Proverbs of Ashes : Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 288 pages
• Published by: Beacon Press November 18, 2002
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0807067970
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0807067970
• Book Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Weighs: 11.2 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
"Your maxims are proverbs of ashes!" Thus spoke Job when his friends spouted pious platitudes in the face of his considerable suffering. Brock, a Harvard theologian, and Parker, a seminary president, echo Job's cry in this deep theological study of suffering and its role in the Christian faith. The two women became friends in graduate school and continued to meet after graduation, discussing their personal lives and how their experiences shaped their theology. "We were convinced Christianity could not promise healing for victims of intimate violence as long as its central image was a divine parent who required the death of his child," writes Brock. The two authors take turns communicating their views, sharing deep and painful traumas (such as Parker's childhood sexual abuse, estranged marriage and abortion) as they weigh the concept of "redemptive suffering." Too many Christian women, they argue, have remained in abusive situations because they have been taught that their suffering is necessary for spiritual growth. The authors are serious theologians, confidently challenging such explicators of the faith as Anselm and Abelard, Wesley and Whitehead. Readers may not agree with Brock and Parker that the fundamental Christian doctrine of Jesus' atonement is inherently dangerous and destructive for Christians, especially women. But they cannot help but be swayed by the book's searing passion and profoundly literary writing style (a remarkable achievement in a coauthored work). Brock and Parker have thrown down a gauntlet that cannot be ignored.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
Brock (director, Fellowship Program, Radcliffe Inst., Harvard Univ.) and Parker (president, Starr King Sch. for the Ministry, Graduate Theological Union) have written an intensely personal and provocative book. They aim to show that the theological assertion that God required the death of Jesus to save the world sanctions violence. This is not a theological text but more of a dual memoir in which the authors alternately tell the stories of their lives, emphasizing the violence that they have encountered. Basing theology on their own experiences is not a problem, but on balance, the narratives swamp the theological arguments presented here. The most telling indictment of the harmful effects of traditional Christian views comes from their stories of women who have stayed in abusive relationships because they felt that the church taught them to accept suffering passively, if not gratefully. A first step in an interesting but unfinished theological project, this is recommended for greater public libraries and academic libraries with religious studies and women's studies collections. Stephen Joseph, Butler Cty. Community Coll., PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us (Hardcover) In "Proverbs of Ashes", Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker challenge the traditional Christian theology of atonement. As the liberation theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez wrote, "Theology is reflection, a critical attitude. The commitment of love, of service, comes first. Theology follows; it is the second step." (Gustavo Gutiérrez: Essential Writings, James B. Nickoloff ed.) Brock and Parker examine their lives and the abuse and violence they and others have suffered. Their theology has roots in autobiography. If this sounds radical, remember St. Augustine's "Confessions." Brock and Parker find the costs of present atonement theology exorbitant. They ask: what sort of god requires his son to die to redeem others' guilt? (I use a small-g god to indicate god as a human concept which arises out of our lives, as did the idea that Jesus died for our sins. St. Anselm thought it up in the twelfth century. That doesn't make it wrong. That makes it debatable.) What sort of son would submit? What sort of human being feels redeemed by such a death? Does this theology twist god into being an abuser? When a woman is sent back to her abusing husband who then kills her, how many murderers are there? In telling their stories of the descent of violence, one generation to the next, and the struggle to understand and contain it, and the descent of love, one generation to the next, and the struggle to embody and inflame it, Brock and Parker work the idea of atonement into something closer to its original meaning: at-one-ment. They find they cannot leave God behind. (Big-G God.) It's God who gets them through. Their stories are hard and demanding. Theirs is a scathingly honest, no punches pulled, gut level theology. This issue is not angels-on-pin-head academic. We Christians continue to cause our share of suffering and death in the world. How does our idea of god play into our own penchant for violence? If god demanded, for his own purposes, that his son submit to suffering and death, then it is only (super)natural that we demand, for our purposes, the same of our sons, daughters, wives, neighbors and enemies. But if Christ's mission was to teach us how to relate to each other and his justice, mercy, kindness and charity proved so threatening to us that we killed him - we have a very different Christianity. We have a very different God. "Proverbs of Ashes" is powerful and engrossing. It is not a book to be taken lightly.