Are we healed through our wounds or do our wounds themselves get healed by some other source? In this 2025 Lent Book, Erik Varden starts by examining the New Testament where it spells out why Christ's wounds were efficacious for the healing of humankind. Indeed, why they were necessary for the purpose. This austere way of thinking is indispensable but they have never really satisfied the effective needs of believers or the intuitions of the heart. Bob Dylan once said, tongue in cheek, 'Pain sure does bring out the best in people.' The philosopher Donald MacKinnon said, 'Suffering never ennobled anyone.' These are questions people wrestle with today in many fields of life with counsellors, therapists, philosophers, and spiritual directors. But the conundrum remains and in this book Varden sets out to resolve it.

Healing Wounds: The 2025 Lent Book

Religion & Spirituality

Varden, Erik

Christian Books & Bibles

Bloomsbury Continuum

The word 'chastity', at first sight, may seem intimidating, something to be dismissed out of hand. It is, however, something very different to celibacy.At a time when religion is in decline in the Western world and when it often seems that the senses have run riot, Erik Varden shows that chastity, the single minded direction of the senses, is a loveable quality and one that affects and beautifies humankind.The terms sexuality and wholeness indicate that to be sexual is to exist in a state of incompleteness longing to be restored. Wholeness points to a healing embrace that we desire so greatly. In Biblical language, chastity is a function of simplicity of sight. We are no longer torn apart by our passions and our desires, indeed they may reach their fulfilment. Body and spirit, male and female, order and disorder, passion and death can move from creative tension to a new kind of wholeness.Varden's text is enriched by a wide range of references to scripture, literature, music, painting and sculpture.

Chastity

Bloomsbury Special Interest

The experience of loneliness is as universal as hunger or thirst. Because it affects us more intimately, we are less inclined to speak of it. But who has not known its gnawing ache? The fear of loneliness causes anguish. It prompts reckless deeds. To this, every age has borne witness. No voice is more insidious than the one that whispers in our ear: 'You are irredeemably alone, no light will pierce your darkness.' The fundamental statement of Christianity is to convict that voice of lying. The Christian condition unfolds within the certainty that ultimate reality, the source of all that is, is a personal reality of communion, no metaphysical abstraction. Men and women, made 'in the image and likeness' of God, bear the mark of that original communion stamped on their being. When our souls and bodies cry out for Another, it is not a sign of sickness, but of health. A labour of potential joy is announced. We are reminded of what we have it in us to become. That our labour may be fruitful, Scripture repeatedly exhorts us to 'remember'. The remembrance enjoined is partly introspective and existential, partly historical, for the God who took flesh to redeem our loneliness leaves traces in history. This book examines six facets of Christian remembrance, complementing biblical exegesis with readings from literature, ancient and modern. It aims to be an essay in theology. At the same time, it proposes a grounded reflection on what it means to be a human being.

The Shattering of Loneliness: On Christian Remembrance

About the Author\nErik Varden is a monk and bishop. Norwegian by birth, he was, before entering Mount Saint Bernard Abbey, a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. He has published several translations and scholarly monographs and is much in demand as a preacher, spiritual director and lecturer. In 2019 Pope Francis appointed him to the see of Trondheim. He is the author of The Shattering of Loneliness (Bloomsbury Continuum, 2018).\nIn this follow-up to his critically acclaimed book The Shattering of Loneliness, Erik Varden provides a glimpse of the value of a monastic life and a Christian calling in our troubled modern age.\n"Be whole and so be happy."--St. Bernard, founder of the Cistercian order\nIn the aftermath of a pandemic and the midst of political upheaval, Erik Varden has observed a growing interest in the monastic life – even among those who have no intention of entering a monastery. For in times of anguish and uncertainty, basic principles of monastic life have become particularly appealing.\nVarden, Trappist monk and now Bishop, invites us to observe and learn from monastic life in our turbulent times. After a very personal introduction, he follows the Church year and seasons, always inspired by scriptural reading. The values he highlights include: tranquility; seeking peace; obedience; personal integrity; not continually passing judgement on others; asceticism as opposed to self-indulgence; the importance of generous hospitality; balance; and a life ordered to contemplation.\nThe teachings within the monastery offer simple, valuable lessons for readers of all creeds struggling to keep faith in an uncertain world.

Entering the Twofold Mystery: On Christian Conversion

What is our place in nature? Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have has exercised unprecedented dominance over nature, with consequences that are now catching up with us. Many have pointed to Christianity as a culprit. Yet Christianity actually teaches that our relationship to nature should not be one of contempt or disassociation. Rather, according to ancient church tradition, nature is a book to be read, revealing truths about its creator and ours. At a time when many moderns are unsure of what difference, if any, marks us out from other living beings on our planet, and of what our place in the natural world ought to be, what might nature itself tell us about how to live within it? On this theme: Peter Mommsen asks if humans should live by nature's laws. Colin Boller interviews farmers successfully shifting to regenerative agriculture. Caroline Moore introduces some of Britain's amazing moths. Daniel Stulac wonders what the Promised Land means in Saskatchewan. Clare Coffey defends dandelions in lawns. Rhys Laverty reports on man's battle with the sea at the Alderney breakwater. William Thomas Okie explores the old idea that plants reveal their uses. Greta Gaffin looks at our relationship to wolves, and Saint Francis's. Norann Voll remembers lambing with her father. Tim Maendel finds peace by hunting. Erik Varden asks if the Christian teaching on chastity is unnatural. David McBride translates "The Leper of Abercuawg," an old Welsh poem. Maureen Swinger watches meteor showers. Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.

Plough Quarterly No. 39 – The Riddle of Nature (Plough Quarterly, 39)

Science & Math

Wilbert, Lore Ferguson

McBride, David

Clarkson, Joy Marie

Okie, William Thomas

Voll, Norann

Stulac, Daniel J. D.

Crawford, Robert W.

Moore, Caroline

Laverty, Rhys

Coffey, Clare

Parham, Angel Adams

Gaffin, Greta

Kleczek, Casey

Keiderling, Timothy J.

Biological Sciences

Plough Publishing House

Castidad: La reconciliación de los sentidos

ENCUENTRO

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