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Uncovering Sin: a Gateway to Healing & Calling

Reviewed by Luke Penkett.

This is a book for group or individual study, ideally during Lent and beyond. Rosy, a priest at St Martin-in-the-Fields, has given us here some superb reflections on sin – not looking at it in any condemnatory way but, rather, with compassion, enabling us to understand it and to stand together. Her inclusion of chapters for use during Holy Week and Easter helps her readers to live out what it really means to be ‘raised with Christ.’

Each week has two chapters, each headed by one or two Bible passages for lectio divina, and each chapter has its own handful of questions. So, plenty of material here!

At a time when sin is seemingly out of fashion with the majority of theologians, it’s refreshing and constructive to study these chapters to gain a more Christ-like response to sin. Drawing on a wealth of insight into the human condition, past and present, Fairhurst shows us how to be positive, creative and forgiving about sinners – including ourselves – and brings the whole subject of sin far more in line with the teachings of the gospels, rather than the power hungry attitude of the church.

Uncovering Sin is deftly written, betraying the caring and loving response of its writer. By no means superficial, the book teaches us what it means to be human and, especially at Easter, also offers us some thoughts on what it means to be forgiven.