Releasing September 9, 2025
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Wilt thou be made whole?
Traditional Christian virtues and vices like abstinence, gluttony, and sloth make many of us bored or uncomfortable. At their best, these words may sound dead or confusing, like incomplete fossils from a distant era, awkwardly enshrined in a museum. At worst, they signify a prejudiced past, when they were wielded like weapons.
In medieval books, virtues like meekness and vices like avarice meant different things and carried different weight than they do today. And great medieval preachers and poets taught the virtues as crucial to what it meant to live a life of holiness, right alongside the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed.
These classic virtues and vices will take on a fresh relevance as you view them through the lens of unexpected medieval imagery: hedgehogs and songbirds, basilisks and unicorns, a garden and the holy Gardener.
In accessible and thoughtful chapters, Hamman shows how the medieval virtues and vices can help us reevaluate our own washed-out and insipid moral vocabulary. Old ideas can give us new fire in our journey toward holiness and wholeness, helping us answer yes to Jesus’ question, ‘Do you want to be well?’
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Get Even More When You Pre-Order!
Purchase the book, ebook, or audiobook and then submit your order via the button below to get access to bonus content taking you even deeper into the rich exploration of virtue and vice:
· Introduction and first chapter
· Audio preview
· Access to the Substack reading group
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What Readers Are Saying
In this thoroughly researched and wonderfully written gem of a book, Grace Hamman recovers wisdom from a time before modernity’s assault upon the garden of the soul. In Ask of Old Paths we really do find “something a little wild and beautiful.” I love this book!
Brian Zahnd, author of The Wood Between the Worlds
In Ask of Old Paths, Grace Hamman offers readers a bountiful gift, retrieving ancient wisdom for modern-day believers and seekers. Equipped with the insights of a scholar and the humility of a fellow pilgrim, Hamman guides readers on the path of virtue toward a flourishing life in and with Christ. Readers willing to take this journey will be challenged, relieved, and ultimately transformed.
Rev. Claude Atcho, pastor of Church of the Resurrection (Charlottesville, VA) and author of Rhythms of Faith and Reading Black Books
A wise and beautiful work of scholarship and devotion. Grace Hamman brings her immense knowledge of the medieval world to her exploration of the virtues, and has created a work that both grips the imagination and stirs the heart. This book will be a resource and inspiration for years to come.
Sarah Clarkson, author of Reclaiming Quiet and This Beautiful Truth
Ask of Old Paths retrieves more than the language of virtue and vice—it turns to Christian history to recover a robust theology of a whole and holy human life. Grace Hamman offers us a rare treasure–rich theology and history, presented in an engaging and accessible manner, for the sake of actual human lives. This is a book that will not only teach you about the virtues and vices, it will inspire you to deeper thought and greater faithfulness.
Kaitlyn Schiess, author of The Ballot and the Bible and co-host of The Holy Post
With obvious delight and exquisite clarity, Grace Hamman guides us through the medieval garden of the soul, identifying both the strangling weeds of the seven capital vices and the fragrant, lush virtues we can cultivate as remedies. Under her tutelage, medieval Christianity becomes a rich resource instead of an intimidating pile of dusty manuscripts or bizarre images. Hamman gently reintroduces us to the language of virtues, helping us recognize the wisdom that remains present in words and ideas that may seem old-fashioned or even oppressive. The book is an invitation to wholeness, walking old paths to meet the challenges of our present lives.
Dr. Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt, author of Redeeming Vision and professor at Covenant College
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