Mudhouse Sabbath: An Invitation to a Life of Spiritual Discipline

This book is a pretty quick, easy read... but it could end up taking a big bite out of your current allotment of "free time." That is if you decide that you want to implement any of Winner's suggestions, especially in relation to Sabbath or Lord's Day observances. I admit I am intrigued by her description of Jewish Sabbath practices.I appreciated her observation on the liturgy: "Even my friend Meg, who left the too-liturgical Episcopal Church for a praise-song-singing, spontaneous-prayer-praying charismatic church, will, I suspect, discover that she is doing liturgy: After enough time, the rhythm of the praise songs and the (seemingly) spontaneous prayers will become familiar and even routine, a liturgy of its own."As a Lutheran who is a former "charismatic" I am often amused and sometimes annoyed by people who look down their noses at the liturgy because everything is written down and repeats itself week after week. My own experience has taught me that the free-flowing-move-of-the-Spirit churches can be just as repetitive and more so. After singing the same twelve word praise chorus for the thirteenth consecutive time, I start pulling out my beard.Thank God for diversity! I have shed buckets of tears in both kinds of services and God has met me and ministered to me in both places. There are positive aspects to each; and there is always danger of spiritual stagnation no matter where you choose to go to church. What you take away from worship will depend in large part by what you take with you going in.Okay, enough from me... back to the book. I am giving this book four stars. It was enjoyable and it was interesting. It held my attention through its brief pages, but I don't think it changed my life. That is probably more of a statement about where I am spiritually than it is about the content of the book. I agreed with much of Winner's commentary on Christian life and practice and perhaps that's why I held back one star. I pretty much believe what she believes so I wasn't forced to examine my beliefs or practices. We're already on the same page. That doesn't mean that this book couldn't be life changing for someone and I would definitely recommend it.

I found this book to be sadly unsatisfying. I am a Lutheran pastor who grew up in a Jewish community, and I continue to enjoy long and loving relationships with several Jewish friends, one of whom I have only known for over 40 years. I have also been involved in inter-faith dialogue throughout my years in the ministry. Perhaps the problem I had with the book stems from the fact that by her own description, Ms. Winner was new to the Christian faith and its traditions when she wrote the book. She was clearly unaware of the many customs that were part of your religious life that are different between Christians from different parts of the world, which is in high contrast to the similarity in practices amongst those of the Jewish tradition no matter where you grew up or which of the 3 basic branches of Judaism you followed. Whether she was speaking about her Jewish relatives and friends, or her new Christian community of faith, too many things full of beauty and meaning were entirely left out, or simply glossed over. I read this book with a group of Lutheran women over a 7 week period, and during every session I had to introduce information about both Jewish and Christian practices and their meanings, because far too much had been left out for the women in the group to be able to come to some new understanding of both religions. I found the book to be more of a memoire about what Ms. Winner missed from her years growing up in a Jewish home, and what she experienced in her as yet unexamined journey into Christianity. Perhaps she would have done better by taking 3 deep breaths and waiting for another 3 years to pass before writing "Mudhouse Sabbath."

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Lauren Winner, the author was raised a kosher Jew and then converted to Christianity as an adult in college. As a practicing Christian, Winner realizes that she misses some of the spiritual disciplines that came from her Jewish upbringing, so the book is about how to adapt some Jewish spiritual disciplines to Christian beliefs. She talks about eating, the image of the body, mourning, keeping the Sabbath and many other things that could inform Christian practice and deepen it. I felt that her observations and suggestions were greatly insightful and practicable. Winner's writing style made me feel like I was sitting next to her at the Mudhouse Cafe, her favorite coffee shop which lends it's name to the title of the book. I would recommed this book for anyone wishing to deepen their connection to the spirit in their everyday lives. It's a wonderful book.

In this short work, Lauren Winner, once practicing Jew, shares how 11 Jewish disciplines can bolster the Christian life--one that she now lives. This primer is extremely accessible, full of life examples and succinct writing. Winner does not presume to claim divine, salvific magic in embodying these disciplines. Rather, along First Testament (OT) thought, there's something powerful when we do an act: it affects our mind and heart and spirit. In other words, the Christian faith should be a bodily life. Personally, her chapters on sabbath (shabbat), fitting food (kashrut), mourning (avelut), hospitality (hachnassat orchim), and prayer (tefillah) [pretty much the first half of the book] were extremely meaningful.cf. sooholee.wordpress

I really liked this little/big book! It's the kind of book I pop in my purse for the waiting room, coffee shop or plane ride. I want to describe this woman's writing as authentic, transparent, honest, genuine. This book is funny and radiates much warmth and insight from the Messianic perspective. She incorporates Jewish tradition into her daily worship as a Believer in Jesus Christ, all of which I delight in. She lets us walk with her through the 'how' of her growth in the Lord and the applications in the light of her new faith. She is very quick to address her challenges and let's us listen in on her ruminations about them! Overall, a delightful little book!

I enjoyed reading of the Jewish traditions and I appreciated the author's honesty when describing her journey. I would have liked to read more on Sabbath.

In diesem Band beschreibt die vom Judentum zum Christentum konvertierte Autorin wichtige jüdischer Traditionen, die sie seit ihrer Bekehrung zum Christentum vermisst. Beispiele sind die Bedeutung des Sabbat, der Gastfreundschaft, der Kunst des Trauerns, von Hochzeiten usw. Gleichzeitig ist die Darstellung ausgewogen; es wird auch erklärt, weshalb die Traditionen im Christentum anders, weniger oder gar nicht beibehalten wurden.Der Schreibstil der Autorin ist durchweg ansprechend. Sie bringt persönliche Anekdoten und Beispiele, wie sie selbst die realistische Eingliederung wichtiger Traditionen in ihren Alltag versucht, um ihre Aussagen zu untermauern. Obwohl theologisch fundiert und informativ, liest sich das Ganze flüssig und ist sehr ansprechend."Mudhouse Sabbath" ist fast schon eine Art Andachtsbuch, das Christen über die jüdischen Wurzeln ihrer Religion informiert und sie anspornt, den einen oder anderen Punkt umzusetzen.

Excellent perspective on the Sabbatb

Loved the book - we're reading it at a book club - took longer to get. It then expected -

This is a wonderful book!