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The Promise of Despair: The Way of the Cross as the Way of the Church (Living Theology)

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Andrew Root confronts us with the hollow sentimentality that surrounds so much of our culture both outside and especially inside the church. In this challenging book, Root calls for a church that bleeds, a church marked by the cross of Christ, honest about the reality of death and willing to face the myriad of cultural deaths in late modernity (deaths of meaning, authority, belonging, and identity). His argument rests on Luther's understanding of a "theology of the cross," by which we learn to utterly despair of our own ability before we are prepared to receive the grace of Christ.

Part One works through the reality of four deaths (see above) under which we live. The diagnosis of what has replaced meaning, authority, belonging, and identity is cutting and profound. To offer just one example: instead of receiving identity through work and love, we live in a world where careers and marriages are constantly transitional and we are on our own to construct makeshift and flexible identities through consumption and intimacy.

Part Two unpacks how the way of the cross might become the way of the church. Root begins with a complex chapter that reflects on the work of Christ on the cross, where death is taken into God's Triune being and so overcome. The ensuing chapters challenge the church to encounter discipleship through death, community through death, justice through death, and hope through death.

Each chapter begins with a personal story from the author (usually a clever insight from his young son Owen) and concludes with a reflection on a biblical story. I found this narrative framing style to be incredibly effective and powerful.

I highly recommend you read this book. Root's message will not allow you to rest easy, but rather wrestle with the presence of "the monster" in your life by confronting it head-on, and entering death wherein the hope of Christ may be found. The implications of this book for the life and ministry of the church will be an interesting discussion to follow. Application will demand creativity and courage.

The Promise of Despair by Andrew Root is nothing short of a game-changer. While the majority of Christian authors are consumed with the question of "How?" (Traditional Church, Relevant Church, Emergent Church, Missional Church, Postmodern Church, House Church, Deep Church, Purpose Driven Church, Organic Church, Sticky Church, etc.), Root argues that the question we should, instead, be asking is "Where?" Where is God?

For Root, the answer to "Where?" is the great calling and Secret of the Church. It is the Secret that God can only be found in the despair, suffering, and death of the Cross. If God truly is found in this despair (or the Monster, as Root calls it), the Church must be willing to tackle it head on. Rather than running from despair and death, rather than avoiding it, the Church must embrace it. Despair must become a part of the Church's identity. In doing so the Church will also open itself up to the very presence of God, bringing hope, healing, life, and love.

Root's skills as a writer shine through in this book. I found the Promise of Despair to be accessible, intuitive, easy-to-read, and surprisingly funny (who would have guessed that from the title?) Root also has the uncanny ability to take deep, complex, concepts, break them down, and connect them to everyday life in a way that is all the while insightful, entertaining, hilarious, and heart-breaking.

Drawing on theologians such as Luther, Moltmann, Kierkegaard, and Douglas John Hall, Root constructs an imaginative theological vision for the Church that is incredibly helpful for anyone in the congregation, regardless of calling or formal education. Root's ease and familiarity with social commentators like Jean Baudrillard, Zygmunt Bauman, and Anthony Giddens give this book an even greater depth, extending his vision far beyond the walls of the Church and into our everyday lives.

The Promise of Despair was, for me, a breath of fresh air in the crowded room of ministry books. One could argue that Root's book lacks the sort of practical how-to that many other ministry books feature in spades, but I think that would be missing the point. In my mind, this book exists to serve instead as a prophetic re-direct that shifts the way we think about God, ministry, the Church, and faith itself.

The Cross has always been the predominant symbol of the Church. What Root has done with the Promise of Despair is to re-affirm the notion that Christianity itself finds its true identity in the God of the Cross - in God's suffering, death, and despair and in God's self-giving love and resurrection. Through the Promise of Despair, Root has re-affirmed the Gospel for our present time and present generation.

This book has changed the way I view the Church and my own Christian faith. I would highly recommend it to anyone, regardless of denomination, theological bent, or education. The Promise of Despair, in my opinion, really is a game-changer.

First everyone who is in ministry should read this book. Andy is fearless in putting his ideas out there. This is not a popular subject in a consumerist feel-good era which we live. He takes Martin Luther's "theology on the cross" into our culture and deals with "the monster" of death--a taboo topic in our culture. If you want to remain popular you should be an optimist with a rosy outlook--it sells. When I saw the title, I winced. "The Promise of Despair" is not something that I am looking for in my life. I bought the book because I know Andy and respect him as a theologian. Andy believes that to be in ministry you must put theology into daily ministry. This is hard to do but he did just that in this book.

I think he could have said "get real" and it would have been accurate as well. Death as a theological concept goes beyond physical death of the body. It includes living the reality of the broken home, loss of a spouse, a disappointing job, and especially broken relationships. "The monster" as Andy calls it wins the battle in this world. Andy asks, "Why does the church not live in this reality as this is where God is?" (a summary) The answer is one we all know. It is because we don't want to face our biggest fears and after all we are the church.

