A review by bluestarfish
Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us by Rita Nakashima Brock, Rebecca Ann Parker

5.0

This is a difficult one to rate. This was not an easy read. Drawing on a wide range of intimate stories the abuse recounted is horrendous to read. But thankfully it goes beyond that too. This is a feminist book looking critically at the concept/theology of atonement and other theological issues through the lens of the real violence experienced in this world.

Messages of redemptive violence/suffering are not helpful to people stuck in the middle of violence affecting them. This book was a real eye-opener for me about what damage some of the liturgy and practises of the Church might do, and I really am looking at the words I'm saying again. The strength of this book is making me sit with the uncomfortableness of this all. And uncomfortable it is in so many ways.

I have such respect for the authors for writing this book in the way they have. The personal stories take us through it as we hear from both women in alternating chapters. It's poignant and powerful. Sometimes it is important to lament with Jeremiah (9:1):
Oh, that my head were a spring of water
and my eyes a fountain of tears!
I would weep day and night
for the slain of my people.

And yet there is something more too, that presence which saves us.