The Sunday Pages | 013

A 500 year old devotional book

The Sunday Pages is a weekly newsletter for paid subscribers that rounds up five interesting links for the week, recommends a book with highlights of about a dozen meaningful quotes from the book, and includes occasional updates on personal projects.

One thing that has become a bit of an obsession for me lately is reading old “devotional” books. I’m not even sure that’s the right word for them because it seems a little anachronistic to call them that. But old books that are just generally about the Christian life.

If you read this Substack, you know I write about spiritual formation. It’s probably the most important topic to me. I really don’t have too terribly much to to say about the culture wars or politics—I’m just not that interested in it. Maybe I should be. But what I want to learn and write about is how to be formed into the image of Christ, how to grow in strength wisdom, and God’s grace like it says Jesus did as a boy in Luke 2.

What I’ve been starting to find is that these older, usually smaller books about living the Christian life have been teaching me more about spiritual formation than many other books. I’m not sure I’m able to articulate why that is yet, but just something I’ve noticed.

This is a new translation of an old book. It’s also by someone that I feel pretty conflicted about. And yet, when I finished it, I knew this book would make it in my top 10. And it’s short. You know I love a great, short book.

Links Included: More rule of life, Wesley's comeback, ignoring kids (the right way?), CEO Pastors, and a writing tip

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