Lament, Death, and Destiny

Lament, Death, and Destiny PDF

Author: Richard Hughes

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9780820470962

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Lament, a natural, healthy response to unfair suffering and death, has largely disappeared from modern life and thought. This book reaffirms ancient Greek and Hebrew conceptions of lament as a protest against death as fate. Richard A. Hughes finds lament to be basic in the Bible, and he traces the decline of lament, beginning with Plato's antifeminist critique and early Christian theodicy, through the church fathers and the Protestant reformers. He shows that lament was displaced by classical doctrines of providence but recaptured in the modern existentialist revolt against unjust suffering. Hughes discusses the need for lament in the present age of mass, catastrophic death.

The City Lament

The City Lament PDF

Author: Tamar M. Boyadjian

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2018-12-15

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 150173086X

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Poetic elegies for lost or fallen cities are seemingly as old as cities themselves. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, this genre finds its purest expression in the book of Lamentations, which mourns the destruction of Jerusalem; in Arabic, this genre is known as the ritha al-mudun. In The City Lament, Tamar M. Boyadjian traces the trajectory of the genre across the Mediterranean world during the period commonly referred to as the early Crusades (1095–1191), focusing on elegies and other expressions of loss that address the spiritual and strategic objective of those wars: Jerusalem. Through readings of city laments in English, French, Latin, Arabic, and Armenian literary traditions, Boyadjian challenges hegemonic and entrenched approaches to the study of medieval literature and the Crusades. The City Lament exposes significant literary intersections between Latin Christendom, the Islamic caliphates of the Middle East, and the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia, arguing for shared poetic and rhetorical modes. Reframing our understanding of literary sources produced across the medieval Mediterranean from an antagonistic, orientalist model to an analogous one, Boyadjian demonstrates how lamentations about the loss of Jerusalem, whether to Muslim or Christian forces, reveal fascinating parallels and rich, cross-cultural exchanges.

Reformation Letters

Reformation Letters PDF

Author: Michael Parsons

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2018-05-29

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 153265667X

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Reformation Letters is a detailed look at John Calvin’s letters, which were mostly of a pastoral nature. These were letters that define the Reformation and demonstrate Calvin’s concerns, his strengths, and his weaknesses, against the background of his own time and contemporaries. Here we find Calvin on his own calling and exile from Geneva; Calvin on marriage—his own and others’; Calvin’s prefatory letter to Francis I of France; Calvin’s letter to Sadoleto on the nature of the Reformation; Calvin on Servetus and the reasons for his trial and execution for heresy; and Calvin’s letters to those facing death and persecution.

Evoking Lament

Evoking Lament PDF

Author: Eva Harasta

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2009-10-10

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 0567553841

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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 PDF

Author: Rebekah Eklund

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2015-02-26

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0567656551

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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 Widower's Lament

A Widower's Lament PDF

Author: Ronald K. Rittgers

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2021-09-21

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1506424813

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Lament is essential to human thriving. It allows us to cope with significant loss, an inescapable feature of our mortal existence. Lament is the passionate outpouring of deep sorrow and grief over such loss, which helps us avoid being completely overcome by the strong emotions that come with it. Lament is cathartic and constructive. It is a necessary step in coming to terms with great loss and moving forward in life. Not to lament is not to live--or at least not to live very fully, deeply, or well. This book deals with one instance of Christian lament in the late Reformation by exploring the efforts of a talented yet little-known layman to cope with the death of his beloved wife. For the first time, it provides full access to the remarkable work of private devotion that he authored to express his lament. A work of haunting candor, impressive artistry, and searching faith, The Pious Meditations is an extraordinarily rare and valuable source that has received very little scholarly attention. It furnishes both fresh insight into life in the past and important resources for life in the present. Written in a period that knew no radical separation between the academy and the church, it was informed by the author's experience in both, and can continue to speak to both today.

