334 - Preaching as Weeping, Confession, and Resistance: Radical Responses to Radical Evil

Preaching as Weeping, Confession, and Resistance: Radical Responses to Radical Evil
By Christine M. Smith
Louisville, Westminster/John Knox, 1992. 196 pp. $14.99.

Christine Smith invites her readers, and particularly preachers, to weep, confess, and resist in the face of radical evil in American society today. She challenges them to feel the violence done to those who live with disabilities, who are older adults, who are women, who are gay and lesbian, who suffer because of white racism, and who are economically exploited. She urges them to recognize their complicity in the structures and attitudes perpetuating violence and to resist by breaking the silence and articulating visions of solidarity, mutuality, and justice.

Smith is a woman who feels deeply, who in this book poignantly describes her journey away from silence and inaction, and who offers her book as an act of resistance.

Before reading Smith's book, I had learned from Asian theology the power of weeping. I appreciate Smith's invitations to confess, to resist, and to re-image preaching as weeping, confession, and resistance.

Lucy A. Rose
Columbia Theological Seminary
Decatur, GA.