Missio Alliance Essential Reading List



Hearts Minds Bookstore's Best Books

RELEVANT's Top 10 Books



Englewood Review of Books Best Books

When Soong-Chan Rah planted an urban church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his first full sermon series was a six-week exposition of the book of Lamentations. Preaching on an obscure, depressing Old Testament book was probably not the most seeker-sensitive way to launch a church. But it shaped their community witha radically countercultural perspective.

The American church avoids lament. But lament is a missing, essential component of Christian faith. Lament recognizes struggles and suffering, that the world is not as it ought to be. Lament challengesthe status quo and cries out for justice against existing injustices.

Soong-Chan Rah's prophetic exposition of the book of Lamentations provides a biblical and theological lens for examining the church's relationship with a suffering world. Itcritiques our success-centered triumphalism and calls us to repent of our hubris. And it opens up new ways to encounter the other. Hear the prophet's lament as the necessary corrective for Christianity's future.

A Resonate exposition of the book of Lamentations.



Rev. Dr. Soong-Chan Rah (ThM, Harvard; DMin, Gordon-Conwell; ThD, Duke) is Robert B. Munger Professor of Evangelism and Church Renewal at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is the author of several books including The Next Evangelicalism, Many Colors, and Prophetic Lament, and he is the co-author of Unsettling Truths. Rah has extensive experience in cross-cultural preaching and has been a main stage speaker at the Urbana Student Missions Conference, the Congress on Urban Ministry, the Urban Youth Workers Institute Conference, the CCDA National Conference, the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary National Preaching Conference, the Fuller Missiology Conference, the Justice Conference, and Verge, Catalyst, and Calvin Worship Conferences.



Brenda Salter McNeil is a dynamic speaker, an author, and a trailblazer with over thirty years of experience in the ministry of racial, ethnic, and gender reconciliation. She is an associate professor of reconciliation studies in the School of Theology at Seattle Pacific University and is also the author of Roadmap to Reconciliation 2.0 and A Credible Witness.



Foreword by Brenda Salter McNeil



Series Introduction



The Resonate Editorial Team



Introduction: A Call to Lament

Lamentations 1



1. The Reality of Suffering:The Historical Context of Lamentations



2. The Funeral Dirge: The Genre of Lament



3. Silenced Voices of Shame: Lamentations 1:1-22

Lamentations 2



4. God Is Faithful: Lamentations 2:1-8



5. Lament Over a City: Lamentations 2:1-9



6. Privilegeand Exceptionalism: Lamentations 2:6-9



7.All of the Voices Are Heard: Lamentations 2:10-22

Lamentations 3



8. A Structure for Lament: The Use of the Acrostic in Lamentations



9. All of It Is Personal: Lamentations 3



10. A Glimmer of Hope: Lamentations 3:21-60

Lamentations 4



11. Persisting in Lament: A Recapitulation of Lamentations



12. A Broken World: Lamentations 4:3-16

Lamentations 5



13. A Lament for Themselves: Lamentations 5



14. Ending in a Minor Key



Conclusion



Epilogue: Ferguson



Acknowledgments



Notes



"Not often am I taken by surprise when reading a book. As an academic and a writer, I've read a lot of books, and even though I've read the Bible many times over, I confess I had not really taken Lamentations or lament seriously until now. In Prophetic Lament, Rah gifts the church not only with his caring prophetic voice but also his pastoral calling, which help us to grieve the sins of our society and those of the church. This book is timely and reaches very deep theologically, emotionally and spiritually. If you care about our country and about how God feels about us, Prophetic Lament is not just a must-read; it is a must-read-now! Place this book on the top of your reading priority list."



"This book illuminates the resilient faith of a current lamenter's raw trust in God. Everyone engaged in the shared struggle to hope in the midst of a violent and unjust world ought to read this accessible integration of biblical text, witness andsharp insight into the present cultural realties of the American church. Readers will discover a pithy prophetic response to the reality of shame, the problem of privilege and the possibilities of honor, hope and worship with integrity. This volumeis a credit to the Resonate series."



"As a product of the African-American and urban church I am grateful for this important resource on the mission of God in the context of suffering. Soong-Chan Rah's transparent, prophetic and practical voice comes through in powerful and deeply insightful ways on the pages. In a time when too many churches are held captive to a feel-good and happy-rich gospel, this book shows us a more authentic biblical narrative."



"In modern American Christianity, especially in the white church, we have done a disservice to our faith, our relationship with God and ultimately the justice of our society by focusing on the triumphal Scriptures of praise and glossing over the equally essential Scriptures of lament. In Soong-Chan Rah's riveting and provocative commentary on the book of Lamentations, he shows us that there can be no authentic praise and joy without justice, and no true justice without the deep acknowledgement of injustice, pain and sin inherent in the biblical practice of lament. Soong-Chan Rah masterfully explains the meaning of Lamentations in the context in which it was written, then seamlessly applies the lessons of these Scriptures to our contemporary setting, raising a powerful and prophetic challenge to the American church on critical issues such as racial inequity. I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to understand and embrace a fuller, more authentic and more just expression of Christianity. Prophetic Lament is more evidence of Soong-Chan Rah becoming one of the most important theologians of our time, and one of the few who truly understands the world into which theology must now enter."



"Prophetic Lament is a commentary on the Old Testament book of Lamentations. Rather than reading as a typical commentary with foci on individual verses, original languages, and such, the book reads as an extended essay that swerves consciously between the experience of Israel's exile and reflections on contemporary events, particularly issues of justice that have often escaped white churches. . . . "Lamentations is a book that can and should speak into our current circumstances and, in Prophetic Lament, Rah has given us an accessible introduction for our troubled times."



"Finally, a book that rightly commends lament as the best way to interpret and reckon with the pain and suffering so prominent in today's news! The book also gives Lamentations, an oft-overlooked biblical book, a voice—a very fresh voice—in that reckoning. The author's scholarship is first-rate, his style winsome and true-to-life, and his message occasionally hard-hitting but always hugely relevant. An important book for openhearted evangelicals."



"Soong-Chan Rah argues for reorienting Christian theology, ministry and church life around the harsh realities of our time. The anguished cries of those who endured the ransacking of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, which come to us in the book of Lamentations, have much to teach us. Repentance and shame, not triumphalism; compassion and justice, not consumerism; hope in a sovereign and faithful God, not despair—these are what that ancient text and Prophetic Lament call us to embrace. A needed word!"



"This timely book is indeed prophetic in its call for us to live as the faithful and repentant people of God in our violent age."



"Soong-Chan Rah adds a significant voice to the rich and growing interpretive corpus on the book of Lamentations. He brings to his study a special attentiveness to the rootage of lament in Korean religious tradition. As Western culture is increasingly in 'free fall,' there is compelling reason to pay steady attentiveness to Lamentations. Rah's book will be of great value in that now-required attentiveness."



"Let me warn you ahead of time. This isn't a how-to, feel-good, seven-steps-to-cool-justice kind of book. In a culture today where we often elevate conversations about justice, reconciliation and peacemaking, Dr. Soong-Chan Rah provokes challenge and courage for the church not just to love the ideas of such things but to commit ourselves to the journey—even at the cost of including the oft forgotten process of deep lament and confession. To say that I loved Prophetic Lament by Dr. Rah would be somewhat misleading. I didn't love the book, but I confess, I needed this book and believe this to be an important resource for the wider church."