What grows in weary lands by Trish Harrison warren
Week 2: Chapter 1 — Aridity and the Ancient Tradition
Read Chapter 1 of What Grows in Weary Lands by Tish Harrison Warren.
Previewing Week 2 of What grows in weary lands
Read 3 of 8 discussion questions below. Unlock the complete 10-week guide when you’re ready.
Warren opens the body of her argument by retrieving a word — aridity — that Western Christianity has largely lost, and she invites us to see why recovering it might change everything about how we endure hard seasons.
Discussion Questions
8 questions1.Warren carefully defines 'aridity' as distinct from clinical depression, grief, or even ordinary tiredness — it is a specific spiritual experience of dryness in which God seems silent or absent. How would you describe the difference between these categories in your own words? Have you experienced aridity in this specific sense?
2.The Desert Fathers and Mothers treated aridity not as a malfunction to be fixed but as a normal — even necessary — stage of the spiritual life. Why do you think this understanding was so widespread in early Christianity but has become so rare today? What has replaced it?
3.Warren argues that when we lack a category for spiritual dryness, we are left with only two bad explanations: either God has abandoned us, or we have done something wrong. Have you defaulted to one of these explanations in your own dry seasons? What were the consequences?