Sacred Belonging
A 40-Day Devotional on the Liberating Heart of Scripture
by Kat Armas
Brazos Press, 2023. 195 pages.
Review written April 14, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review
I have a strong knowledge of Scripture – attending Christian schools since elementary school and memorizing large portions – but Kat Armas is able to get me looking at Scripture with new eyes and asking new questions and yes, making new applications.
There are 40 devotionals in this book, in nice bite-sized pieces to mull over as you go about your day. I read them during Lent this year, but they are appropriate for any time of year.
Let me quote from the Introduction to let you know the focus of these devotionals:
The bodily resurrection of Jesus is an invitation to be fully human.
That’s what this devotional is about: being human. And with our humanity comes the ability to inquire, to imagine, to dream, to create.
When it comes to Scripture, I wonder what kind of relationship many of us would have to the text if we had all been invited to do those things when we read it. Rather than viewing the Bible as a book of absolutes, what if we were to read it as a diverse book of stories and instructions relating to the human experience in all its messiness and beauty? Oe of my seminary professors once said that when we read the Bible, we should read it with resistance: constantly asking questions, wrestling with it the way Jacob wrestled with God.
She also talks about the way colonizers and imperialists used the Bible to further their own aims.
I argue that such a syndrome has permeated our being, causing us to view the world as fixed, linear, dichotomous, and functioning in hierarchical relationships of domination and submission. For many of us, the assumptions behind how we perceive the biblical text have brought us to a place of unlearning and unraveling – of decolonizing – where we find ourselves hungry for new, liberating insights into our faith tradition.
For me, she succeeded at bringing a fresh and refreshing approach to biblical stories. She succeeded in these goals she articulated at the end of the Introduction:
My hope is that these words will point you to a belonging deeper than you have dreamed of, that you will see and experience yourself being tethered to your ancestors, to God, and to every created thing. And in exploring this relationality, I also hope that you will get to know divinity as embodied – where you can find a God who is familiar with planting and sewing, good wine and lilies. This is the God to whom we belong: one who is wholly material and wholly spiritual. As close to us as our own skin and far beyond anything our minds can fathom. It is in this paradox where we exist, where our spiritualities find their home. This is where we find sacred belonging.
If you take up this book, I promise your devotional time won’t feel routine.
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/sacred_belonging.html
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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
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