Reading for Lent

Lent is nearly here and I've been considering what to read during these forty days in preparation for Holy Week. I've settled on re-reading Raymund Schwager's Jesus of Nazareth: How He Understood His Life (1998, Crossroad Publishing). Father Schwager, who died in 2004, was Professor of Dogmatics and Ecumenical Theology at the University of Innsbruck, but don't let that scare you. This is a readable and compelling dramatic narrative of Jesus who is in constant engagement with the faith of Israel as he accepts and shapes his mission.

I've also been catching up on things Anglican in the mainstream press. First, be sure to see the very interesting article about Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury since 2003, by Paul Elie in the March edition of The Atlantic: "The Velvet Reformation." I came away with a much better understanding and appreciation of his responses, actions and leadership since our General Convention 2006. (There is also a very interesting web-only interview with the author.)

The article cites a talk, “The Body’s Grace,” that Williams gave to the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement in 1989 at a grave moment in the AIDS crisis. In it Williams "stands back from the tug-of-war over church teachings on sexuality in an attempt to 'do justice to the experience, the pain and the variety, of concrete sexual discovery.' " This is an exquisitely graceful article about human sexuality. It bears more than one reading.

Finally, if you like your theology in bite-size pieces, you may wish to subscribe to Barbara Crafton's daily email meditations during Lent through Episcopal Relief and Development http://www.er-d.org/

Let us know what you are reading for Lent.