Please join us for a book talk, along with a wine and cheese reception, with theologian and pastor Victor Lee Austin. In Losing Susan, seasoned pastor-theologian Victor Lee Austin shares how caring for his wife during her long, painful struggle with brain cancer and its after-effects brought him face-to-face with his faith in unsettling ways.
This is the story of Susan—a wife, a mother, a Christian believer, a lover of children, a writer of stories, and a woman of extraordinary intellect. Susan was diagnosed with a brain tumor in her late thirties. Although it was successfully treated, the process led to her slow and unending decline throughout the remaining nineteen years of her life. God gave Victor what his heart most desired—marriage to Susan—then God took away what he had given. Yet God never withdrew his presence. Weaving together autobiographical details and profound theological insights, this powerful narrative of suffering and love is told with bracing honesty. It shows that while we cannot tidily make sense of God’s role in suffering, we are called to turn to him in the face of pain and death.
When
Thursday, May 26, 2016, 6:00 p.m.
Where
First Things Editorial Offices
35 East 21st St, Sixth Floor (between Broadway and Park)
212.627.1985
Victor Lee Austin is a theologian and pastor with special interests in ethics and how people work together. His book, Up with Authority: Why We Need Authority to Flourish as Human Beings, has been shortlisted for the 2013 Michael Ramsey Prize in theological writing. He has taught at colleges and seminary, and is presently Theologian-in-residence at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City.
