Beauty in Darkness: A Lenten Bookclub

Join me for a journey through sorrow and into the kind light of God...

(EDITED TO NOTE: I’m running this through Crowdcast, not Substack, so if you want to join, click the links below to go to the event page and register there.)

A few weeks ago, I had the real delight of writing and then reading live a piece called The Ripening of Faith at an Ekstasis event in London. My thoughts in that essay grew out of a year in which I’ve realised I’m spiritually weary. Not deeply doubting or angry, just hard-pressed for time alone and physically exhausted and unable to conjure the ‘devotion’ I thought I ought. You can read the essay to discover what a dear priestly friend ‘prescribed’ as my soulish medicine, a suggestion that bore rich fruit in my heart.

In contemplating that essay, I was reminded again of the role that beauty plays in restoring and healing broken, weary, hungry hearts. Image, encounter, the incarnational presence of God in the people He’s made in his image, the art they craft, the world that springs from His imagination, this goodness reaches out to us in our shadow and loneliness. It’s been reaching out to me in a new and potent way.

So, I’ve decided to do a deep dive into Beauty for Lent, looking at some favourite theologians and hosting a study of my book This Beautiful Truth, and I’d like to invite you to come along.

I believe that Lent is, perhaps paradoxically, an ideal time to focus upon beauty. While we often think of Lent as a season of negation, the purpose of fasting or simplification is to help us recognise and push away all that keeps us from grasping the full love of God. I believe one of the most powerful ways we can do this is to take the time to examine what festers and grieves in our inmost souls. To honestly identify our grief, but then, then, to hold it up to the kind gaze, the incarnational presence, the renewing beauty of the King whose ‘hands are the hands of a healer’ (to use Tolkien’s beautiful phrase). So, join me for:

Beauty in Darkness: A Lenten Bookclub

This study will be based around my book, This Beautiful Truth: How God’s Goodness Breaks into Our Darkness. We’ll cover two chapters each week, starting the Monday after Ash Wednesday, and end with a special service of poetry and prayer the Monday of Holy Week. All participants can use the code TBTLENT25 to purchase the book at a 40% discount with free US shipping. The study registration includes:

• A weekly live video where I’ll give a talk discussing the two assigned chapters for the week, looking at the theology underlying them, and considering the areas of soulish excavation or spiritual practise they invite us to pursue.

• A weekly study guide posted on the event page and also in your email with resources to delve into each week’s themes including study questions, Scriptures, themed quotes, a piece of art for focus, and a themed playlist. A specific, optional Lenten assignment or project suggestion will be offered each week as well.

• Two Q&A sessions over the course of the study, for which you can submit questions ahead of time.

• An occasional supplement including book suggestions, lists of Lenten film suggestions with study questions, or a passage from a novel for contemplation.

• A live service of prayer and poetry in Holy Week to close the study in beauty, fellowship, and hope.

AGAIN, NOTE: I’m running this through Crowdcast, not Substack, so if you want to join, click the link below to go to the event page and register there.

NOTE: The study is a paid membership as I will invest a lot of time in preparing the talks and notes, and we are in a ministry situation where my income is one of the main ways God provides for our life in this place, but as always, scholarships are available (and members of my Patreon always get a 25% discount on my events). Just drop me a line through a message here or contact me through my website.