This is a volume containing a variety of literary pieces, each related in one fashion or another to the mystery of suffering and the life of faith. It arose out of a colloquium sponsored by the Laidlaw-Carey Graduate School in New Zealand. The fourteen contributors to the volume are a distinguished international lot, with the majority of them connected professionally with Australia and New Zealand. The two editors are Old Testament scholars, which helps account for the emphasis on Old Testament and related matters among the contributions. The book is dedicated to the victims of the earthquake that struck Christchurch, NZ, in February 2011.

The first piece is a sensitive, modern lament for Christchurch by Colin Buchanan. It is followed by contributions arranged in four parts: “Foundations,” with seven essays related to laments and complaints in the Old Testament; “Reflections,” with two essays exploring the relationship between lament and Christian worship; “Explorations,” with four essays engaging the modern application of lament in multiple cultural settings; and “Refraction,” with a single, autobiographical essay employing the persona of the Shulamith in the Song of Songs to depict painful experiences in the modern state of Israel.

There is much here to provoke thought and reflection. The “Foundations” essays deal with lament/complaint traditions in the Old Testament. Tim Bulkeley explores whether Jeremiah confesses, laments, or complains as responses to suffering. Three different essays (Elizabeth Boase, Donald P. Moffat, and Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer) discuss the differences between lament and penitence in the Old Testament. One (Will Kynes) shows intertextual connections between Job and Ps 22. Another sheds light on the book of Lamentations through examination of its fourth chapter (Miriam Bier). Perhaps the densest of the essays analyzes metaphors for the enemy in Job from a socio-cognitive approach (Carlos Patrick Jimenez). The author takes time to define his method as well as to apply it.

In the “Reflections” section Robin Parry, an acknowledged expert on Lamentations, wrestles with the book’s use in Christian worship. His essay is a fine example of a practical theology at work, based on a serious, theological engagement with Scripture. The second essay by Colin Buchanan suggests ways in which laments can be incorporated into Christian liturgy.

The “Explorations” section covers wide territory. The first essay (Alistair MacKenzie) connects biblical and Western lament traditions to those of the Māori in Aotearoa. The second (Jeanette Mathews) proposes that the laments can be understood and appropriated in modernity via the performance concept of “framing.” Some examples of lament poems of the Karen people (i.e., Burmese refugees) are presented. The third explores laments in public spaces in modern settings (Elizabeth Boase and Steve Taylor). This entry offers an intriguing discussion of concerts presented by U2 in places where disasters had struck. A fourth (Stephen Garner) lists the ways that new media may allow for public expression of lament, while acknowledging such opportunities may have a dark side.

The one piece (Yael Klangwisan) in the “Refraction” section poetically adopts and adapts the first-person voice that a reader encounters in Old Testament laments. The incorporation of texts and personae from the Song of Songs, along with the mixing of genres, makes for jarring reading, but that seems part of the intent.

Given its range of presentation and topics, the volume can engage a reader in multiple ways. Biblical scholars will be impressed with the review and analysis of Old Testament texts. For example, anyone interested in the book of Lamentations has two excellent essays to digest (Bier and Parry) and those interested in how, or to what extent, the Old Testament moves over time from lament traditions to those of penitence have three essays to compare. Those interested in modern ways of expressing lament to God will find both compelling description and insightful, multi-cultural analyses.

The volume and readers would have been helped by an examination of ways in which New Testament writers deal with the lament tradition they inherited in their Scriptures, or don’t, as the case may be. The book becomes a one-sided presentation of the biblical material when there are seven essays in the “Foundations” section, all oriented to Old Testament texts. An essay, for example, on the place of Ps 22 in the Passion narratives or one on the cry of the martyrs in Rev 6:10 would go well in this volume. That said, there is much to be thankful for in this volume, drawing together as it does, insights from both the biblical text and contemporary reflection on the practice of lamentation.

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