Lauren Winner is an American historian, author and lecturer. Her interests are in Christian practice and Jewish-Christian relations. She was born and raised Jewish and then later converted and became an Episcopal priest. She is presently Assistant Professor at Duke Divinity School.
Winner’s writing, which I have encountered in various books and publications, is academic and approachable at the same time. She is honest about difficult issues in her own life while she speaks of relationship with God. Life and faith are messy, and our journeys are not perfect. Spirituality can suffer slumps and desolation and Winner offers unique insights into how to reconnect with God in ordinary everyday ways.
Here are the books, most of which I have read:
Girl Meets God is about Winner’s journey from Judaism to Christianity. The child of a Jewish father and a lapsed Southern Baptist mother, Winner chose to become an Orthodox Jew. But even as she was observing Sabbath rituals and studying Jewish law, Lauren was drawn to Christianity. The twists and turns of Winner’s journey make her the perfect guide to exploring faith in today’s complicated world.
Still: Notes on a Mid-faith Crisis is a second memoir where she talks about the period following the breakup of her marriage and her mother’s death, during which she experienced doubt and despair. Elegantly written and profound, Still offers reflections on how murky and gray the spiritual life can be while, at the same time, shows us how to see the light we do encounter more clearly.
Real Sex: The Naked Truth about Chastity will be especially valuable to unmarried Christians struggling with the sexual mania of today’s culture. In a culture of “everybody’s doing it,” Winner speaks candidly, with honesty and wit, about the difficulty and importance of sexual chastity outside of a committed relationship. She confronts cultural lies about sex and challenges how we talk (or don’t talk) about sex in church.
Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God is about little known (or used) metaphors for God. Is God more like a cardigan sweater or a fire that burns but does not consume? Going through overlooked images of God, she offers a unique sensory exploration of relationship with God that is new and refreshing.
Mudhouse Sabbath is an invitation to spiritual discipline. In this slim volume she highlights how Jewish practices can inform Christian discipline and outlines eleven spiritual lessons that Judaism taught her. Winner feels that Christian practices would be enriched, would be thicker and more vibrant, if some lessons were taken from Judaism. Spiritual disciplines do not save us, but they are as important as piano etudes are to a concert pianist or muscle strengthening to the athlete.
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