pastor who, in conversational tones, tells much about his upbringing as a twin son of hard-working and harried Korean- American parents. In a way much of this is a winsome apologetic for Christian belief and in the opening pages (and other times) he says he is writing to those who may not be followers of Jesus; in this sense it is inviting and warm and honest, making a claim that there is a compelling story in the gospel which gives account for three universal human experiences — beauty, disappointment, and the longing for hope. In a way, he suggests, this is a common grace.
Fascinating, isn’t it, my good friends and close readers, that this mirrors my oft-cited summary of the gospel story in the lingo of creation/fall/redemption, eh? God made a good and beautiful world and due to sin and rebellion we are full of disappointment (what Plantinga calls “the vandalization of shalom” in his must-read Not The Way It’s Supposed to Be high Hyun helpfully cites) and, still, yet, there is a very human hope for better days, which Christ offers in his redemptive plan, including the hope of future consummation of the promised restoration.
These three words explored wonderfully in Beautiful, Disappointing, Hopeful really do capture, as Hyun notes, the heart of the Biblical story, the existential reality in God’s good but broken world. Getting real about this is helpful for any son of Adam or daughter or Eve, I am sure, church-goer or not. If one is a seeker or pondering if the Christian faith is an adequate story for you to live by, BDH is for you.
And here’s more. After each section — beauty, disappointment, hope — Hyun shows how certain responses bubble up from these: you can see them in the subtitle, and he teaches us how to be attentive to gratitude, grief, and grace. Indeed, we can practice habits of being grateful in response to beauty and we can learn lament and grief in times of disappointment. Accepting grace, of course, is the ultimate response to the offer of hope. He draws on Nouwen and Keller’s good books on the story of the prodigal son to help us experience a sense of profound, sovereign grace.
Yep, this lovely, thoughtful, wise book explores beauty, disappointment and hope and gratitude, grief, and grace. At there end there is some lovely advise for new believers or those wanting to trust the Reality of the good story.
Drew Hyun is pastor of a multi-ethnic, diverse church in New York (Hope Church NYC) and head of the organization (using Peter Scazzeroi’s work) called Emotionally Health Discipleship. His friend Rich Villodas calls it “a compelling resource for those of us who are longing for a faith big enough” to embrace these realities.
Humility: Rediscovering the Way of Love and Life in Christ Michael W. Austin (Eerdmans) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99
I have written about this before and it clearly is not a daily devotional or a Lenten book. Yet, try as I did, I couldn’t get it out of my head that I should note it here, now. I suppose Lent is a time of sober reflection, almsgiving, a move away from self and towards the loving service Jesus himself modeled. Right?
This is a mature book, yet very, very readable. Austin is an ethicist and philosophy professor at Eastern Kentucky University. He is a Fellow of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute. He has written widely about public theology, offering cultural analysis in books like QAnon Chaos and the Cross: Christianity and Conspiracy Theories and God and Guns in America. Most recently he did one on Christian Nationalism suggesting such elevation of faith in the nation is neither good Christianity nor good Americanism. Years ago I reviewed one he did about ethics in the work world. He is one of the leading scholars of character and virtue as it applies to contemporary living.
And so it was a bit surprising to see this gentle, profound, reflection on the spiritual disciplines needed to bear the fruit of humility. As he guides readers through spiritual disciplines (to aid in the formation of this virtue) he asks about how our union with God helps us follow Jesus. Which, of course, means love of others.
Which, yep, is the way of Christ, the way of love. This Christ-like sort of formational discipleship necessarily leads us through Lent and Holy Week, so while this isn’t a Lenten guide, I think it very well should be.
Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep Tish Warren Harrison (IVP) $22.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $18.39
I have written about this so often some readers my roll their eyes — here he goes again. Not if you’ve read it, though, right? We get nothing but very good notes back after folks buy this and it is wise and interesting, a good read, and very, very deeply touching. Written in a hard time in her own life, Prayer in the Night tells stories and offers prayers and extraordinary insight in excellent prose.
Two things are going on in this nice volume. First she is using “night” as a metaphor for pain and darkness, doubt and anxiety. Yes, we lament and cry out and pray, even in the dark. Secondly, she literally explores the fixed hour prayer custom of praying at night, the service called “Compline,” That is where the poetic subtitle comes from and she explores these three word — those who work, watch or weep — will subtle and healing insight. This is a great book to read (even if you aren’t weeping these days) but it sure seems right as rain to read in Lent.
Prayers from the Cloud: 100 Prayers Through the Ages Pete James (Eerdmans) $22.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $18.39
I know there are some readers who can hardly skim this book review newsletter, let alone find time to read a few of the books I suggest. Maybe you don’t even have time or energy — headspace as we used to say in a previous generation — to do a daily devotional. We’ve got books for that, but, for now, maybe this would help.
My friend Pete James (one of the founding campus evangelists in the very early 1970s who reached college students for Christ through Pittsburgh’s CCO) is a life-long Presbyterian pastor who now in semi-retirement, is a chaplain at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. During the hard times of Covid a relative of his was in the hospital, sick, and alone. She asked him for a written prayer or two and — long story short — he started a blog and developed a following offering a short description of a pray-er, when she or he lived, and what their theological importance may have been, and then, on the facing page, offered a prayer from the great cloud of witnesses. This book of 100 of his most popular prayers is the result. Hooray!
