Nicholas Wolterstorff is Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology at Yale University. Before going to Yale he taught philosophy at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for thirty years. His other books include Justice in Love, Educating for Shalom, The God We Worship, and Lament for a Son.
Booklist
"A deeply moving account of how one man has learned to deal with
pain." Christianity Today
"For the gift of this personal meditation, the Christian community
should offer profound gratitude. Perhaps once or twice a year--in a
good year--one reads a book so compelling, so essential, that one
wishes to advise all friends, 'Here, please read this book. It's
wonderful.' Simple and profound, Lament for a Son is such a book."
Church Times (U.K.)
"Nicholas Wolterstorff's account of his own grief for his
25-year-old son's death, like C. S. Lewis's book written after his
wife's death, combines acute observation of personal, actual pain
with a mind disciplined in academic theology." Circuit Rider
"A book destined to become a classic. Artistically and
theologically, this book gets high marks, for it discloses a
suffering father marked by the wounds of loss, seeking redemptive
power through the cross. . . Pastoral care applications for this
book are immense. This is a book about hope and healing power
revealed through pathos and suffering love. Lament for a Son is
eloquent grief-work and is must reading for all pastors." Henri J.
M. Nouwen
"Lament for a Son is a simple, honest, and poignant expression of
one man's grief, but it is more. By sharing the depths of his
grief, not in trite phrases but honestly, Nicholas Wolterstorff
helps open the floodgates for those who cannot articulate their
pain. . . This little book is a true gift to those who grieve and
those who, in love, reach out to comfort. Wolterstorff's words are,
indeed, 'salve on our wounds.' Thank God he did not remain silent."
Journal of Psychology & Christianity
"This book is destined to become a classic, and in many ways is
even better than C. S. Lewis's Grief Observed. . . It is a book of
questions in the face of death, searching for how to go on, living
without a loved one. . . He expresses both the evil of death and
the face of God in and through death. It is a poem to life that
expresses the numbness of death, the isolation of grief, the
silence and yet suffering of God, finding meaning in the suffering.
This is a book to read over and over and over." Library Journal
"Wolterstorff, a well-known Christian philosopher, lost his
25-year-old son to a mountain climbing accident. His reflections in
the wake of that tragedy are at times deeply personal, but always
he expresses a prayerful anguish with which most bereaved parents
will identify. Above all he refuses to turn from the 'demonic
awfulness' of death and, as he moves faithfully through grief,
discovers new meaning in the Beatitudes, together with a new
understanding of a suffering God. Spiritually enriching and
theologically substantive." Martin E. Marty
"Read him, and again I say unto you, please read him." Pulpit
Digest
"To tell yet another tale of grief is not news; telling it honestly
and reflectively, however, is what elevates Nicholas Wolterstorff's
Lament for a Son into that circle of books that surpass the telling
and evoke affirmation from the reader. . . This is a book pastors
ought to read. It is an inside-the-skin experience of grief. It is
also a book pastors and church libraries ought to have,
particularly to help parents who have lost children. I shared
Lament for a Son with a grieving father, who commented, 'He said
almost everything I had felt.' Those words are high praise for a
guidebook to the valley of the shadow." Walter Wangerin, Jr.
"Wolterstorff inquires as Job inquired. He is honest and utterly
resistant to the cheap answers about death: finally, to any answers
about death at all. . . He looks, without foolish giddiness or
delusion, but in faith, to the day that Death and this death shall
be overcome--and he takes his place beside all who suffer. . . A
miracle." Charisma
"After a heart-wrenching tragedy--the death of his 25-year-old
son--this father writes about the questions, the mourning, and the
hope after his grieving. Lament for a Son will provoke tears--but
healthy tears."
![]() |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
![]() |