Learning to Lament

In the introduction to his recent Prophetic Lament, Soong-Chan Rah summarizes studies that show that “lament is often missing from the narrative of the American church” (21).

One study “found that in the Lutheran Book of Worship, the Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer, the Catholic Lectionary for Mass, the Hymnal of the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Hymnal, ‘the majority of Psalms omitted from liturgical use are the laments.’”

Another study pointed out that “lament constitutes 40 percent of all psalms, but only 13 percent of the hymnal for the Churches of Christ, 19 percent of the Presbyterian hymnal and 13 percent of the Baptist hymnal.” Of the top 100 songs used by the Christian Copyright Licensing International, “only five . . . would qualify as lament. Most of the songs reflect themes of praise” (22). Rah concludes that “The American church avoids lament. The power of lament is minimized and the underlying narrative of suffering that requires lament is lost” (22).

Rah’s book is a series of meditations on Lamentations, part textual commentary, part cultural analysis and lament. If his choices of lamentable injustices is skewed (I found no reference to abortion in the book), his general point is a forceful one.