Healing Wounds - by Erik Varden (Paperback)

About the Book

The 2025 Lent Book is a reflection on suffering and healing and what we understand by it.

Book Synopsis

Are we healed through our wounds or are our wounds themselves healed from some other source?

In this 2025 Lent Book, Erik Varden starts by examining the New Testament where it spells out why Christ's wounds were efficacious for the healing of humankind. He contends that while this theological perspective is fundamental, it often falls short of addressing the emotional and spiritual needs of believers.

Bob Dylan once said, tongue in cheek, 'Pain sure does bring out the best in people.' The philosopher Donald MacKinnon said, 'Suffering never ennobled anyone.' Suffering by nature poses questions people wrestle with today in many fields of life with counsellors, therapists, philosophers, and spiritual directors. But the conundrum remains and in this book Varden sets out to resolve it.

Structured to guide readers through a journey of reflection, beginning with the raw reality of suffering and moving toward the possibility of redemption and renewal. Varden employs a contemplative tone, inviting readers to sit with their own experiences of pain and consider how these might be transformed through faith and introspection. His insights are particularly relevant during the Lenten season, a time of reflection on Christ's passion and its implications for believers.

Review Quotes

"This is a remarkable Lent book, filled with spiritual treasures and insights that inform, inspire, and challenge." --Church Times

About the Author

ERIK VARDEN is a monk and bishop. Norwegian by birth, he was, before entering Mount Saint Bernard Abbey, a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. He has published several translations and scholarly monographs and is much in demand as a preacher, spiritual director and lecturer. In 2019 Pope Francis appointed him to the see of Trondheim. He is the author of The Shattering of Loneliness (Bloomsbury Continuum, 2018).