Blake Adams (MA, Wheaton College) is an editor, writer, and trained historian. His research interests include early Christian history, ascetical theology, and exegesis. He serves as Lead Sacristan at Church of the Resurrection (ACNA) in Wheaton, Illinois. Follow him on Twitter @BlaketheObscure or Substack at https://readreligiously.substack.com/.
Does receiving ashes on the forehead, a custom widely practiced on Ash Wednesday, go against Christ’s command to keep your fasting a secret (Matt. 6:16–18)? This command appears in the Sermon on the Mount. Christ’s teaching there on fasting is the last in a mini-series on spiritual disciplines which includes almsgiving and prayer. He opens this…
C.S. Lewis wrote in the preface to The Screwtape Letters that there are two opposite errors we can make about demons: “One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”[1] We might add a third error: To believe in their existence but…
Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. —James 5:16 A key part of growing in spiritual stamina, drawing in closer union with God, and recovering from sin is spiritual discipline (askesis). For Christians, the “Big Three” are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (see Matt. 6:1–21). But…
