Card, a singer and songwriter, maintains that Christians have forgotten the
language of weeping and so are "robbed of our true identity before God"; he
prescribes an antidote through paradigms of lament found in Scripture. When
sin and dire circumstances cause us to doubt God's hesed, or loving-kindness,
lament is a proper response to despair. Without lament, Card claims, we cannot
adequately confess sin, worship or experience another's pain. With this in
mind, Card illustrates the hows and whys of sorrowful prayer in the lives of
Job, David, Jeremiah and Jesus. Long on exposition (what does it mean that
"the Word became flesh?") with a touch of speculation (David's personality is
attributed in part to his being a youngest child), these chapters chart
terrain that will seem foreign to proponents of easy, feel-good Christianity.
Especially jarring are sections about imprecatory Psalms ("The righteous will
be glad... when they bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked") and the
book of Lamentations, which describes compassionate women boiling their own
children. Card illuminates a neglected, difficult doctrine, in the process
accomplishing his goal of providing "assurance that we can lament... and a
fuller understanding of what that can mean." Appendixes summarize biblical and
extra-biblical laments. (Feb. 13) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
