J. Todd Billings has written a book that stands in a long line of distinguished books written out of deep suffering and reflection in faith and for the church. This book is informed--or better, formed--by the entire Bible, including those passages we often overlook. It is formed by the witness of the church, its history and struggles. It is formed by the mysterious, wrenching, and beautiful conversation between his own experience of incurable cancer and the Christian faith. Rejoicing in Lament is a profound witness to the gospel. I can hardly find words to express its intelligence, honesty, and richness.
-Gerald L. Sittser,
professor of theology, Whitworth University
Good theology prepares us for suffering. Todd Billings has been giving us great theology for some years now. But in this book it is distilled through the rocky depths of an ongoing struggle with cancer. Every chapter brims with pools of insight, pointing us beyond platitudes to the God who has met us--and keeps on meeting us--in the Suffering and Risen Servant. This is a book not just for reading but for meditation and prayer.
-Michael Horton,
J. Gresham Machen Professor of Theology, Westminster Seminary California
If you are looking for an abstract theological treatise on God's relation to human suffering, you will not find it here. In Rejoicing in Lament, Billings shares his intensely personal search for God's presence even in his own devastating illness. He responds to his unbidden suffering with a lament much like that of the psalmist. As a devout Christian, Billings seeks the blessings amid the curses of his disease. His Jacob-like struggle with the Lord ultimately blesses not only himself but also his family, colleagues, students, and readers. Rejoicing in Lament will touch and shape those who give pastoral care and will offer hope and meaning for all Christians who face great suffering.
-Kathryn Greene-McCreight,
associate chaplain, the Episcopal Church at Yale
Courageous, revealing, sometimes raw--this book reminds us that lament is an act of faith and that faith is a communal treasure. Billings's testimony is that love is stronger than death. Unforgettable!
-Cornelius Plantinga Jr.,
author of Engaging God's World
Weaving theological and scriptural reflection throughout the narrative of his struggle with cancer, Todd Billings gracefully models how to read one's life in light of Scripture and Scripture in light of one's life. Here there is no simplistic moralizing but a persistently questing witness to a God who is present in the midst of life-changing sorrow. To read with Todd is to join him in struggle and faith, doubt and hope, lament and praise.
-Marianne Meye Thompson,
George Eldon Ladd Professor of New Testament, Fuller Theological Seminary
This profound and heartfelt book is hard to describe succinctly. It's an elegiac reflection on the pain illness and death bring to a family. A meditation on suffering guided by the cries of the Psalmist and the poetry of Job. An exposition of the importance of classical theism for the work of the pastor and the life of the believer. A critique of the trite sentimentality of so much of contemporary Christianity. A journal of the physical and mental effects of traumatic cancer treatment. Above all, it is a moving and deeply personal answer to the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism, What is your only comfort in life and death? This book is for all Christians, for sooner or later we must all face the challenge of our own mortality.
-Carl R. Trueman,
Paul Woolley Professor of Church History, Westminster Theological Seminary
