A Deo Lumen: Essays on Holiness, Prayer, Freedom, and Love

What if much of Christianity’s anxiety does not come from believing too little—but from seeing God too dimly?

In A Deo Lumen: Essays on Holiness, Prayer, Freedom, and Love, Rev. Dr. Peter A. Kerr invites readers to rediscover Christianity as it was meant to be: not a system of control, fear, or spiritual management, but a life of participation in God’s holy love. Drawing deeply from Scripture (NASB), the riches of the Christian tradition, and decades of pastoral and theological reflection, these essays offer a renewed vision of God as light rather than threat, holiness as fullness rather than severity, and prayer as partnership rather than persuasion.

This book does not seek to found a new denomination or dismantle historic Christianity. Instead, it offers a theological grammar—called LUMEN (Love Unfailingly Manifested in Everlasting IllumiNation)—through which Protestant, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox insights can be seen more clearly and charitably together. Kerr proposes that when God is rightly understood as holy love, long-standing tensions surrounding freedom, suffering, prayer, judgment, and sanctification begin to resolve without minimizing sin or diminishing grace.

Across seven thematic sections, readers will explore:

• Why holiness in Scripture means fullness and consecration, not fear or moral severity

• How prayer functions as genuine participation in God’s work rather than leverage over outcomes

• Why human freedom is essential to love and never a threat to God’s sovereignty

• How sin is best understood as misdirected love rather than a damaged human essence

• Why God refuses to coerce the human will—and why this is good news

• How Christ reveals not only how God saves, but how humanity is meant to live

Written as a collection of essays rather than a rigid system, A Deo Lumen can be read selectively or slowly revisited. Its tone is pastoral, invitational, and hopeful, addressing readers who sense that faith has become anxious, prayer burdensome, or holiness exhausting. Kerr does not offer easy answers, but a clearer vision—one that restores confidence in God’s goodness and reorients Christian life around love freely received and freely returned.

This is a book for readers weary of performance-driven faith, uneasy with coercive images of God, or longing for a Christianity that forms trust rather than fear. It is an invitation to see God more clearly, pray more honestly, and live more freely in the light that comes from God alone—A Deo, Lumen.

For samples, visit ADeoLumen.com