Pierced by Love: Divine Reading with the Christian Tradition
Winner of the 2023 Credo Book Award in “Theological retrieval."
Holy Scripture requires holy reading
Jesus is the point of reading the Bible. Christians read Scripture to encounter Christ and be conformed to his image. Scripture is no mere human text; it is God’s living word. So how should we read it?
For Christians throughout the centuries, the answer has been lectio divina—“divine reading.” In Pierced by Love: Divine Reading with the Christian Tradition, Hans Boersma invites Christians to retrieve this ancient and meditative way of reading the Bible. Lectio divina is a sacramental reading. It aims to take us more deeply into the life of God. Through practicing the four movements of lectio divina—attentive reading, extended meditation, prayerful reflection, and silent resting—we have a structured and simple way to focus on Christ, listen to the Spirit, and rest in God’s love. We no longer simply read the words of Scripture; instead, we read the face of God in the eternal Word.
Drawing insights from our forefathers, such as Augustine, Anselm of Canterbury, and Bernard of Clairvaux, Pierced by Love encourages Christians to join the church’s rich heritage of transformative reading.
Preview the book: ARTICLES ON Pierced By Love
Read an adapted version of one section from Pierced by Love: Divine Reading with the Christian Tradition. Originally published with Comment Magazine.
Read an in-depth review by the Catechesis Institute.
Listen to a discussion on the book with the Mere Fidelity podcast:
ENDORSEMENTS
This book is many things. It is a guide to biblical reading, meditation, and prayer. It reintroduces the truth that Scripture’s sole purpose is to lead us to the living God in Jesus Christ. It lovingly opens up the riches of monastic and scholastic theology. But above all, this book is a work of spiritual instruction by one of the true spiritual masters of our time. Never has the Church more sorely needed theologians who are masters of the spiritual life, and, in our spiritually arid day, God has raised up Hans to direct our minds and hearts toward union with Christ.
― Matthew Levering, James N. Jr. and Mary D. Perry Chair of Theology, Mundelein Seminary
Love for Christ flies off every page. With gentle profundity, Hans Boersma guides his reader through the healing process of lectio divina with the skill of a master, a master wounded by the arrow of the Master of all.
―Alexis Torrance, associate professor and Archbishop Demetrios College Chair of Byzantine Theology, University of Notre Dame
Though the Protestant and evangelical churches have begun to recover elements of the Christian tradition, especially patristic sources, the rich history and theology of the Middle Ages remains to be explored in its fullness. Hans Boersma’s Pierced by Love is an excellent introduction to and exposition of early and medieval writings on sacred reading. The book's deep examination of medieval authors illuminates the Bible-centeredness of medieval theology and the text’s many diagrams further reveals the richness of medieval reading and reflection on the Bible. One does not need to be an expert in medieval theology to benefit greatly from Boersma’s analysis and his incisive treatment will change the way you read the Bible. Take up and read!
―Greg Peters, Biola University and Nashotah House Theological Seminary
For a contemporary church that has worn away the point of divine love, Hans Boersma sharpens it again with the flint of tradition. In Pierced by Love, the title is more than metaphor; it indicates how we should experience lectio divina. The early and medieval church knew that reading the Bible meant being entered into as much as entering the text. Boersma reacquaints us with the dangers and costs as well as the fruits of divine reading.
―Jessica Hooten Wilson, visiting scholar at Pepperdine University; author, The Scandal of Holiness
Boersma calls Christians back to the ancient and medieval practice of a spiritual immersion into Scripture as the path to deeper union with Christ. By moving through the four steps of lectio, meditatio, oratio, and contemplatio, he shows how formation and encounter flow together as the reader finds Christ in the depths of Scripture’s spiritual meanings. Scripture becomes sacrament―the place where we ascend to contemplative vision of Christ as we find him and are formed into him through its pages. Recognizing the need for sure guides in this journey, Boersma moves through ancient and medieval writers to build up a thick account of how lectio divina unfolds. The result is like moving through a medieval garden of delights in which the voices of Christian tradition swirl together to form a holistic vision of the Scriptures. This is theology in the best sense―historically rooted, spiritually alive, and oriented toward Christ as the telos of life.
―Dale Coulter, professor, Pentecostal Theological Seminary
The monk in me skips with delight on delving into this comprehensive exploration of lectio divina by Hans Boersma. The book is exceedingly modest, conversational in tone, and yet impressively profound. It is obviously the rich fruit of both long study in the Christian (especially monastic) tradition and long personal practice of lectio. Boersma refuses to dichotomize between exegesis and mysticism, and he rightly loses interest in any approach to the revealed text that is not ultimately headed toward union with God. Desire for God, thirst for the living Christ, is Boersma’s key to biblical anthropology, and this vision everywhere informs his interpretation and application of the divine words.
―Simeon Leiva-Merikakis, OCSO, St. Joseph’s Abbey
The transformative power of lectio divina, the ancient practice of religious reading, is masterfully presented in Hans Boersma’s Pierced by Love. By drawing testimony from Christian spiritual writers across the centuries, he gives readers a vivid sense of what can happen to us as we read, meditate, pray, and contemplate a sacred text. This is a practice not for the faint-hearted for divine reading pierces to the core of our hearts, impels us to face truths about ourselves and embrace a cruciform existence. But as Boersma reminds us, the divine word is an arrow that wounds us with God’s love. His book suggests how lectio opens us to the hidden reality around us and delivers us from a world that has lost a sense of the transcendent. Both long-time practitioners of lectio and those who have just begun the practice will appreciate the rich perspective on lectio presented in this work.
―Raymond Studzinski, OSB, author, Reading to Live: The Evolving Practice of Lectio Divina