Evoking Lament: A Theological Discussion
a volume of articles edited by Eva Harasta and Brian Brock
Continuum Press/T&T Clark, London/New York, 2009
(translation of "Mit Gott klagen", Neukirchener, 2008)
Description:
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.
Overview:
Lament and the Phenomenon of Suffering
Rebekka A. Klein (Heidelberg): The Phenomenology of Lament and the Presence of God in Time
Jonas Bauer (Frankfurt): Enquiring into the Absence of Lament - A Study of the Entwining of Suffering and Guilt in Lament
Christian Polke (Hamburg): God, lament, contingency: An essay in fundamental theology
The Assault of Lament on Systematic Thought
Matthias D. Wüthrich (Basel): Lament for Naught? An Inquiry into the Suppression of Lament in Systematic Theology: On the Example of Karl Barth
Martin Wendte (Tübingen): Lamentation between Contradiction and Obedience: Hegel and Barth as diametrically opposed brothers in the spirit of modernity
Marius Timmann Mjaaland (Oslo): The Fractured Unity of God: Lament as a challenge to the very nature of God
Lament for God's Sake?
Claudia Welz (Copenhagen): Trust and Lament: Faith in the Face of Godforsakenness
Henrike Frey-Anthes (Backnang): Praise, Petition, Lament – and Back: On the Significance of Lament in the Book of Tobit
Markus Öhler (Vienna): To mourn, weep, lament and groan: On the heterogeneity of the New Testament’s statements on lament
Lamenting in Christ
Stephen Lakkis (Taipei): ‘Have you any right to be angry?’ Lament as a metric of socio-political and theological context
Brian Brock (Aberdeen): Augustine’s Incitement to Lament, from the Enarrationes in Psalmos
Eva Harasta (Bamberg) Crucified Praise and Resurrected Lament