You will come away from this book chewing on the main points. You may not agree with all his points but you can't discount them either. He has very good arguments to help you understand where he is going with the points in question. Andy uses his son, Owen, and other family members to make the book an easy read. His writing style is more like a novel than a book on theology. For this reason, many of the less formal ministers will find a book on theology refreshing to read.

In closing I say this is a must read for youth ministers. Most of our youth deal with the real world much easier than adults. The world they exist in, because of where they are in the life cycle, puts them in touch with reality. Andy's book is real. He doesn't waffle or avoid the topic because it is messy. He believes the church should be messy as it consists of messy people (My words). Thanks for a dose of reality.

Andrew Root, Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary has written a provocative and challenging work about the way of the cross as the way of the church. He begins the work by locating the death of meaning, authority, belonging and identity. Root describes in the the first chapter that meaning has become vacuous due to our placing primary importance upon the sign rather than the thing signified. Drawing on the work of Baudrillard, Roots emphasizes that we live in a hyperreal world and the sign of things outgrows the thing signfied to such an extent that we don't even recognize the signified reality when it happens (15-16). We have given into the media of "Real World" to such an extent that the medium of a product means more than the message.

The second chapter delves into the concept of authority in our world. No longer do people blindly follow authority structures but question every voice of authority. Root calls both fundamental and liberal types to account for not recognizing the death of authority in our culture and in our churches. In turn, both groups seek to create a demanding authority themselves whether through the erasure of doubt (fundamental) or the blending in of the pluarlistic community (33-36).

As Root moves through the first four chapters, he is setting up his readers for the main point of his thesis: "It is when we are up against death, when we find ourselves in despair, that the God of cross is near us" (73). The goal of life is not to avoid death at all costs nor to be immersed in death as to have it swallow us up completely, but to go the depths of despair by facing its monstrous head (73-75). It in the despair of death that the Son of God died upon the Cross and yet it was through this despair that life came, that he was raised from the dead.

The last few chapters are a challenge to the church to not run from death's grasp, but to enter into the despair of death only to see love on the other side. Root goes onto say that injustice in our world comes from the societal level and the individual choice but cannot be brushed aside. Being a voice for the voiceless is not about being right and doing the right thing, but about entering into "death for the sake of life" (131). Drawing upon Luther and Moltmann, Root focuses his effort on an entering into death and the despair of people on the basis of the the Son's death upon the cross, and seeing life out of death as the way forward (130).

This book had a profundity that is clear in both its presentation and its challenge to see the road of death to bring about life. In the first four chapters, I was hoping Root might address more clearly the notion that although we see the death of meaning, authority, identity, and belonging in our culture, these themes or ideas still reside. Although many in our culture despise authority, they have just transferred their notions of authority to hyperreal and media driven platforms. Although we lost our identity in relationship to others and in community, we seek to connect with communities that share our passions. Overall, I thought this book was a good resource for those interested in taking the cross seriously, for understanding that the path of death to bring forth life is not an option for the Christian life. Lastly, I thought Root did an excellent job in providing a grid for understanding hope in relationship to the notion of "Hallmark" optimism that is so prevalent in our culture.

This is the 3rd book by Root I've read and the most highly recommended. This one reads quickly with insight on contemporary life that is both deeply relevant and theological. For those not used to confronting death --> ie consumerism, loss of belonging, the hyperreal world, the "god" who exists to make people happy/good, and the general sense that life is quickly distorted and eaten up by the Monster whose name is death and despair - Hang on!

His use of Nietzsche, Bonhoeffer, and Luther are particularly disarming and confronting for the (american?) world used to being entertained, manipulated or lulled to sleep. Indeed, the way from death to life is almost impossible.

A book that gets right to the point. As well, an easy read for those average youth personnel who wouldn't have PhDs.

The book is a mash-up of Luther's Heidelberg disertation, modern (really post-modern) academic philosophy and language theory and some great sermon illustrations. The book itself is not long to begin with, but it reads like it was a really good journal article or sermon prep that had to be stretched to meet the length of a book. The central argument is that death is real, the church has always tried to deny that, but Luther's Theology of the Cross is the way through the monster. That argument has resonance in an age of happy clappy Christianity and has the advantage of being good doctrine. Where the argument goes sour is in the mash up of po-mo philosophy and that theology of the cross. By trying first to build a layman's case of loss of identity, authority and other modern elements the author makes too much out of what is just life. Prior ages came to that reality much earlier in existence and so didn't have to suffer through whine-y 40 yr old laments upon first discovering the hardness of life.

Go grab a couple of fellow would-be believers, find a good minister who can teach and read and discuss your way through Ecclesiastes. That experience will be clearer than this book. On the other hand, if you are a minister looking for some good sermon illustrations to steal - this book has several, just ignore the academic blather.