God of All Comfort: A Trinitarian Response to the Horrors of This World

by Scott Harrower

How does God respond to trauma in a world full of horrors?

Beyond their physical and emotional toll, the horrors of this world raise difficult theological and existential questions. Where is God in the darkest moments of the human experience? Is there any hope for recovery from the trauma generated by these horrors? There are no easy answers to these questions.

In God of All Comfort , Scott Harrower addresses these questions head on. Using the Gospel of Matthew as a backdrop, he argues for a Trinitarian approach to horrors, showing how God-in his triune nature-reveals himself to those who have experienced trauma. He explores the many ways God relates restoratively with humanity, showing how God's light shines through the darkness of trauma.

Genres: Theology, Christianity

272 pages, Paperback

Published April 24, 2019

Reviews

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

How does God respond to trauma in a world full of horrors? Scott Harrower gives a Trinitarian response to the horrors of this world in God of All Comfort. It is his entry in Lexham Press’s Studies in Historical & Systematic Theology series, a peer-reviewed series of contemporary monographs exp.oring key figures, themes, and issues in historical and systematic theology from an evangelical perspective.

Author Scott Harrower is an ordained Anglican pastor and the Associate Professor of Theology and History at Ridley College, Melbourne. He is uniquely capable of writing this book due to his previous experience in medical research and trauma rooms. He is not afraid to take us to places we have not been before, and he treats his subject with professionalism and sensitivity.

Skepticisms and Interpretation

The book is divided into three parts. Part 1: Horrors and Skepticisms, introduces us to a theological understanding of horror in the concepts of shalom and blessedness. He relates horror to trauma and tackles theological, existential, and anthropological issues arising from horrors.

Part 2: Horrors and Interpretation, sets up the reader with real-world stories while showing how the reader can think in terms of perceiving horror in writing. At the center of the book lies A Horror Reading of Matthew with a response in the form of A Blessed Reading of Matthew.

Horrors and Trinity

The horror reading of Matthew was something I had never seen before. Harrower shows us how Matthew is uniquely positioned as an archetypal horror narrative. I had to put the book down in some instances because the reading was so unsettling. The blessed reading of Matthew was like dousing out the horrific flames, and I felt better after letting the words of Scripture settle in.

In Part 3: Horrors and Trinity, Harrower ties everything together by showing how the Trinity helps to recover safety, story, and community in the midst of horrors. He concludes by acknowledging that there are some issues that are not resolved neatly, but the hope is that this our theology can confront our experiences, and the reader can better relate to those who have experienced horrific trauma.

The Light Shines Through

This book shook me in my soul and has caused me to see the horror of our sin. I am left with a different understanding of Scripture as well as the world in this regard, but also with greater hope than I had before. Our Savior who suffered the horrors of this world is the only One who can help us. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?

I was provided a free copy of God of All Comfort but was not required to write a positive review.

[Heath · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times technical and dry, this is still an important volume in the conversation between Systematic Theology and Therapy.

Harrower first defines his project and lays out his terminology. He then examines the various responses given to horror and trauma survivors by various Christian schools of thought, concluding with his own.

His own is a detailed analysis of the Triune God’s response to the horrors of this world as found in the gospel of Matthew. He then takes these findings and applies them to the people of God who are responsible for coming alongside trauma survivors to help them on their path to recovery.

This is a great book both for the theologian (to humanize him or her) and the Christian therapist (to provide theological grounding and guardrails for their work).

[Benjamin Razey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harrower’s book engages deeply with the issue of horrors and wrestles well with the prospect of recovery for those who have faced horrors themselves.

Harrower’s narrative is sound - he opens by exploring and defining what horrors are, then explores how the gospel of Matthew can speak into these horrific events, and concludes by asserting how God wills (the revelation of his objectively good character) and acts (the demonstration of his stark opposition to horrors in this world) in the gospel in order to re-establish trust (safety), hope (story) and community for those who have experienced horrors.

Harrower’s book is sound and worth a read, however it is certainly technical throughout and can be challenging to venture through, at times.

[Gavin Brand · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the book really helpful. Because it is so interdisciplinary, the book covers a lot of ground in a short period. This made it very engaging and also made the bibliography very rich and worth checking out. The book gets off to a slow start but the horror reading and blessed reading of Matthew as well as the last three chapters are worth reading more than once.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful book reflecting on theological answers to the trauma that horror brings. Must read for those involved in Christian ministry.

[Heather Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thinking about how trauma affects ones reading of Scripture and rethinking how to come alongside those who have experienced trauma with the pointing to the God of All Comfort as shown in Scripture through a "blessed-reading" lens rather than a "horror-reading" lens. An interesting take. I'm still mulling it over.

