10 Powerful Resources for Lent

For those who follow the Western church calendar, today is Ash Wednesday—the beginning of Lent.

Lent is a season of preparation that traditionally includes penitence, prayer and fasting, and culminates in the celebration of Easter.

In addition to my regular Bible reading, one tradition that I began a few years ago was deliberately choosing books to read during Lent that would focus my mind and heart on Jesus. I’ve come up with a list, by no means exhaustive, of books that may make for good Lenten reading.

Three on Lent

• The Services of the Christian Year (Library of Christian Worship Vol. 5) contains an informative section on Lent.
• The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Second Series, Vol. 12, which you can find in Early Church Fathers Protestant Edition (37 vols.), contains a series of sermons on Lent by Leo the Great.
• John Adams Hebrew Studies Collection (3 vols.) contains a volume on the Lenten Psalms.

One on Fasting

• A Hunger for God is a book by John Piper on the practice of fasting.

Six on the Cross and the Atonement

• The Radical Cross by A.W. Tozer is a collection of Tozer’s writings on the cross, arranged thematically.
• Cries from the Cross: A Journey into the Heart of Jesus by Erwin Lutzer is an invitation to ponder the seven words of Jesus from the cross.
• The Works of John Owen, Vol. 10: The Death of Christ contains A Display of Arminianism, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, Of the Death of Christ and A Dissertation on Divine Justice.
• King, Priest and Prophet: A Trinitarian Theology of Atonement by Robert Sherman is an attempt to read the atonement in light of the Trinity and the three offices of Christ.
• The Death Christ Died: A Biblical Case for Unlimited Atonement by Robert Lightner is an attempt to answer the question, “For whom did Christ die?”
• The Major Works of Anselm of Canterbury includes Cur Deus Homo, Anselm’s classic work on the Incarnation which lays out the satisfaction theory of the atonement.