You will discover energetic prayers, quiet ones, eloquent pleas and passionate cries. From Bonhoeffer to Amy Carmichael, from Thomas Aquinas to Benedict of Nursia, from Jane Grey to Dorothy Sayers, from Reinhold Niebuhr to Sojourner Truth.
There are ancient prayers from the likes of Polycarp and a modern one by Madeleine L’Engle; you’ve got Saint Francis and Johannes Kepler and Richard Allen. This is as diverse and rich as any simple prayerbook but the proof is in the prayers. Read them. Pray them. Learning about these voices from the enduring cloud is a quick education. Praying the prayers will be quick, but you will come back, time and again. Prayers from the Cloud might be just the resource you need to deepen your prayer life and to stimulate your Lenten season…
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It is always a good time to reflect on the meaning of the cross of Christ. It is healthy to ponder and rewarding to study, this deep central event of the Biblical story. HERE is one list we put together a while back; HERE is another that is even older, but might be useful for you. The prices may have changed a bit but they are still 20% off.
Here are five to consider:
The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ Fleming Rutledge (Eerdmans) $33.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $27.19
This is Rutledge’s complex and brilliant magnum opus, one of the most discussed Biblical/theological books of the last decade. Almost 700 pages it strong medicine, exegetical, theological astute, contemporary.
There have been so many inspiring accolades. Read these two:
In this bold, uncompromising, nuanced, and expansive work Rutledge takes us through — and beyond — theories of atonement, avoiding all merely individualistic, spiritualized, religious, moralistic, and therapeutic reductions of the meaning of the crucifixion. Rutledge resolutely proclaims the truth of Christ crucified. To all priests, preachers, and professors: if you care about the church and its mission in history, read this book! — Douglas Harink, The King’s University, Edmonton, Canada, Resurrecting Justice: Reading Romans for the Life of the World
‘Who put the roses on the cross?’ asked Goethe, who in fact preferred that the brutal cross be covered in roses. Fleming Rutledge brushes the roses aside and asks us to look at the cross and, even more so, at Him who hung upon it for our sake. This is a book marked by outstanding exegesis, theology, and pastoral sensitivity — a book for thinking Christians and even thinking unbelievers. — Joseph Mangina, University of Toronto, Figural Reading and the Fleshly God: The Theology of Ephraim Radner
The Wood Between the Worlds: Poetic Theology of the Cross Brian Zahnd (IVP) $24.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.20
A contemporary favorite, I’m not the only one who discovered this last year and realized it is, as the subtitle has it, a “poetic theology.” Zahnd is a compelling speaker and writer (pastoring a large church that is neither mainline denominational nor mega-church evangelical.) He quotes Dostoevsky and Schmemann and Cone and NT Wright alongside church mothers and Russian iconographers and Bob Dylan. There are some full color paintings of various images of Jesus which he carefully explores. This multifaceted study of the glory of the cross should touch every part of our lives and, as Jonathan Merritt writes, “the reader cannot look away.”
The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion N.T. Wright (HarperOne) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99
I love this book and highly recommend it — agree fully or not, it explores all the key uses of the phrase “the cross” in the Apostle Paul and shows how Wright understands them. He makes a very good case that using the lens of new creation — Kingdom coming! — to interpret the “end game” of Christ’s death and resurrection, we see a whole lot more of why Paul used “the cross” as a short-hand for the very good gospel. What a book.
Lamb of the Free: Recovering the Varied Sacrificial Understandings of Jesus’s Death Andrew Remington Roller (Cascade) $39.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $31.20
This is on my short list of important theology books I’d like to work through; he studies atonement and sacrifice in the Levitical system and argues that Jesus is actually doing something else in his sacrifice. And so: “the sacrificial imagery in the New Testament is aimed at grounding the exhortation for the audience to be conformed to the cruciform image of Jesus by sharing in his death.”
There is, I might add, a powerful foreword by energetic, respected Pauline scholar, Douglas A. Campbell. More than 350 dense pages.

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The Cross of Christ John Stott (IVP) $35.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $28.79
I still think I want to suggest that if folks are reading one major work on the cross of Christ, this 1986 masterwork by John Stott is my first and emphatic suggestion. This more recent addition has a helpful introduction by Alister McGrath (and a new timeline of Stott’s ministry.) There is no doubt that Stott was one of the great spokespersons of thoughtful and engaged evangelical faith for a generation and this classic study is vintage Stott — serious but accessible, informed but readable, a scholar with a pastor’s heart, helping us all to become what by the end of his life he called ‘radical Christians”
Ajith Fernando says “I have no hesitation in saying this is the most enriching theological book I have ever read…” J.I. Packer says, “John Stott rises grandly to the challenge of the greatest of all themes.. and is his masterpiece.” Shane Claiborne writes ‘in our world of war and terror there is nothing more important to contemplate than the cross of Christ. May Stott’s reflections give us the courage to fight with all the love within us, the war of the slaughters Lamb.”
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