Evoking Lament

Evoking Lament
Author: Eva Harasta
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2009-10-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567553841

Harasta and Brock show how lament seems to introduce notes of mistrust into an otherwise confident relationship with faith, God and His will. In prayer all experiences may be brought to God in openness and trust. Yet lament seems to introduce notes of mistrust into a relationship properly characterized by confident faith in God and His will. Sustained attention to lament presents a challenge to theological reflection in reminding it of the acuteness of the experience of suffering and evil. This volume suggests that a robust concept and practice of lament is an appropriate response to questions of evil and suffering in its refusal to close off questions that cannot and should not be closed. Lament takes place in the eye of the storm of theodicy, and when the distinct content of Christian lament is discovered here the question of theodicy is transformed. The first section reflects on the anthropological conditions of lament, describing it as a hermeneutic for negotiating adverse experiences that transcends the simple opposition of innocent suffering and guilt. The second section reflects on why and how lament has faded from modern theological thought that is over reliant on systematic accounts of evil and whose abstractions have drifted free of religious experience. The third section develops an understanding of trust that includes expressions of lament while not sanitizing its rawness. The final section inquires after the distinct Christian profile of lament. Lament, even as an experience of isolation, stands within the believing community and its traditions. Moreover, because Christian lament is based on Christ's passion and resurrection, Christ endorses and shapes the believers' lament as he shapes their praise.

Jesus Wept: The Significance of Jesus’ Laments in the New Testament

Jesus Wept: The Significance of Jesus’ Laments in the New Testament
Author: Rebekah Eklund
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2015-02-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567656551

Lament does not seem to be a pervasive feature of the New Testament, particularly when viewed in relation to the Old Testament. A careful investigation of the New Testament, however, reveals that it thoroughly incorporates the pattern of Old Testament lament into its proclamation of the gospel, especially in the person of Jesus Christ as he both prays and embodies lament. As an act that fundamentally calls upon God to be faithful to God's promises to Israel and to the church, lament in the New Testament becomes a prayer of longing for God's kingdom, which has been inaugurated in the ministry and resurrection of Jesus, fully to come.

A Synoptic Christology of Lament

A Synoptic Christology of Lament
Author: Channing L. Crisler
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 373
Release: 2023
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666912719

A Synoptic Christology of Lament explores the Christological implications of the way the Evangelists portray Jesus as someone who both answered cries of distress and uttered them. They take up the language of lament from Israel's Scriptures to accomplish this biographical aim.

Habakkuk

Habakkuk
Author: Heath A. Thomas
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2018-07-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1467450669

The book of Habakkuk has much to teach us about suffering and complaint, faith and fear, and the fidelity of God in times of trouble; it generates reflection on prayer, peace, violence, and faithfulness. In this volume—one of the few commentaries examining Habakkuk by itself—Heath Thomas explores this overlooked Old Testament prophet in order to hear God’s word for us today.

Practicing Lament

Practicing Lament
Author: Rebekah Eklund
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 86
Release: 2021-02-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725272601

In a faith focused on resurrection hope, patient endurance, and victory in Christ, is there any room for pain, doubt, and anger? In Scripture, lament is the prayer that makes that room. Not only is lament one of the most common forms of prayer in the Old Testament, it's also woven deeply into the fabric of the New Testament and the Christian way. Lament is the cry for all those who ache over the way things are but aren't content to let them stay that way. It's the prayer for all the ways that the kingdom has not yet come, in the hope that God's justice and peace will prevail--someday.

Born from Lament

Born from Lament
Author: Katongole, Emmanuel
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2017
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0802874347

There is no more urgent theological task than to provide an account of hope in Africa, given its endless cycles of violence, war, poverty, and displacement. So claims Emmanuel Katongole, an innovative theological voice from Africa. In the midst of suffering, Katongole says, hope takes the form of "arguing" and "wrestling" with God. Such lament is not merely a cry of pain--it is a way of mourning, protesting, and appealing to God. As he unpacks the rich theological and social dimensions of the practice of lament in Africa, Katongole tells the stories of courageous Christian activists working for change in East Africa and invites readers to enter into lament along with them.

Prophetic Lament

Prophetic Lament
Author: Soong-Chan Rah
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2015-09-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830836942

The American church avoids lament but lament is a missing, essential component of Christian faith. Soong-Chan Rah's prophetic exposition of the book of Lamentations provides a biblical and theological lens for examining the church's relationship with a suffering world. Hear the prophet's lament as the necessary corrective for Christianity's future.

Lament-Driven Preaching

Lament-Driven Preaching
Author: Eliana Ah-Rum Ku
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2024-03-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666774332

This book challenges Christian communities to engage in lament--a mode of existence characterized by impassioned expression, witnessing, and personal or social protest in the face of evil and injustice, reflecting a profound yearning for God's saving presence. Divine lament responds to, and expresses solidarity with, human suffering, unveiling multiple facets of God's image and demonstrating a profound sense of divine compassion. Drawing on the Book of Lamentations, Korean concepts related to suffering (han and hanpuri), the Paschal Triduum narratives, and recent homiletic discourses on suffering, the author investigates how complex issues related to grief and hope can be addressed in preaching without diminishing the harsh reality of affliction. Designed to assist preachers, this book encourages a more intentional approach to addressing suffering, specifically by advocating for lament as a transitional space between affliction and hope. Furthermore, readers are invited to contemplate the significance of the church, which, within a world in decline, embodies the body of Christ, manifesting both the demise and resurrection of God.

Reading Romans as Lament

Reading Romans as Lament
Author: Channing L. Crisler
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2016-04-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498232175

Reading Romans as Lament examines how and why Paul uses such a high volume of Old Testament lament in his letter to the Romans. Lament is not merely a poignant cry of distress, but a distinct form of prayer scattered across the pages of the Old Testament. It contains a distinct literary footprint and theology. Although often overlooked, Romans contains a great deal of this prayer form through its various lament citations and echoes. When these citations and echoes are heard, it impacts the interpretation of the letter's argumentation and sheds historical light on suffering in the early church. Building on the work of both Old Testament scholarship and recent trends in Pauline Studies, most notably Claus Westermann and Richard B. Hays, this book explores how Paul uses the language and theology of Old Testament lament to address the tension between what his gospel promises and the pain his listeners experience. The echoes of lament in Romans indicate that suffering stems from various sources, but they share a common concern with divine wrath. The experience of pain, including concern over God's wrath, is a reality for the "righteous" in Rome. Paul consistently answers their cries of distress with the gospel.

Finding Lost Words

Finding Lost Words
Author: G. Geoffrey Harper
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2017-03-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498242162

The brokenness of this world inevitably invades our lives. But how do you maintain faith when overwhelmed by grief? When prayer goes unanswered? When all you have are questions, not answers? What do you say to God when you know he is in control but the suffering continues unabated? Is there any alternative to remaining speechless in the midst of pain and heartbreak? This book is about finding words to use when life is hard. These words are not new. They are modes of expression that the church has drawn on in times of grief throughout most of its history. Yet, the church in the West has largely abandoned these words--the psalms of lament. The result is that believers often struggle to know what to do or say when faced with distress, anxiety, and loss. Whether you are in Christian leadership, training for ministry, or simply struggling to reconcile experience with biblical convictions, Finding Lost Words will help you consider how these ancient words can become your own.