The Crucifixion of the Warrior God

The Crucifixion of the Warrior God PDF

Author: Gregory A. Boyd

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2017-04-17

Total Pages: 1487

ISBN-13: 1506420761

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A dramatic tension confronts every Christian believer and interpreter of Scripture: on the one hand, we encounter images of God commanding and engaging in horrendous violence: one the other hand, we encounter the non-violent teachings and example of Jesus, whose loving, self-sacrificial death and resurrection is held up as the supreme revelation of God’s character in the New Testament. How do we reconcile the tension between these seemingly disparate depictions? Are they even capable of reconciliation? Throughout Christian history, many different answers have been proposed, ranging from the long-rejected explanation that these contrasting depictions are of two entirely different ‘gods’ to recent social and cultural theories of metaphor and narrative representation. The Crucifixion of the Warrior God takes up this dramatic tension and the range of proposed answers in an epic constructive investigation. Over two volumes, renowned theologian and biblical scholar Gregory A. Boyd argues that we must take seriously the full range of Scripture as inspired, including its violent depictions of God. At the same time, we must take just as seriously the absolute centrality of the crucified and risen Christ as the supreme revelation of God. Developing a theological interpretation of Scripture that he labels a “cruciform hermeneutic,” Boyd demonstrates how Scripture’s violent images of God are completely reframed and their violence subverted when they are interpreted through the lens of the cross and resurrection. Indeed, when read through this lens, Boyd argues that these violent depictions can be shown to bear witness to the same self-sacrificial character of God that was supremely revealed on the cross.

Fruit for the Soul

Fruit for the Soul PDF

Author: Dennis Ngien

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2015-12-01

Total Pages: 373

ISBN-13: 1506402895

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Given a life spent in scholarship and controversy, it is easy to forget how much energy Martin Luther devoted to helping the common person understand and take comfort from God’s word. This commitment extended to even the most challenging of biblical texts, and nowhere is this more apparent than Luther’s work on the lament Psalms. Difficult to understand, and perhaps even more difficult to implement in life and devotion, the lament Psalms played a key role in Luther’s thought. More importantly, the lament Psalms were for Luther an essential part of the Christian’s understanding of the life of faith. In this volume, Dennis Ngien helps contemporary readers engage Luther’s commentary on the lament Psalms. What Luther intended for the education and encouragement of everyday Christians, Ngien unpacks and illuminates for life in the twenty-first century. Introduced and commended by Robert Kolb, the volume will be appreciated by teacher and student alike.

Preaching on Social Suffering

Preaching on Social Suffering PDF

Author: Jeremy Kangsan Kim

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2023-03-01

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 1666743135

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In this book, Jeremy Kim criticizes current Korean and Asian American homiletical strategies for their lack of a theological point of view on social suffering. He argues that preachers must develop an alternative theological-homiletical viewpoint on social suffering, one that has pastoral and prophetic approaches. These two approaches offer people a refuge and a voice, not only in the church community but also in the larger social community. Thus, the author suggests that preachers adopt the biblical lament, highlighting its dual tasks of compassion (the pastoral dimension) and resistance (the prophetic dimension). The author, who is a non-Western Asian American preacher, also incorporates East Asian philosophical and hermeneutical research on ren, a positive element of Confucianism, into his argument. He applies this core concept of Confucianism to the preacher’s homiletical strategy toward social suffering. Thus, the author proposes that Korean preachers should recover ren, which contains sincere compassion for others as well as a voice of resistance that reveals unjust social structures as the cause of social suffering and expresses both within Uri (we), the community.

A Time for Sorrow

A Time for Sorrow PDF

Author: Donna Petter

Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers

Published: 2021-10-05

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 1683072898

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Six scholars trace the role of lamentation in the Old and New Testaments in A Time for Sorrow: Recovering the Practice of Lament in the Life of the Church, reflecting on the theological significance of lament, affirming the ongoing relevance of lamentation in the life of the church, and exploring its biblical roots and application in church practice. In a church era dominated by positive thinking and slick, upbeat worship, even mentioning the word lamentation is apt to cause a dismissive, disinterested shrug. But Christians still suffer, and this suffering is left mute when the church fails to integrate biblical lament in contemporary church practice. A Time for Sorrow looks to address this by recovering the biblical practice of bringing our pain before God in an honest and faithful manner. In this multiauthor work, learn about the role of lamentation in the Old and New Testaments, reflect on the theological significance of lament, and finish with thoughts on lament and pastoral practice today.