Looking for a fresh approach to Lent this year? Try this book

Maggi Dawn reimagines Lent as a journey beyond certainty into deeper encounter with God. Her 47-day devotional challenges comfortable faith and opens scripture afresh, says our reviewer

Lent is commonly thought of as a season of personal denial, but in Giving It Up (BFR Ministries), Maggi Dawn invites readers to consider the wider purposes of Lent. Rather than merely giving up treats or habits, she challenges readers to relinquish some of their certainty. She leads a 47-day journey that gently dismantles inherited ideas of who God is. This is not a devotional designed to soothe or reassure, but one that seeks to re-form perception and deepen faith through encounter.

It is an enlightening read, particularly for those, like myself, who have given little thought to the practices of Ash Wednesday or the feast days of Lent. Dawn opens up the idea of fasting, what it looks like when practised in community and how it reshapes the way faith is lived. The book follows the rhythm of Lent itself, moving from Ash Wednesday through to Holy Week. The opening section, focused on “giving up”, frames Lent as more than the denial of comforts; it is a call to surrender narrow constructs of God and to confront mortality, dependence and the gift of life itself.

As the reflections move into Jesus’ time in the wilderness and beyond, Dawn resists romanticising struggle. The wilderness emerges as a place of preparation and transformation, before the lens widens to other biblical wildernesses marked by suffering, confusion and a perceived divine absence.

Scripture is handled with care and imagination throughout. Dawn has a particular gift for taking familiar passages like the lost sheep, the prodigal son, the good Samaritan and the feeding of the five thousand, and drawing out fresh meaning. Attention is drawn to their risk, vulnerability and social cost, challenging comfortable or individualistic readings. These texts are reopened rather than recycled, allowing Scripture to remain rich rather than over-explained.

The book consistently resists the tendency to treat Scripture as a template for private spirituality, instead