[J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagine a book that’s part analytic theology, part trauma theory, part deep pastoral engagement, part Trinitarian theology, part gothic novel, and you might begin to skim the surface of the essence of Scott Harrower’s excellent book, The God of All Comfort: A Trinitarian Response to the Horrors of This World. In a world filled with horrors and the traumas that they engender, Harrower seeks to understand how the Trinitarian God is at work healing shattered image-bears through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at work in the life of the Church.

However, before addressing head-on the aching reality of horrors, this book begins by seeking to understand them first against the background of Shalom – the wholesome state that God created and intended for his image bearers in the very beginning, centered on and in perfect, personal relationship with the Triune God. This Edenic state was broken when humanity committed ‘ontological transgression – transgressing into being like God’ (p. 20).

Such transgression opened the door for the harrowing of horrors – a reality that Harrower provides an incredibly clear taxonomy for understanding, centering on the concept of horror being a movement from life towards death. This reality of the transgression of death into the realm of life leads to the experience of trauma, breaking image-bears in their creative, relational, and moral functions. A state from which there may be no recovery. This leaves trauma-survivors with theological, existential, and anthropological problems – blocking their ability to truly live into their identity as image-bearers.

How does the Triune God speak into this reality? He does through his ‘consciousness as he relates to and interacts with individual and corporate human minds/souls for the sake of forming beliefs and concepts that are true and helpful to them’ (62).

God reveals himself in this way largely through narrative – as the narrative of Scripture meets and works its way into our own narratives of trauma and redemption, and as we experience ‘shared attention’ with God – looking through his perspective together with him: ‘For readers of the Bible who want to know God, shared attention involves the reader and God being strongly aware of one another as they cooperate in reading a text together’ (63).

This meets a focus of trauma recovery methods, namely, a focus upon narrative, and in particular the practice of undertaking ‘trauma readings’ of texts. Harrower employs this method to masterful extent in his gothic-horror reading of Matthew’s gospel, both as an exercise in empathy for those who have suffered trauma, but also in order to push a trauma reading to its final (hopeless) end, thus revealing its limitations for trauma recovery. What other choices, then, do we have that both take the horror of trauma seriously in all its achingly reality and pursue hope? Enter the blessed reading.

The Triune God seeks mind-to-mind communion with his image bearers and is through this capable of restoring their perspective – taking it from trauma to blessed. Harrower demonstrates this through a ‘blessed’ reading of the Gospel of Matthew, particularly noting how Matthew’s gospel, from the blessed perspective given by the Triune God, provides paths that may enable a survivor to regain safety, story, and community. This continual use of the modal may throughout the book in regard to recovery stands out as wise and helpful in its ability to both hold fast to the real grounds for hope that survivors have for recovery through the work of the Triune God, but also remain realistic about the gutting extent to which trauma maims God’s beloved image bearers, and thus not be too quick to rush to triumphal solutions.

This book is one of the most stretching books I’ve read in the last year – academically, emotionally, pastorally, and creatively. I found myself having to think till my head ached about issues related to the problem of evil. At times I laughed with geeky delight at the working in of literary gothic-horror themes, even while being impressed at just how ‘fitting’ they were for the discussion. At least once I needed to put the book down to cry and pray through horrors that have touched my life and lives of those I love. So I warn you, this book may not be an easy read, but (my goodness!) it’s a good one. Highly recommended for pastors, theologians, practitioners working with trauma survivors, and anyone seeking to understand and live into the story of the triune God’s work of restoring Shalom to his shattered image-bearers.

I thank Lexham press for sending me an advance copy of this book

[Adsum Ravenhill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some books are like streams, some are like rapids. In other words, some nourish us and we can drink from them easily and with the knowledge that the water is trustworthy. Others are fun, if in unpredictable ways, and so keep us on our toes. Then there are waterfalls. Waterfalls are dangerous and not to be taken lightly, they are also magnificent, inspiring, and can be harnessed for power, for growth and the pool which settles beneath them can be incredibly comforting.

This book is a waterfall.

“The book you are reading is about horrors,” the introduction says, “what they are…and why is it that they are so deadly. Once we know what horrors are, we can do something about them, or at least ask God for help to do something about our lives when horrors invade. We care about this problem because horrors affect us all in irreversible ways, sometimes setting our lives on courses we never hoped for and even dreaded.”

