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Forsaking God: a theological argument for Christian lamentation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2002

Matthew Boulton
Matthew Boulton
Affiliation:
5501 South Everett #2W, Chicago, IL 60637, [email protected]
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Abstract

In this essay I argue that lament, as the primary liturgical witness to divine absence in times of human need, functions in worship as a discipline of negation and disruption through which what might be termed the God of glory – the God installed by liturgical gestures of ‘praise’ – is opposed and denied, in effect forsaking God by clinging to God's promise over and against God. To spell out this argument, I turn first to Psalm 22, then to the choreography of Holy Week, contending that in proper Christian worship and life, the doxology of triumph (‘hosanna’) is transformed via lamentation into an eschatological form of praise (‘hallelujah’).

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , February 2002 , pp. 58 - 78
Copyright
© Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd, 2002

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