The Best Spiritual Reading Ever

This is a book of readings that Christians will like to use during Lent or throughout the year to feed their spiritual lives. Christopher Howse's selection represents the best of English-language writing, incisive in spiritual insight and rich in literary merit. Here, too, are foreign writers who have had an impact on the religious life of the English-speaking world.

Intentionally focused on the Christian tradition, this book has at its centre the difference that Jesus Christ has made to the world. In forty steps, the book follows the Christian search for God, God's response to the searching soul, and the consequent journey of the spiritual life. It includes autobiography as well as studies of prayer and practice.

Women writers, who historically have had pulpits denied them, are in the vanguard as spiritual authors, from Julian of Norwich to Ruth Burrows. And while preachers have tended to speak at length, spiritual readings often make a profound point in a short space. The passages selected are interspersed by prayers on complementary themes.

As well as more recent writings, this book includes thoughts from earlier centuries. There is now a growing interest in these as a neglected resource that can challenge contemporary presumptions. The classical works are translated with the modern reader in mind and are fresh and clear.