Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday [Hardcover]

Alan E. Lewis (Author), Kay Lewis (Preface), John E. Alsup (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2001

For much of Christian history the church has given no place to Holy Saturday in its liturgy or worship. Yet the space dividing Calvary and the Garden may be the best from which to reflect on the meaning of Christ's death and resurrection. This superb work by the late Alan Lewis develops on a grand scale and in great detail a theology of Holy Saturday.

The first comprehensive theology of Holy Saturday ever written, this book shows that at the center of the biblical story and the church's creed is a three-day narrative. Lewis explores the meaning of Holy Saturday—the restless day of burial and waiting—from the perspective of narrative, doctrine, and ethics. Along the way he visits as many spiritual themes as possible in order to demonstrate the range of topics that take on fresh meaning when viewed from the vantage point of Holy Saturday.

While writing this book Lewis experienced his own Holy Saturday in suffering from and finally succumbing to cancer. As a result his theology is uniquely moving and deeply rooted in Christian experience.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After Good Friday but before Easter Sunday, there's Holy Saturday, a Sabbath time of mournful waiting. Although this holy day is not highly ritualized in Christian tradition, theologian Alan Lewis argues in Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday that all three days from Jesus' crucifixion to his resurrection are meant to be understood as a coherent narrative. This is an original interpretation of a relatively unmined topic, a rare achievement in Christian theology.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 490 pages
• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802847021
• ISBN-13: 978-0802847027
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,546,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Power of Weakness, September 10, 2001

By 

Benedictine Convent "Sr. Lenora Black, OSB" (Tucson, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday (Hardcover)

In this major work of narrative theology, Alan Lewis breaks new ground with his moving and comprehensive exposition of the neglected but vital place of Holy Saturday in the Paschal mystery. Writing passionately but with precision, during his own Holy Saturday experience of temporary remission from terminal cancer, he offers compelling insights into "God's powerful weakness." Prayer, for him, is the "posture of those who foreswear the idolatry of self-reliance and affirm rather the perfection, primacy and power of God." It is only because of God's self-surrender to death, "that those and only those who lose and give themselves away shall find and fulfill themselves." Lewis calls us to a Christocentric catholicity that defies the individualism, nationalism, and group conflicts nurtured by a "secular pluralism." When "power is the expression, not the opposite, of service," the Easter Saturday community will be characterized by "audacious speech as well as suffering silence." Not a book for the faint-hearted, this book, prayerfully pondered, will leave no reader's life unchanged. Lenora Black, OSB

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful book from a beautiful man, July 17, 2001

By 

Romeo's mom (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday (Hardcover)

I learned more theology from one course under Dr. Alan Lewis than from over 40 years of church sermons. He taught, as he wrote, from his personal knowledge and understanding of Christianity during the months he was living with painful, incurable cancer. As more fully explained in the last chapter of this book, healing is a gift from God. No one person is more deserving of it than another. Diseases are not God's punishments. They happen. I am renewing and reviewing my Christian beliefs during my personal struggles with my dad's end-stage Parkinson's disease and my young cousin's ovarian cancer.

I hope that amazon.com promotes this book because it deserves reading by all thoughtful Christians.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'few if any equals', July 20, 2006

By 

Ryan E. Penn "haverecords" (japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday (Paperback)

with my title i am echoing one of the blurbs on the back of the book--one of the many blurbs and comments you will find on this book, all of high praise and some weight. Suprisingly, the book is 'all that'. It may well be the most profound and moving theology book i have ever read (and expect to).