by Robert Woods

As with Erasmus, I affirm that The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A’Kempis is the grandest of devotional reads. The devotional books that litter the bookstores, especially the local Christian bookstore are more shaped by the lowest common denominator of trivial therapeutic drivel, the “cutting edge” madness of the management class, or silly self-help books that know nothing about the complexities of the human self and never address the matter of how a self so open to self deception can really help that same self. The insipid devotional books reign supreme.

In this dismal situation there is a bright ray of devotional greatness that arrives. Actually, it is making a bit of a second coming. Originally published in 1976, Thomas Howard’s Hallowed Be This House has been reprinted by Ignatius Press. My wife and I have been reading it (almost finished) and it has changed our sense of place. Thomas Howard, co-author of Christianity: The True Humanism, brings that same poetic prose to examine the reality that with our secularized consciousness comes secularized space. He draws attention to the “common” space where we spend much of our time and calls for the reader to see the holy, to see transcendence breaking in, and calls for our participation. There are themes that recur, such as “life for life,” and the way this is played out in everything from meals to intimacy between husband and wife. [Read more...]