The
Wounds of Jesus
By
Christina Baxter. Zondervan 2004. ISBN 0-310-25791-3.
Canon
Dr. Christina Baxter is the Principal of St.John’s College Nottingham, and one
of our Spiritual Advisers. The Wounds
of Jesus was
the Archbishop of Canterbury's official Lent book.
Lent has now passed but that is no reason for not reading it.
As Archbishop Rowan says in his foreword, meditation
on the wounds of Christ is an ancient custom in the Western Church, and here
Christina revives it in a modern exposition that is readily accessible to
Christians today.
Each
chapter contains thought-provoking sections labelled: What
does this mean for us as a faith community and for
us personally. And at the end
of each chapter there is a practical section: Questions
and Ideas, to help groups and
individuals discuss, think and pray about the topics covered in that chapter,
and the issues which arise from them.
There are also litanies and prayers that can be incorporated into
services or used for private meditation.
As
a result this book provides a through grounding in the fundamentals of the
Christian faith, which, in conjunction with the bibliography in the text and the
notes at the back of the book, can take the reader as deep as he or she wishes
to go. Christina in her
introduction says the book is intended to deepen
our devotion, enrich our worship and strengthen our discipleship. I
believe that it will go a long way towards achieving these aims.
Brian Newsom.