After the Locusts: Letters from a Landscape of Faith

Rating:
Summary: Suffering and Faith
Review: Written in the form of letters to the people in her life closest to her, these essays blaze with the intensity of life deeply felt and faith forged in the crucible of base cruelty, soaring beauty and redemption that is South Africa. Having stripped away the usual academic lingo, this theologian, who describes herself as a cultural hybrid and a feminist, takes on such subjects as cultural and racial identity, political, theological and physical domination, and the paradox of the presence of an all-powerful and compassionate God in a world riven by suffering from AIDS, misogyny, torture, injustice, hunger, and hatred. Ms. Ackermann refuses to look away from suffering or be paralyzed by her anger, or to take refuge in apathy or denial. All suffering and helplessness are held up to the example of scripture, most particularly the poetry of suffering and praise in the psalms, and in the passion of Jesus. This is a book for readers whose need is to explore the wilderness more than for those who demand comfort and certainty.