That is a huge task for a single book to take on, but it’s not just a book, it’s an author. Harrower is like the crest of the fall, drawing in all of the available information on the subject and then filtering and translating that information into something to be harnessed. As with every book in this series and others like it, this is the result of much study and work, far more than most of us will ever dream of doing, much less on such a difficult subject. Harrower knows both what he’s doing and why, he’s seen both the horrors of this world and the responses the world has given to them and he’s convinced that God gives us a better response, not just any god, but specifically the holy Trinity. What’s more, he also recognises that, especially in the modern global north, “theologians have recognised the insufficiency of language to speak of topics relating to horrendous trauma.” Going on to explain how trauma is actually often only the result of what he calls horrors and not the horrors themselves, therefore leaving us with room for growth in our current understanding of the human experience. As theology is often set out under the following headings:

God
Humanity
Christ
Salvation
The Church
Last things
it would seem, at least from Harrower’s view, that we have some work to do.

The world on the one hand and the church on the other, this book does an excellent job of helping us to understand how we as Christians should define horrors, the responses others have made to them — particularly those who have used/misused the bible —, and how to formulate our own responses. This summary only scratches the surface of everything covered, but these are, to my understanding, the main points.

As a writer, who writes about suffering, my own suffering as well as the suffering of others, I would do well to take Harrower’s advice and listen to his warnings. If you’re a pastor, a counsellor, a therapist, or anyone who disciples people in group or one-one settings, you’d do well to read this book and use it to help you develop, or improve, your own responses and methods for dealing with those who have encountered horror in their own lives. I won’t go into huge amounts of detail as to how you might do so but here are three pieces of advice for how to approach this book and others like it:

Link to full review:
https://atravenhill.substack.com/p/ap...

[Devin Kinsella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up a copy of this book after listening to Scott Harrower on the Parker’s Pensees Podcast. Though written in a highly structured, academic style that may not accommodate for the common pew-occupier, I found a few elements of this book instructive for contemplating trauma at the theological level. First, Harrower’s trauma attuned reading of Matthew was helpful as a perspective-taking exercise and illuminated ways in which my own experiences with horrors had shaped my interactions with the gospel narratives. Second, Harrower’s gospel-inspired repurposing of Judith Herman’s 3 prerequisites for trauma healing was thorough and encouraging and argued effectively for the necessity of a Trinitarian approach to dealing with horrors in the world. Finally, Harrower’s clear classification of horrors by followed by the unpacking of resulting issues caused by the experience of horrors offer a clear framework that guides the rest of the argumentation in the book. This book is not one to give your nominally evangelical aunt after her husband dies by alcohol addiction, but a forthcoming manual adapted from this book that is simplified with some diagrams and graphics could be a useful addition to biblical counseling.

[Adam Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of this book was promising, but I ended up disappointed. This was a heavily academic book, which took a long time to say quite obvious things, in an often opaque way. Be warned, there’s quite a lot of literary criticism too, as he reads Matthew’s gospel as Gothic literature, before showing the shortcomings of such an approach. I’m glad this book has been helpful to some, but if you’re a pastor looking for what to say in response to the horrors of this world, there are probably better places to look.

[Chloe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Evangelicals should be banned from writing books. Oh, we’re dealing with a highly sensitive, deeply subjective and constitutive human experience? How about we bulldoze past that and say that, in the end, what really matters is that you believe in this version of god then that’ll fix everything and make you capable of empathy (because you weren’t before or something?). Incomprehensible that anyone could write this. So many missed opportunities for way deeper and more interesting engagements.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for a book club, **not a cover to cover read.
Geniunely very helpful and kind. Defs academic in a way that new to the faith would struggle w.
Very helpful and kind. Reading slowlyreally helped me actually engage w the ideas not just rage at the hope bleeding pages
Everything comes in threes.
Not five stars cause probs won’t read again for a longgg time. But four stars cause will recommend to friends

[Josh Skaggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I needed a year to work through this one, and as soon as I finished I wanted to start again. This work of theology addresses trauma and horrors with such care, honesty, rigor, and humility. Scott Harrower is bold enough to raise the questions I'm too afraid to ask, and his responses all feel hopeful, rather than dogmatic. A godsend.

[Charlene Hios · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just finished reading the front matter and chapter 1 which is the introduction. What strikes me thus far is the excessive use of the word "horror". What also strikes me is the word "comfort" or phrase "God of All Comfort" has yet to used with the exception of the title.

Speaking of the title, the words I just mentioned above are both in the title however the word used excessively in the front matter and first chapter is used in the subtitle.

I certainly hope this is not a book just about horrors. I hope the main Crux of this book is about the "God of All Comfort"