Approaching Waterfalls

God of All Comfort Review

A review of Scott Harrower’s book God of All Comfort: A Trinitarian Response to the Horrors of This World, published by Lexham Press

Book are like streams, and rapids, and others are like mighty rivers. Some nourish us and we can drink from them easily and with the knowledge that the water is trustworthy. Others are fun, if in unpredictable ways, and so keep us on our toes. Then there are waterfalls. Waterfalls are dangerous and not to be taken lightly, they are also magnificent, inspiring, and can be harnessed for power, for growth and the pool which settles beneath them can be incredibly comforting.

This book is a waterfall.

“The book you are reading is about horrors,” the introduction says, “…Once we know what horrors are, we can do something about them, or at least ask God for help to do something about our lives when horrors invade. We care about this problem because horrors affect us all in irreversible ways, sometimes setting our lives on courses we never hoped for and even dreaded.”

That is a huge task for a single book to take on, let alone with a single author. Harrower himself is like the crest of the waterfall, drawing in all of the available information on the subject and then filtering and translating that information into something to be harnessed. As with every book in this series and others like it, this is the result of much study and work, far more than most of us will ever dream of doing, much less on such a difficult subject. Harrower knows both what he’s doing and why, he’s seen both the horrors of this world and the responses the world has given to them and he’s convinced that God gives us a better response—not just any god, but the Trinity. What’s more, he recognises that—especially in the global north—“theologians have recognised the insufficiency of language to speak of topics relating to horrendous trauma.” Going on to explain how trauma is actually often only the result of what he calls horrors and not the horrors themselves, therefore leaving us with room for growth in our current understanding of the human experience. As theology is often set out under the following headings:

1. God

2. Humanity

3. Christ

4. Salvation

5. The Church

6. Last things

it would seem, at least from Harrower’s view, that we have some work to do.

With the world on the one hand and the church on the other, this book this book does an excellent job of helping us to understand how we as christians should define horrors, the responses others have made to them—particularly those who have used/misused the bible—and how to formulate our own responses. Though that a short summary, I think it gets to the heart the book.

As a writer, who writes about suffering—my own suffering as well at the suffering of others—I would do well to take Harrower’s advice and listen to his warnings. If you’re a pastor, a counsellor, a therapist, or anyone who disciples people in group or one-one settings, you’d do well to read this book too and use it to help you develop, or improve, your own responses and methods for dealing with those who have encountered horror in their own lives.

Whilst I won’t go into huge amounts of detail as to how you might do that, here are three pieces of advice for how to approach this book and others like it:

Language

My wife frequently misremembers quotes. She’ll often sing songs to herself while she’s getting ready to go to bed and seemingly makes up the words as she goes. She’ll use turns of phrase incorrectly, forget the correct punchline to jokes, merge movie quotes together, or misattribute them entirely. She’s more than happy doing so, after all it’s not hurting anyone and it’s a source of entertainment for us both.

When we do this with our theology though, even when everyone knows what we mean, we leave ourselves open to being misunderstood, leaving open the possibility of causing unnecessary division. It can, at times, mean hurting people we’re meant to help. A good example of this is the awful, accidentally heretical, representations of the Trinity that get shared en masse at Christian events. Those of us who use them are trying to make things simpler, more understandable, but are doing quite the opposite. For this reason, reading books like this one which are meticulous in not only their use of particular terms but meticulous in their Taxonomy¹ can be a helpful in making sure that our own language is clear, and that the roots of our theology are sound.

Altering our language to better represent what we mean, as well as knowing why we are using said language is invaluable.

Correction

Imagine you have a business making boxes for transporting fragile goods. You need to know whether or not your boxes can handle heavy duty damage and so, you decide, to throw those boxes, fragile goods and all, down the waterfall to test them. That may sound crazy but there is a company who are doing just that. The case manufacturer clads iPhones in their gear and go bungee jumping, or up tall buildings, and other places phones would fall from and never, ever survive…and yet…they do. On the other hand a few years ago Elon Musk tried to prove how good the new Cybertruck’s bulletproof windows were, and smashed not one, but two windows(!!) using hand-tools. If only the moment hadn’t been streamed live for all to see.

Use this book to throw your current procedures off of Harrower’s waterfall and test them. If they survive, that’s excellent, if they’re worse for wear then repair what’s broken, if they shatter entirely, then use this book to help inform how you rebuild. (That is, of course, if you believe that the book in question, this one included, is correct in its theology and isn’t usurping the Bible’s ultimate authority.)

Advocacy

“This work in no way resolves all issues around horrors and trauma neatly, and many questions linger in my mind. I need to explore these further, and I would encourage you to pursue them also.”

Horror isn’t a a movie genre, or a Stephen King novel, it’s how life is for some.

Whether through fiction or non-fiction, through the written word or through other media, we need to discuss the issues raised in this book more thoroughly and from a Christian point of view. Many of us are terrified to do so, but I was reminded whilst watching the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with some coworkers recently that it’s necessary. The film is, at times, quite kitschy and the acting leaves a lot to be desired, the crucifixion scene stays with you though. In stark contrast to the rest of the film, it left us all in tears, not just because it was scary, but because of what it represented. There we were, eight adults, crying our eyes out about the death of Christ whilst watching a lion sacrificed for Edmund’s sake on the stone table. C.S.Lewis wasn’t scared to include it in a children’s book, we shouldn’t be scared to write about it for any audience.

I’ve been through things in my life which I’ll only write about under a pseudonym or through allegorical fiction, they’re that bad, I will write about them though. I need to promise that I will. We have a duty as Christian writers to steward the gift of suffering that we’ve been entrusted with, to show how God’s light shone through into that dark place and to help others to see the way, the truth, and the life, the God-man Jesus.

I’m not in any way encouraging you to reveal your wounds too early, or say things which would be unwise or put you at risk. This book, however, leaves the baton with us an encourages us to continue the race, advocating for the ones who are currently reeling from the experiences of horror in their own lives through pastoral care, regular discipleship, church community, listening ears, slow tongues, heavy pens, and the clicks of our keyboards.

Waterfalls are dangerous and canny things, but they can be used to draw great power. Imagine how powerful a mill would be if placed below a waterfall, or how much potential energy Niagara falls holds. This book has the potential energy to call you to act.

Will you take up that call?

This is how we must treat all academic theological literature, it hasn’t been written to puff us up, but to help us wield the sword of truth, scripture, and press on, using what we’ve learned practically in the contexts we find ourselves in. I pray that many would read this book to that end.

1. (classification and explanation of those terms)