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Towards Dawn: Essays in Hopefulness
Do we live in “post-Christian” times? Or has secularization run its course, the sun of a new day breaking on both the Church and the world?
In Towards Essays in Hopefulness, Bishop Erik Varden—a Trappist monk and the bishop of Trondheim in Norway—reflects on recent crises of the past and signs of hope for the future. Featuring essays on some of the most pressing subjects of the day for Catholics—evangelization, synodality, liturgy, blessings, the sexual abuse crisis, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), and more—Bishop Varden unfurls “a blessed contagion” of hope rooted in authentic spirituality, the universal call to holiness, and the revelation of Christ, who makes all things new.
A compelling collection from one of the most impressive young voices of the episcopacy, Towards Dawn offers neither a bland optimism nor a bitter pessimism but a realistic, clear-eyed confidence that everything—even suffering, disappointment, and injustice—can be purposeful. We can move out of the meaninglessness and despair that surrounds us toward the Light that shines in the darkness. Here and now, hope glimmers.
In Towards Essays in Hopefulness, Bishop Erik Varden—a Trappist monk and the bishop of Trondheim in Norway—reflects on recent crises of the past and signs of hope for the future. Featuring essays on some of the most pressing subjects of the day for Catholics—evangelization, synodality, liturgy, blessings, the sexual abuse crisis, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), and more—Bishop Varden unfurls “a blessed contagion” of hope rooted in authentic spirituality, the universal call to holiness, and the revelation of Christ, who makes all things new.
A compelling collection from one of the most impressive young voices of the episcopacy, Towards Dawn offers neither a bland optimism nor a bitter pessimism but a realistic, clear-eyed confidence that everything—even suffering, disappointment, and injustice—can be purposeful. We can move out of the meaninglessness and despair that surrounds us toward the Light that shines in the darkness. Here and now, hope glimmers.
160 pages, Hardcover
Published November 3, 2025
About the author
Erik Varden
24 books64 followersErik Varden is a monk and bishop, born in Norway in 1974. In 2002, after ten years at the University of Cambridge, he joined Mount Saint Bernard Abbey in Charnwood Forest. Pope Francis named him bishop of Trondheim in 2019.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 23, 2026
"Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.'" (Mt 13:52).
This statement of Christ is echoed in St. Benedict’s Rule when discussing the kind of man that should be elected as an abbot: “It beho0ves him therefore to be learned in the divine law, that he may thence bring forth things new and old...” (Rule, 64). The Rule was (and still is) the bedrock text of Western monasticism. In this collection of essays, Bishop Erik Varden, a Trappist monk himself, excellently brings out of the treasures of his monastic tradition, and that of the Church at large to tease out theological principles with which we can approach concerns in the year of our Lord 2026.
His contemporary commentary is very soberly measured. It would be hard for anyone to tackle charged subjects such as DEI, yoga, and blessings without veering away from the virtuous mean, but I think Bp.Varden nails it. These essays lack the partisan triumphalism expected of both “traditionalist” and “progressive” Catholics (whatever those two terms mean in reality).
This collection of essays is filled with the freshness of the kerygma. It was very refreshing to be reacquainted with the romance of salvation. This is also helped by Bp. Varden’s enthusiasm and personal holiness that perfuses the entire book. Again, he shows how much he has been formed in holiness by the Western monastic tradition; the same tradition in which “Stat crux dum volvitur orbis (The cross stands while the world turns)” originated. Bp. Varden is able to communicate compellingly the stability of Christ. I think most, if not all of us, would benefit from contemplating that stability.
The first three essays were amazing – knocked my socks off, blew my brain up, etc etc. The following seven were still excellent, but not as personally impactful.
As a word of caution for other people at a 6th grade reading level, my vocabulary was not quite ready for this book. Bp. Varden’s writing style is loaded with references – sometimes too many for me – and I found myself losing the thrust of certain essays just to understand divulgences. Rereading was helpful here for me. I still think this is definitely worth reading even if you need to look up words every line. It’s that good.
