Book Review: Todd Billings on Rejoicing in Lament

J. Todd Billings 

Rejoicing in Lament: Wrestling with Incurable Cancer & Life in Christ 
Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2015
Available at Amazon.com

By Jill Firth

Reformation scholar Todd Billings was diagnosed with a rare form of incurable blood cancer in 2012 at age 39. With his wife, he decided to share his journey openly, and this book is the result. Billings grapples with the book of Job and the Psalms and with the theologies of Calvin and Luther as he engages with the questions Why me? Where is God in this?

What sets this book apart from other moving personal stories is the depth of Billings’ theological reflection on his experience. There are many great testimonies of faith in suffering and many learned disquisitions on theologies of suffering but this book brings these strands together in a very personal but theologically rich exploration. Billings was awarded his ThD from Harvard University Divinity School, and is now Gordon H. Girod Research Professor of Reformed Theology at Western Seminary in Michigan. He has written award winning books on Union with Christ and the theology of John Calvin. His theological explorations are not simplistic nor slick, but bring insight and depth to our understanding of suffering and also of the Christian life by engaging with the big picture of Christian theology.

Though Billings explores his questions as a scholar, he says ‘I knew from the outset that this book would not be a scholarly monograph.’ His chosen genre is not ‘easy reading’, because the lament is not ‘easy’, but he seeks to make his ideas accessible to other sufferers and those who care for them.

The writing is engaging and personal and the layout of the book is attractive. Along with its helpfulness for the intended audience, the book would make an ideal model for theological reflection for seminary students, and would be a valuable addition to the recommended books in any course on pastoral care.

Jill Firth lectures in Hebrew and Old Testament at Ridley College in Melbourne. She has recently completed a PhD on psalms of lament.