David Kelsey is regarded by some as “the keenest theological mind of this generation” and is a Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School. This book will not be everyone’s cup of tea but it is one that stretches our thinking about the subject of redemption. He calls his writing ‘unsystematic systematic theology;’ this is mainly because he mixes what is usually called systematic theology with that subsumed under the title of pastoral theology. He does not deal with the atonement for sin aspects of the redemptive work of the Lord but the concrete pastoral application of how does the Lord’s redemptive Person and work impact a young boy called Sam and his family. Tragedy has struck this family; Sam has suffered from a terrible and rare disease. This has led to horrendous ramifications in his life as a child and as he grows into manhood. His father and mother are plunged into things that they never dreamed would come their way, life and plans disrupted, hopes dashed, the changes almost insufferable. To compound things some year’s later Sam’s mother committed suicide. What can Jesus do for such a family? What are those ways in which Christ is able to enter and interrupt and transform the grief and ruin now crushing and shaping what really seems to be, the remainder of the lives of father and son? After examining some of the secular uses we put the idea and words ‘redeem’ and ‘redemption’ this author seeks to show in three main ways, (1) the way that Jesus’ ministry can ‘make up for the world’s bad performance.’ (2) How His Person and crucifixion can redeem Sam and his father (and we too) from the bondage of the almost inevitable forming and corrupting of personal identity issuing from the tragedy and distorting powers that are at work about them. (3) The power of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and how its promise breaks in to the dreadful status quo formed in this family and can deliver sufferers from the tyranny of the vicious cycles now shaping their lives as a result of the trauma of tragedy and sorrow. Here we have the possibility of Jesus changing things dramatically, indeed, the pastoral implications of Who He is and what He has done applied a family in shock and ruin. Remember, this is a short theological book. For some there will be instruction, for others, it might be a step too far in the fact that moves in the language of academia.
