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

This was a provocative book by two feminist theologians who shared their personal stuggles of early sexual abuse and the effect it had on their adult lives. The honesty of each is gripping. They also make a very credible tie between abuse and violence being tolerated in religious circles because of existing patriarchal beliefs and language in the Bible and religion. It is very insightful and a comfort for women who have felt abused by the Church at worse or not supported in efforts to end abuse in their lives. An eye-opener for those who have yet to be educated about the problem of language in referal to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit - A consolation for those who have.

PROVERBS OF ASHES is extraordinary. It is skillfully written, and gives a powerful, and, I believe accurate account of Christianity. The authors' description of the power of grief and how moving through it is transforming is right on. They articulate a theology of a Loving Presence which individuals can provide each other, and humanity can provide for everyone. This provides love and healing. Not the defensive denial that traditional Christianity gives us.I am a licensed clinical social worker, and a woman who has experience repeated abuse in her life, which was supported by Christianity. This book spoke to the core of my being.Chris Walker, LCSW

This is one of the most important books I have ever read in my life. It is a searing personal and theological indictment of the Christian theological view that Jesus was sent into the world to suffer and die for us and that by this event, we are redeemed eternally.I have never understood how an act of cruelty, violence and human sacrifice could be in any way redemptive and it is because of my inability to do so that I have never been able to become a Christian. This book, in a magnificent blend of personal life/ minsterial experience and theological rigor, challenges the notion of substitutionary atonement in a clear, concise and compelling fashion.As a woman raised in a predominantly Christian society, I found much theological and personal healing in this book - it works strongly at many levels, the theological, feminist and societal, in its analysis of the relationship among Christianity, gender and violence. It comes from the hearts and minds of two Christian women who love God, Jesus and their faith very much, but are not willing to accept or excuse the poisonous wound at its heart.Words are inadequate to convey the true depth and importance of this work; I can only urge you to read it and hope it may have a profound positive effect on your life as it has had on mine.

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.

i always thought i was alone in thinking that atonement theology is violent at its core- brock and parker share their deeply personal stories that lead them to create a new, live-affirming theology. the book is gripping; the authors seem to understand their readers' need to engage both mind and heart in matters such as these. HIGHLY recommended.