Toby D. CASTLE. Permission to Grieve.  Lament as a Posture and Practice of Formation in a Culture of Denial.    WIPF and Stock Publishers: Eugene, OR. 2024. ISBN: 9798385222537 $26.00 Pb. xix + 153 . Reviewed by Daniel SMITH-CHRISTOPHER, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA 90045.

It is hardly to be wondered about that a Biblical book like the Book of Lamentations is undergoing a serious revival of interest.  The times, quite clearly, call for a renewal of the practice of lament and mourning – and a book of Biblical poetry that calls on God to “look” and “see” the suffering of God’s people.  There have been a number of excellent studies that have contributed to this revival of interest (one things of the works of Kathleen O’Conner, Lamentations the Tears of the World, 2004; Nancy Lee, The Singers of Lamentations: Cities Under Siege, from Ur to Jerusalem to Sarajevo, 2002, and Adele Berlin’s commentary from 2002 as works that made major contributions to  the increased interest in the Biblical book of Lamentations).  What has been somewhat lacking, however, are serious written works that take some of this heavier Biblical analysis and relate them more directly to practical ministry.  Castle’s book is precisely this kind of work – which pays attention to serious scholarship at the same time.

Castle echoes many recent works that challenge the absence of “laments” as a legitimate form of Christian worship and experience.  We are not being honest if protests to God, complaints about our realities, and sorrow for the situation of ourselves and/or others, is not considered a legitimate expression of Christian worship and prayer.  In this work, Castle cites churches in the urban context of San Francisco as a context where the recovery of lament is of particular concern and need.  The suffering of the pandemic, the violent earthquakes, the suffering of the Queer communities, and homelessness in shocking numbers, all play into the analysis of Castle’s selection of San Francisco as a “context” from which to raise the issues of Lamentations as an expression of legitimate church life.  It is helpful, in fact, to anchor a study of Lamentations in this way.

Castle’s book is serious – but general enough to serve as a study guide for Adult Education groups seeking to do a serious study of Lamentations.  Guided as he is by scholarship, and compassionate experience of ministry, and keen observation, “Permission to Grieve” is a helpful contribution to the growing literature about rediscovering laments as a powerful Biblical form of prayer – and if Brueggemann is to be read on this (as Castle most certainly does) also as a form of protest.