And the biblical writers wrote as often about it as any other theme. Psalms, in fact, is filled with laments, both individual and corporate. Lamentations expresses the suffering of a nation under oppression and in exile. Peter and Paul both express the sufferings of congregations under oppressive thumbs of political and social institutions, as well as address what it means to overcome in those situations. And the prophet of the Book of Revelation is intimately aware of suffering. Of course, the narratives about Jesus are littered with what the humanity of God looks like in confrontation with the principalities and powers of human suffering.
The biblical material, in fact, is so vast, that Peterman and Schmutzer have quite a bit from which to choose. And therefore so much to say.
They say it masterfully, too. Pain and suffering really is ubiquitous, and they require pastoral lives tempered with the Good News. That's what readers find in Between Pain & Grace.
While I disagree with some conclusions Peterman and Schmutzer reach about some of the biblical material, it's hard to dismiss this little book. It offers so much fodder for the Church to begin to reflect on the Gospel and what it does and says in the face of so much human pain and suffering -- even in the face of so much suffering throughout creation. Here are two authors who point, doggedly and with conviction, at Jesus as the graceful response of God to all that cosmic pain and suffering.
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I received a free copy of this book from Moody Publishing in exchange for my honest review here.