In the Land of the Living

"If required to summarize my deepest conviction in a single sentence, it would be something like this: I believe that God is more taken with the agony of the earth than with the ecstasy of heaven." So begins the preface to In the Land of the Living: Prayers Personal and Public by Kenneth L. Sehested. What follows from that conviction is a collection of prayers and poems, most of which are "inspired by" one or more particular biblical texts and many of which were originally written for use in Sehested's own congregation. Sehested's lifelong work as a justice and peace organizer informs his "poetic eloquence," which, in the words of one reviewer, produces reflections on Scripture that create "a flash of insight, a bolt of courage, a stretch of imagination, a surprising peek into the heart of God" and "cries out against second-hand convictions." In the Land of the Living (Ps 27:13) represents a significant addition to that tradition of spirituality which takes seriously both the pain of the world and the claim of a God at work disarming both the heart and the nations. Indeed, "These prayers are jumper cables from the pew to the world."