Lent is inescapably about repenting. We often experience the Lenten fast as either a mindless ritual or self-improvement program. In this short volume, priest and scholar Esau McCaulley introduces the season of Lent, showing us how its prayers and rituals point us not just to our own sinfulness but also beyond it to our merciful Savior.
Spiritual transformation is not a one-size-fits-all journey—we each need distinct spiritual rhythms that align us with our unique identity and calling in Christ. In this practical book Alastair Sterne shows how we can craft a life of more intentionality, offering fourfold rhythms that point us upward to God, inward to self, withward in community, and outward in mission.
It's time to rethink the Christian life in light of current research on the human mind, particularly with a deeper understanding of "extended cognition." Using insights from neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy, Brad Strawn and Warren Brown argue for a vision of the Christian life as extended into interactions with a local network of believers.
How can we trust God in the dark? Framed around a nighttime prayer of Compline, Tish Harrison Warren explores human vulnerability, suffering, and God's seeming absence as she recalls her own experience navigating a time of doubt and loss. This book offers a prayerful and frank approach to the difficulties in our ordinary lives at work, at home, and in a world filled with uncertainty.
Jason Gaboury has wrestled with loneliness ever since he can remember. But when he was challenged to see loneliness as a context for friendship with God, things began to change. In these pages God invites you to stop and wait with him in your own moments of isolation and anxiety, journeying from loneliness into a deeper life with God.
Spiritual director and pastor Barbara Peacock illustrates how the practices of spiritual formation are woven into African American culture and lived out in the rich heritage of its faith community. Using the examples of ten significant men and women, Barbara helps us engage in practices of soul care as we learn from these spiritual leaders.
Every student asks questions about life beyond the classroom—how can I discern my vocation? How should I understand marriage and sex? What happens if I doubt my faith? To help students navigate these life questions, Gary M. Burge and David Lauber have gathered insights from Christian faculty who draw on their own conversations with students during office hours and over coffee.
For writer, professor, and activist Marlena Graves, formation and justice always intertwine on the path to a balanced life of both action and contemplation. Drawing on the rich traditions of Eastern and Western Christian saints, she describes the process of emptying herself that allows her to move upward toward God and become the true self that God calls her to.
It's easy to let self-criticism become our default setting. But as we learn to pay attention to what bugs us and identify negative thinking, we can lean into the things that bring us joy. Filled with spiritual practices and creative exercises, this book from spiritual director Cindy Bunch calls us to self-care through greater compassion for ourselves.
What if we began to see all we are and all we do—our work, play, relationships, worship, and loves—as significant to God? In these essays Steven Garber helps us discover the seamless life where there is no chasm between heaven and earth and we understand the coherence of our lives and God's work in the world.