I thought I’d add some of my favorite quotations here at the end:
“...Christian engagement with the world has in reality but one paradigm. This paradigm inheres in the fullness of the Church’s faith in Christ, defined by the councils and transmitted through a patrimony of theology, liturgy, culture, and charitable action.” (15)
“I consider it a vital task (and a Christian, Catholic task) here and now to counter the stupid tendency that would make of culture a luxury for the elites while presuming that the one truly unifying medium for our times is TikTok.” (31)
“May God preserve us now and always from clerical quackery.” (38)
“To drink deeply from the sources is precisely what the young want. Why not help them? Why not enable them to find within their own tradition a patrimony rightfully theirs, time-tested practices apt to help them grow in Christ instead of leaving them to the vaguely ethereal hunches of Steve Jobs?” (52-53)
“God loves me the way He made me. Why should I want to be more spiritual that He?” (55)
“...‘Self-will’ [is] the ensemble of my intimate addictions and obsessions, idees fixes, and reasons for self-pity, patterns of thought and behavior that shut me up in myself and off from others…Mortification of self-will is no obliteration of personhood…That which must go is my tendency to see myself as the sun in a universe of extinguished stars…” (67)
“We have come to think of holiness as behavioral perfectibility. We imagine saints as flawless super-persons: nice to all, always patient, not slurping soup, never uttering invective, never crossing the street on a red light. The mere thought of such a person is intolerable…A glance at the Church’s catalogue of canonized saints with explode such a limited view of holiness, of course.” (88)
“The saint is no exsanguine transhuman. No, a true saint shows forth what a human being is with luminous intensity. We honor the saints not as pupils in life’s school who, by swotting, have learnt at last to recite by rote and follow all the rules; we venerate them as graced, gracious human beings in whom the mystery of God flares up like substantial fire.” (88-89)
“Just a couple of generations ago, it was common enough to hear people speak about faith on the basis of private notions of ‘my god’: ‘My god isn't this way or that, doesn't do that sort of thing.’ It was chiefly a matter of distancing oneself from the concept of the covenant, the biblical idea that God, ruler of all, relates to humankind on the basis of a bilateral testament marked by a number of conditions…A God who makes demands and seeks to incorporate me into a superior cosmos is troublesome.” (116)
Good book.
This statement of Christ is echoed in St. Benedict’s Rule when discussing the kind of man that should be elected as an abbot: “It beho0ves him therefore to be learned in the divine law, that he may thence bring forth things new and old...” (Rule, 64). The Rule was (and still is) the bedrock text of Western monasticism. In this collection of essays, Bishop Erik Varden, a Trappist monk himself, excellently brings out of the treasures of his monastic tradition, and that of the Church at large to tease out theological principles with which we can approach concerns in the year of our Lord 2026.
His contemporary commentary is very soberly measured. It would be hard for anyone to tackle charged subjects such as DEI, yoga, and blessings without veering away from the virtuous mean, but I think Bp.Varden nails it. These essays lack the partisan triumphalism expected of both “traditionalist” and “progressive” Catholics (whatever those two terms mean in reality).
This collection of essays is filled with the freshness of the kerygma. It was very refreshing to be reacquainted with the romance of salvation. This is also helped by Bp. Varden’s enthusiasm and personal holiness that perfuses the entire book. Again, he shows how much he has been formed in holiness by the Western monastic tradition; the same tradition in which “Stat crux dum volvitur orbis (The cross stands while the world turns)” originated. Bp. Varden is able to communicate compellingly the stability of Christ. I think most, if not all of us, would benefit from contemplating that stability.
The first three essays were amazing – knocked my socks off, blew my brain up, etc etc. The following seven were still excellent, but not as personally impactful.
