I became mildly obsessed with Lauren Winner after hearing her lecture at Calvin College a couple years ago.

Then I became rather obsessed with her after reading Real Sex and hearing her various lectures/podcasts on that book that were floating around the interweb.

I finally finished reading Mudhouse Sabbath, and though it took a little more concentrated effort on my part than Real Sex or Girl Meets God, it was still incredibly insightful and offered more of Lauren’s unique perspective on how Christians have either lost touch with our Jewish heritage or in some cases adapted certain traditions.

While Girl Meets God unveiled the connectedness between the Judaism of Lauren’s youth and her new-found Christian faith by way of comparing the holidays over her years of conversion, Mudhouse Sabbath compares eleven Jewish customs and how they have found a place—in one way or another—in her life as a Christian.

Her chapter on prayer was (like its Girl Meets God counterpart) was especially challenging to me, and the section on food was great…

To consider how food connects us to God… where our food comes from, what God might think of our food, etc.

Really each chapter was perfectly concise and had just enough oomph to make you stop and consider.

While many of those Old Testament traditions have found a place in some way in western Christianity, it was her chapter on mourning that seemed to stand out as something in particular that we as Christian-ized westerners seem to have no construct.

We may succeed sometimes as a community supporting those widowed within the few week following their losses…

but then what?

Read more