Searching for God in Godforsaken Times and Places: Reflections on the Holocaust, Racism, and Death

Rating:
Summary: Certainty and Doubt
Review: Hubert G. Locke's text, with the somewhat daunting title of 'Searching for God in Godforsaken Times and Places: Reflections on the Holocaust, Racism, and Death,' is an interesting and spiritually engaging text. It is not what I expected from the title. Locke does address the Holocaust, and does address Racism, and certain covers Death, but in fact, I found the primary theme that runs through the entire piece to be the interplay of Doubt and Faith, grounded in a very Christian context.

This context is, like many things in life, a double-edged sword. It is good in the sense that it explains for Christians who may be unfamiliar or uncomfortable with issues like Racism and the Holocaust a way of looking at these historical realities in a way that begins to make some sense, not necessarily from these things themselves, but rather a sensible way of dealing with the way they make us feel about the reality of doubt and faith in God. The down-side of this being so completely a Christian text is that certain audiences (such as Jewish readers) may be unable to engage the material fully.

Locke begins the text by being thoroughly personal in his presentation, talking about his own periods of crisis with the death of his parents, recasting these as periods in which the persistence of doubt and the threat of losing faith were very present for him.

Ironically (given the title), the chapters dealing with the Holocaust and with Racism proper are rather brief additions; though they form interesting examples, I was never quite sure they served as more than primary examples, rather than issues worthy of top-billing in the title, for the important direction of Locke's text. The Holocaust is dealt with again from a very Christian perspective for the most part; Locke speaks of the Hamburg preacher Helmut Thielicke, who was eventually forbidden to preach by the German authorities; his silence enforced from the outside echoed the silence of God he preached upon from the pulpit. Locke's experience with Racism, apart from his personal experience as an African-American, extends to visits to South Africa and research he has done on the wider problems of Racism world-wide.

Locke comes back to the primary focus of his text, the interplay of doubt, certainty, and faith, addressing it from the standpoint of several particular scriptural examples, such as Job, Thomas and Peter. He then comes round to dealing with various Pauline passages, talking about some inconsistencies in interpretation and statement (how can one have the assurance of things for which there can be no knowledge?) and later developments in Christianity.

Overall, this text was not what I thought it would be, given the title, but I was pleasantly surprised by what I did find. Beyond the specific topics highlighted, the broader aspects of doubt and faith are brought together in a manner that does not definitively resolve the difficulties (for such is unlikely if not impossible), but gives the reader a deeper understanding of the relationships of God and humanity, God and individuals, and our relationship to each other. A good text.

Rating:
Summary: Certainty and Doubt
Review: Hubert G. Locke's text, with the somewhat daunting title of 'Searching for God in Godforsaken Times and Places: Reflections on the Holocaust, Racism, and Death,' is an interesting and spiritually engaging text. It is not what I expected from the title. Locke does address the Holocaust, and does address Racism, and certain covers Death, but in fact, I found the primary theme that runs through the entire piece to be the interplay of Doubt and Faith, grounded in a very Christian context.

This context is, like many things in life, a double-edged sword. It is good in the sense that it explains for Christians who may be unfamiliar or uncomfortable with issues like Racism and the Holocaust a way of looking at these historical realities in a way that begins to make some sense, not necessarily from these things themselves, but rather a sensible way of dealing with the way they make us feel about the reality of doubt and faith in God. The down-side of this being so completely a Christian text is that certain audiences (such as Jewish readers) may be unable to engage the material fully.

Locke begins the text by being thoroughly personal in his presentation, talking about his own periods of crisis with the death of his parents, recasting these as periods in which the persistence of doubt and the threat of losing faith were very present for him.

Ironically (given the title), the chapters dealing with the Holocaust and with Racism proper are rather brief additions; though they form interesting examples, I was never quite sure they served as more than primary examples, rather than issues worthy of top-billing in the title, for the important direction of Locke's text. The Holocaust is dealt with again from a very Christian perspective for the most part; Locke speaks of the Hamburg preacher Helmut Thielicke, who was eventually forbidden to preach by the German authorities; his silence enforced from the outside echoed the silence of God he preached upon from the pulpit. Locke's experience with Racism, apart from his personal experience as an African-American, extends to visits to South Africa and research he has done on the wider problems of Racism world-wide.

Locke comes back to the primary focus of his text, the interplay of doubt, certainty, and faith, addressing it from the standpoint of several particular scriptural examples, such as Job, Thomas and Peter. He then comes round to dealing with various Pauline passages, talking about some inconsistencies in interpretation and statement (how can one have the assurance of things for which there can be no knowledge?) and later developments in Christianity.

Overall, this text was not what I thought it would be, given the title, but I was pleasantly surprised by what I did find. Beyond the specific topics highlighted, the broader aspects of doubt and faith are brought together in a manner that does not definitively resolve the difficulties (for such is unlikely if not impossible), but gives the reader a deeper understanding of the relationships of God and humanity, God and individuals, and our relationship to each other. A good text.