John E. Colwell Book order

"Why have you forsaken me?"In this powerful book on the experience of desolation John Colwell focuses on Psalm 22, read in the light of his own struggle with bi-polar disorder and the Christian belief that God the Son suffered in his humanity, to offer existential-theological reflections on the experience of God-forsakenness. Colwell writes, "My concern in writing this book and in reading this psalm is to reflect on the felt experience of God-forsakenness, my own and that of Christ, in the light of this psalm; to explore the theological and spiritual significance of this felt experience for myself, for Christ, for Christians generally. If this exploration proves to be helpful to me or to others then I am glad, but I am not writing this book to be helpful but rather to be truthful (and perhaps hopeful)."

John Colwell's scholarship provides him with the basis for some sharp observations about the more sweeping criticisms of Barth, and shows that this supposedly 'extreme' theologian produces a far more nuanced and subtle account of such topics as the relations of incarnation and atonement, creation and redemption, grace and freedom, than do those who have read and moved rapidly on to provide their own one-sided 'improvements'. Moltmann and Pannenberg, in particular, come in for interesting and pointed questioning. Here is not, however, an uncritical celebration of Barth... The publication of this work is to be much welcomed as a valuable contribution to Barth scholarship. -- Colin E. Gunton From the Foreword