As a word of caution for other people at a 6th grade reading level, my vocabulary was not quite ready for this book. Bp. Varden’s writing style is loaded with references – sometimes too many for me – and I found myself losing the thrust of certain essays just to understand divulgences. Rereading was helpful here for me. I still think this is definitely worth reading even if you need to look up words every line. It’s that good.
I thought I’d add some of my favorite quotations here at the end:
“...Christian engagement with the world has in reality but one paradigm. This paradigm inheres in the fullness of the Church’s faith in Christ, defined by the councils and transmitted through a patrimony of theology, liturgy, culture, and charitable action.” (15)
“I consider it a vital task (and a Christian, Catholic task) here and now to counter the stupid tendency that would make of culture a luxury for the elites while presuming that the one truly unifying medium for our times is TikTok.” (31)
“May God preserve us now and always from clerical quackery.” (38)
“To drink deeply from the sources is precisely what the young want. Why not help them? Why not enable them to find within their own tradition a patrimony rightfully theirs, time-tested practices apt to help them grow in Christ instead of leaving them to the vaguely ethereal hunches of Steve Jobs?” (52-53)
“God loves me the way He made me. Why should I want to be more spiritual that He?” (55)
“...‘Self-will’ [is] the ensemble of my intimate addictions and obsessions, idees fixes, and reasons for self-pity, patterns of thought and behavior that shut me up in myself and off from others…Mortification of self-will is no obliteration of personhood…That which must go is my tendency to see myself as the sun in a universe of extinguished stars…” (67)
“We have come to think of holiness as behavioral perfectibility. We imagine saints as flawless super-persons: nice to all, always patient, not slurping soup, never uttering invective, never crossing the street on a red light. The mere thought of such a person is intolerable…A glance at the Church’s catalogue of canonized saints with explode such a limited view of holiness, of course.” (88)
“The saint is no exsanguine transhuman. No, a true saint shows forth what a human being is with luminous intensity. We honor the saints not as pupils in life’s school who, by swotting, have learnt at last to recite by rote and follow all the rules; we venerate them as graced, gracious human beings in whom the mystery of God flares up like substantial fire.” (88-89)
“Just a couple of generations ago, it was common enough to hear people speak about faith on the basis of private notions of ‘my god’: ‘My god isn't this way or that, doesn't do that sort of thing.’ It was chiefly a matter of distancing oneself from the concept of the covenant, the biblical idea that God, ruler of all, relates to humankind on the basis of a bilateral testament marked by a number of conditions…A God who makes demands and seeks to incorporate me into a superior cosmos is troublesome.” (116)
Good book.
March 14, 2026
Too many gems. Here's one:
"If literature equips us to recognise and name emptiness, it is also likely to let us discover that empty resonance does not have the last word. A living, life-giving Word can rise out of the night of felt extinction. When that happens, literature can save lives, resurrect hope, perhaps even turn into a vehicle of salvation."
"If literature equips us to recognise and name emptiness, it is also likely to let us discover that empty resonance does not have the last word. A living, life-giving Word can rise out of the night of felt extinction. When that happens, literature can save lives, resurrect hope, perhaps even turn into a vehicle of salvation."
January 9, 2026
Hearing Varden speak a few months ago was a revelation. Reading him in the written word is just as satisfying.
December 9, 2025
A profound collection. Admittedly some of the reflections lacked context and so were deprived of the bite and power I’m sure Bishop Varden exercised in delivery. But most of them were significant, even deprived of context. His reflections on ‘The Scandal of Sanctity’ on ‘Blessing’ and on ‘Confirmation’ all served as excellent foundations for talks I have to give this year!
December 2, 2025
Bishop Varden is one of the greatest Catholic writers alive today. This book continues that trend, taking some neuralgic topics head-on.
March 23, 2026
A great collection of essays from Varden. He is always worth reading. I found the essay on yoga and the Latin Mass particularly interesting and insightful
August 26, 2026
Beautiful as always. Bishop Varden is a spiritual master.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews