Where Do Broken Hearts Go?: An Integrative, Participational Theology of Grief
Where Do Broken Hearts Go?: An Integrative, Participational Theology of Grief
Grounded in the narrative of the loss of his own wife, Ross Hastings seeks to provide insight into the universal human condition of loss and grief . . . and speaks comfort. All kinds of losses produce grief--loss of jobs, homes, friendships, health, losses through divorce, and loss through death of parents, children, and spouses--and we are often unprepared for it. Applicable to all who go through loss, this book will also offer skills for pastors, pastors-in-training, and friends seeking to offer comfort to grieving people. It will weave together first-order theological, as well as integrated psychological insights that relate to loss and grieving, interspersed with personal stories. The ultimately redemptive nature of grief is highlighted, with sensitivity to the grieving process. It offers comfort for the grieving found in fresh awareness of the orientation and action of the triune God who is for us, who invites us to participate in his life and love, and gathers up our grief, and in Christ, suffers with us. It beckons us towards spiritual attentiveness, permission for emotional honesty, normalization of the grief process, practices that enable coping and redemptive transformation in the present, and hope grounded in future resurrection reality.
CONTENTS
Foreword ix
Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xv
List of Abbreviations xvii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 A Grief Shared … Introducing the Story 6
Chapter 2 A Grief Shared … Universally by Humanity, and with Divinity: The Universal Experience of Grief 12
Chapter 3 The Mystery in Grief and Loss: The Unknowing 21
Chapter 4 How We Know What We Do Know: The Knowing 36
Chapter 5 The Source and Nature of Grief- Insights from Trinitarian Theology-Modeling 45
Chapter 6 The Source and Nature of Grief-Insights from Trinitarian Theology-Participating 61
Chapter 7 The Source and Nature of Grief- Insights from Psychology 67
Chapter 8 Moving towards Adaptation-Grief Sharing with the Triune God in Deconstruction 81
Chapter 9 Moving towards Adaptation-Grief Sharing with the Triune God in Reconstruction 88
Chapter 10 Moving towards Adaptation-Theodicy of the Triune God who Suffers 97
Chapter 11 Moving towards Adaptation-Grief Sharing with the People of the Triune God (1) 112
Chapter 12 Moving towards Adaptation-Grief Sharing with the People of the Triune God (2) 121
Chapter 13 Moving towards Adaptation-Grief Sharing with God through Personal Practices 138
Bibliography 145
Index 153