Toyohiko Kagawa

Easter is the high point of the year for millions of Christians around the world. And for most of them, there can be no Easter without Lent, the season that leads up to it. A time for self-denial, soul-searching, and spiritual preparation, Lent makes time for daily reading and reflection. This time-tested collection of devotions will deepen and stretch your faith, and can be returned to year after year. Culled from the wealth of twenty centuries, the selections are ecumenical in scope, representing the best classic and contemporary Christian writers. This expanded second edition adds dozens of voices, new and old, and takes the reader all the way through Eastertide to Pentecost. Includes ninety-six Lenten and Easter readings, plus seven chapter-opening poems, by Eberhard Arnold, Saint Augustine, Wendell Berry, Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, G. K. Chesterton, Dorothy Day, Meister Eckhart, Khalil Gibran, Clarence Jordan, Soren Kierkegaard, Madeleine L'Engle, C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald, Thomas Merton, Malcolm Muggeridge, Kathleen Norris, Henri Nouwen, Christina Rosetti, Fleming Rutledge, Dorothy Sayers, Edith Stein, Mother Teresa, Leo Tolstoy, N. T. Wright, Alfred Kazin, Amy Carmichael, Barbara Brown Taylor, Barbara Cawthorne Crafton, Blaise Pascal, Brennan Manning, Dag Hammarskjöld, Dorothee Soelle, Dylan Thomas, E. Stanley Jones, Emil Brunner, Frederick Buechner, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Geoffrey Hill, Henry Drummond, J. Heinrich Arnold, Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Johann Christoph Arnold, John Dear, John Donne, John Masefield, John Stott, John Updike, Jürgen Moltmann, Karl Barth, Madeleine L’Engle, Martin Luther, Oscar Wilde, Oswald Chambers, Paul Tillich, Peter Kreeft, Philip Berrigan, Philip Yancey, Romano Guardini, Sadhu Sundar Singh , Saint Augustine, Simone Weil, Thomas à Kempis, Toyohiko Kagawa, Walter J. Ciszek, Walter Wangerin, Watchman Nee, William Willimon and others.

With: Historical commentaryBiographical infoAppendix with further readingsFor nearly 2,000 years, Christian mystics, martyrs, and sages have documented their search for the divine. Their writings have bestowed boundless wisdom upon subsequent generations. But they have also burdened many spiritual seekers. The sheer volume of available material creates a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. Enter the Upper Room Spiritual Classics series, a collection of authoritative texts on Christian spirituality curated for the everyday reader. Designed to introduce 15 spiritual giants and the range of their works, these volumes are a first-rate resource for beginner and expert alike. In the time between World Wars I and II, Japanese Christian Toyohiko Kagawa was often mentioned, along with Gandhi and Albert Schweitzer as a model of how to blend prayer, personal caring, and social action. Excerpts in this volume include autobiographical reflections and thoughts concerning the Lord's Prayer.