A Liturgy of Grief: A Pastoral Commentary on Lamentations
Overview
In Lamentations, we read of the unbearable grief experienced by a group of believers. Leslie Allen suggests the book can be read as the script of a liturgy performed to help the people of God come to terms with the fall of Jerusalem and the national catastrophe it entailed. It reveals God’s sometimes hidden support for those who grieve and for their caregivers. In this unique commentary A Liturgy of Grief: A Pastoral Commentary on Lamentations, respected Old Testament scholar and volunteer hospital chaplain Leslie Allen appropriates this oft-neglected book of the Bible to deal with a universal issue. Incorporating stories of pastoral encounters with hospital patients, Allen integrates Scripture and pastoral care to present a biblical model for helping those coping with grief.
In the Logos edition, this volume is enhanced by amazing functionality. Scripture citations link directly to English translations, and important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.
- Reveals God’s heart for those who suffer through the trials that Jerusalem faced
- Includes contemporary insight for transforming these passages into beacons of hope amidst todays struggles
- Provides a tool for ministering from a biblical foundation to those who suffer grief
- First Poem (Lamentations 1): Grief, Guilt, and the Need for Prayer (1)
- Second Poem (Lamentations 2): Grief, Guilt, and the Need for Prayer (2)
- Third Poem (Lamentations 3): The Wounded Healer
- Fourth Poem (Lamentations 4): Grief and Guilt Prolonged—and to Be Reversed
- Fifth Poem (Lamentations 5): The Congregation’s Prayer as Turning Point
Top Highlights
“The book of Lamentations is best understood as the script of a liturgy intended as a therapeutic ritual” (Page 8)
“though the voice of God is not directly heard, it is overheard” (Page 13)
“The purpose of placing line 22 at the end was the hope that so extreme a conclusion would force a denial on God’s part by intervening on the side of the oppressed in a positive fashion.” (Page 164)
“‘Every time you say something, you’re getting a little more of the poison out of your system by verbalizing that horrendous thought’ (Barkin et al. 2004, 35).” (Page 3)
“The theology in the middle of the third poem, with its providential sweep beyond judgment to salvation, is the handmaid of pastoral care.” (Page 11)
A Liturgy of Grief is at one and the same time an important contribution to our understanding of and dealing with grief and an important contribution to our understanding of one of the supreme pieces of literature in the Old Testament. Take and savor!
—Nicholas Wolterstorff, Emeritus Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology, Yale University
Leslie Allen combines his considerable skill as a biblical interpreter with his extensive experience as a hospital chaplain to explore the book of Lamentations for its profound resources for ministering to those who suffer grief. The result is an illuminating and compelling study that will help people who are in the throes of grief as well as those who support them.
—Tremper Longman III, Robert H. Gundry Professor of Biblical Studies, Westmont College
Realism. This is the desperate need for a church that has forgotten how to lament. Committed to celebration, it has few tools to articulate excruciating grief at a loss, to confess sin and accept divine judgment, or to express frustration with God in times of trouble. In the expert hands of Leslie Allen, Lamentations becomes a companion through the labyrinth that is the difficult, and sometimes sorrowful, pilgrimage of faith on the way to hope. We need this book.
—M. Daniel Carroll R., distinguished professor of Old Testament, Denver Seminary
Leslie Allen is no stranger to tears. He is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible whose exegesis is thoroughly tested week after week as he goes walking in hospital halls as a chaplain with a listening heart. His responses to grief well up from the empathic soul of a wounded healer who can point the way to the discovery of a holy hope. This is a book for the caregiver who loves thoughtful scholarship and for the scholar who, in loving people, has a heart for caregiving.
—David Augsburger, senior professor of pastoral counseling, Fuller Theological Seminary
- Title: A Liturgy of Grief: A Pastoral Commentary on Lamentations
- Author: Leslie C. Allen
- Publisher: Baker Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2011
- Logos Release Date: 2013
- Pages: 208
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Bible. O.T. Lamentations › Commentaries; Grief › Religious aspects--Christianity; Pastoral care
- ISBNs: 9781441250674, 9780801039607, 1441250670, 0801039606
- Resource ID: LLS:LTRGYGRFPSTRLCM
- Resource Type: Bible Commentary
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T01:23:03Z
