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Foreword: A Kind of ‘Theology of Life-Stories’ In many parts of the world, people long for freedom, liberation, peace; they also yearn to cope with innocent suffering, to overcome illness and deep wounds in soul, mind and body. In the present context of increasing violence and brokenness, healing and recon- ciliation appear as core elements of the gospel and of Christian life and witness. The member churches of the World Council of Churches (WCC) strive to respond to their healing mission in the different realms of international, regional community and per- sonal life. Dr. ERIKA SCHUCHARDT’s book offers a unique inside into the way people struggle and cope with profound personal suffering, and it gives guidance for a pastoral approach to people in spiritual need. In a surprisingly open manner, biographical sketches from all over the world report people’s experiences of both, suffering and faith, their crisis with deceases, disabilities, persecution, solitude, separation and death, and the individu- als described speak with striking honesty of spiritual frustration and heart- break as well as of wonderful faith experiences and renewed trust in God. ERIKA SCHUCHARDT, who has been for many years a member of church bodies in- cluding the Evangelical Church in Germany and the World Council of Churches, has developed guidelines on coping and working through crises. Her approach is based on the analysis of more than 2000 life stories from many different social and geographical contexts. Through lively biographies of persons in situations of crisis – a kind of ‘Theology of life stories’– and by using penetrating religious, psychological, cultural and educational insides, she demonstrates how persons’ suffering from illness or disability can become part of a free and truly human community. She acknowledges that for Christians, too, there is no way around suffering, but that there is a way forward through suffering to- gether with Christ. Distance from the source of comfort may not be an indication of God’s absence, but may lead towards a hidden presence in which we can approach God anew in patient discipleship. In her book, ERIKA SCHUCHARDT challenges the churches and puts her finger on the dilemma of insufficient pastoral care: it is not God’s fault, if his “ground staff, people like you and me”, are failing. At the same time, she knows from many positive experi- ences involving chaplains or church members who accompany people in crises. This is a book about faith, a book that teaches pastoral care and a handbook of the- ology embedded in life stories from many parts of the world – and an essential guide for everyone concerned that the churches respond faithfully to Christ’s call to become heal- ing and reconciling communities. Dr. SAMUEL KOBIA General Secraty Geneva, 2005 World Council of Churches (WCC) Ernst Barlach: "Loving each other" — Accompanying each other on their way to salvation "Being healed is not yet saved being saved is more than being healed: Being challenged by Crisis Management recovering the hidden treasure, To explore the Deus absconditus as the Deus revelatus" See Erika Schuchardt's report at the 13th World Mission Conference in Athens 2005 under www.prof-schuchardt.de Contents Foreword Samuel Kobia .................................................................... xi On the Illustrations in This Book.......................................................... xiii Preface to the 12th, Revised and Expanded Edition ............................. xvii introduction Klaus Engelhardt and Manfred Kock............................ xxi The Signal: A Reader's Letter, 2001 ..................................................... xxv 1. People in Crises and Their Families ................................................. 1 2. Working through Crises as a Learning Process in Eight Spiral Phases....................................................................... 11 Working through Crises in Pearl S. Buck's The Child Who Never Grew .................................................... 27 3. Counselling and Faith in Life Stories ............................................... 35 Luise Habel: Lord God, Do Away with Stairs! Affected by Poliomyelitis........................................................ 35 Ingrid Weber-Gast: Because You Did Not Flee from My Anguish. Affected by Depression ........................................... 43 Jacques Lusseyran: And There Was Light; Life Begins Today. Affected by Loss of Sight and Persecution………….. 48 Ruth Müller-Garnn: You Hold Me by My Right Hand. Silvia and Albert Görres; Living with a Handicapped Child. Affected by Their Children's Brain Damage ……….... 57 Laurel Lee: Walking through the Fire, You Shall Not Be Burned. Affected by Cancer, Desertion and Certainty of Death................................................................................... 64 4. Counselling - a Problem for the Affected........................................ 74 5. Theological Aspects of Suffering and Endurance ............................ 88 Hans Küng: God and Suffering............................................... 89 Dorothee Sölle: Suffering ....................................................... 93 Why Me! Learning to Live in Crises A.M.K. Müller: On the Meaning of Suffering. Toppling the Dogma of Acture............................................... 98 Gisbert Greshake: The Price of Love. Reflections on Suffering ....................................................... 100 Considerations and Questions for Theology ......................... 106 Summary and Conclusion ................................................................... 109 Notes................................................................................................... 116 Selected Reading................................................................................. 123 Bibliography of over 2000 Life-Stories on Working through Crises from 1900 to the Present with Annotations, a Subject Index and a Brief Statement on Content............................................. 137 Bibliography of over 2000 Life-Stories on Working through Crises from 1900 to the Present: Authors and Titles Arranged Alphabetically..................................................................................... 14 1 Epilogue Ishmael Noko and Konrad Raiser ....................................... 143 Author's Letter .................................................................................... 144 Illustrations and diagrams Overview: structure of the bibliography.............................................. x "The Loving Pair" - accompanying each other: Ernst Barlach, Hamburg, 1922.................................................................................... xiii Complementary spiral in the glass dome above the old Reichstag, Norman Forster, Berlin, 1999............................................................. xv The spiral labyrinth from Chartres cathedral, floor mosaic, 11th century........................................................................................ xvi The key process of oxidosis, Max-Planck-Institute, 21st century....... xviii Spiral of redemption: final scene from Faust II, production by Peter Stein, Expo Hanover 2000 ................................. xxiv The Mountain of Purgatory and the Chasm of Hell. Frieze on Dante's Divine Comedy, Botticelli, Florence, 15th century ... 9 Spiral plan of the reader ...................................................................... 10 World map of life histories.................................................................. 12 Year, number and themes of biographies and autobiographies on working through crises over the course of a century ..................... 13 Narrative angles I-V and crises events in figures................................ 14 Contents ix Thematic change in biographies on working through crises, from 1900 to the present.................................................................... 15 Working through crises as an individual learning process in eight spiral phases.......................................................................... 24 Crisis - abstract and complementary thesis........................................ 28 Jesus in the Temple, detail from Bertinone, Italy, 15th century …... 34 The Starry Night, van Gogh, France, 1889........................................ 42 The pilgrim Sudama on the path of enlightenment to Krishna's golden city, Punjab, India, 18th century........................ 49 The third eye in the Khepresh, or blue crown, of the Egyptian Pharaohs, 2900-2300 B.C.................................................................. 56 World Trade Center monument Sept. 11th, 2001: Daniel Libeskind, New York, 2003................................................... 65 Pilgrim's way to celestial Jerusalem, illustration for Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan, England, 19th century ................................ 71 The Loving Pair, accompanying each other... Ernst Barlach, Hamburg, 1922.......................................................... 72 ... comparable to accompaniment in music ....................................... 73 Crisis-management-interaction-model .............................................. 80-81 The Sudrium of St Veronica, Claude Mellan, France, 1649………... 87 Megalith temple, Al-Tarxien, Malta, 2400-2300 B.C ....................... 105 The spiral curves of the helicoidal staircase leading to the Vatican museums and libraries, Rome, 1932 .......................... 108 Spiral ascent of the minaret of the mosque