Tag Archives: Lent

How to Keep a True Lent

By Robin Bates | Published: February 10, 2013

For Robert Herrick, Lent is not about fasting but about starving sin.

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The Cleanness of Sweet Abstinence

By Robin Bates | Published: February 26, 2012

Herbert paradoxically describes Lent as a “dear Feast” in which we can revel.

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Mix and Match: Mysticism American Style

By Robin Bates | Published: March 10, 2010

There was an interesting Lenten column in the New York Times Monday. Ross Douthat, a conservative in the best sense, draws on a Commonweal article by theologian Luke Timothy Johnson criticizing contemporary spiritual practice in this country. From the way Douthat quotes him, it sounds as though Johnson might take exception with my criticism of harsh […]

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On Lent, Faustus, and the 7 Deadly Sins

By Robin Bates | Published: March 8, 2010

Dr. Faustus, Rembrandt etching       Here we are in the midst of Lent with less than a month to go until Easter.  Sir Gawain and the Green Knight describes the season as follows: After Christmas there came the cold cheer of Lent, When with fish and plainer fare our flesh we reprove . . . The […]

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