Overview

This book challenges Christian communities to engage in lament--a mode of existence characterized by impassioned expression, witnessing, and personal or social protest in the face of evil and injustice, reflecting a profound yearning for God's saving presence. Divine lament responds to, and expresses solidarity with, human suffering, unveiling multiple facets of God's image and demonstrating a profound sense of divine compassion. Drawing on the Book of Lamentations, Korean concepts related to suffering (han and hanpuri), the Paschal Triduum narratives, and recent homiletic discourses on suffering, the author investigates how complex issues related to grief and hope can be addressed in preaching without diminishing the harsh reality of affliction. Designed to assist preachers, this book encourages a more intentional approach to addressing suffering, specifically by advocating for lament as a transitional space between affliction and hope. Furthermore, readers are invited to contemplate the significance of the church, which, within a world in decline, embodies the body of Christ, manifesting both the demise and resurrection of God.

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9781666774320

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Reviews

"""In Lament-Driven Preaching, Eliana Ku names suffering with blunt, unvarnished honesty. Her proclamatory offering is a courageous call to confront the painful events, relationships, and conditions that cause us to lament. She does not shy away from the inscrutable mysteries of suffering but does her best to come to terms with them biblically, theologically, and homiletically. Ku ultimately invites readers to step out in an intimate dance of hope whose choreographer is no other than the God of love."" --HyeRan Kim-Cragg, professor of preaching, Emmanuel College, University of Toronto ""Eliana Ku's book is a cure for what afflicts so much North American preaching: our stupefying, inveterate cheerfulness. If we are afraid of pain, we'll never break through to hope. Go ahead and weep in sermons. Jesus does."" --Jason Byassee, senior pastor, Timothy Eaton Memorial Church ""Facing real suffering in our world, Eliana Ku holds that traditions of lament in preaching create 'a language of hope that can be heard as the voice of the gospel.' In a time of easy answers and simplistic thinking, she beautifully embraces complexity in bridging Western theology and Korean culture, private grief and public injustice, and preaching theory and praxis, all to help preachers link suffering and hope for a church and public square desperately in need of that word."" --Patricia Dutcher-Walls, retired professor of Hebrew Bible, Vancouver School of Theology"

"""In Lament-Driven Preaching, Eliana Ku names suffering with blunt, unvarnished honesty. Her proclamatory offering is a courageous call to confront the painful events, relationships, and conditions that cause us to lament. She does not shy away from the inscrutable mysteries of suffering but does her best to come to terms with them biblically, theologically, and homiletically. Ku ultimately invites readers to step out in an intimate dance of hope whose choreographer is no other than the God of love."" --HyeRan Kim-Cragg, professor of preaching, Emmanuel College, University of Toronto ""Eliana Ku's book is a cure for what afflicts so much North American preaching: our stupefying, inveterate cheerfulness. If we are afraid of pain, we'll never break through to hope. Go ahead and weep in sermons. Jesus does."" --Jason Byassee, senior pastor, Timothy Eaton Memorial Church ""Facing real suffering in our world, Eliana Ku holds that traditions of lament in preaching create 'a language of hope that can be heard as the voice of the gospel.' In a time of easy answers and simplistic thinking, she beautifully embraces complexity in bridging Western theology and Korean culture, private grief and public injustice, and preaching theory and praxis, all to help preachers link suffering and hope for a church and public square desperately in need of that word."" --Patricia Dutcher-Walls, retired professor of Hebrew Bible, Vancouver School of Theology"

Author Information

Eliana Ah-Rum Ku is assistant professor of homiletics at the Graduate School of Practical Theology in the Republic of Korea.

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