After the Locusts
Overview
Foreword by Desmond Tutu.
This unique collection of six letters written by Denise Ackermann to family and friends both living and dead is one woman's account of her life, faith, and work as an Anglican theologian during South Africa's apartheid years and afterwards.
In the letters, which are intensely personal memoirs as well as review of the theological and political issues that have marked her career as a feminist Christian in a deeply wounded society, Ackermann discusses such issues as identity and difference, her struggles with sexism and racism, the power of naming, the evils of the apartheid years, the scourge of AIDS, and the function of faith in the midst of misery and conflict.
Review(s)
"In moving and honest letters to her monther, grandchildren, children, and friends, Denise Ackerman tries to find out what is important in life, how she made her choices, what she strove to give to these people, and what she received from them. 'Walking about in a countinuous state of high moral outrage', yes, but also working through her outrage against apartheid, suffering, and death with the help of friends, Ackermann has come to trust in a God who is not the cause of the suffering in this world but who, rather, stands for justice and love. This is a book of wisdom. It is a book of theology. It gives a vast amount of literature for futher reading. It is also a book of faith. It is a moving and challenging tale of a quest for honesty, truth, and trust in God."
Riet Bons-Storm
University of Groningen
"Denise Ackermann has been at the forefront of feminist theological discourse and praxis in South Africa for many years. This remarkably creative contribution to theology captures the wealth of her experience and work, probing as it does some of the most perplexing issues of faith in a way that is intensely personal and yet universal, warmly human and yet intellectually persuasive."
John W. De Gruchy
University of Cape Town
"This is theology with its feet on the ground. Denise Ackermann uses letter to talk …about what it means to be a feminist liberation theologian in postapartheid South Africa. An excellent read."
Rosemary Radford Reuther
Pacific School of Religion
"With integrity and elegance Denise Ackermann offers a compelling memoir — a theological autobiography — that is theology in act. Her own longing for the holy forms the exigence within which she integrates theology, prayer, and social activism. Ackermann's interrogations of apartheid, of sexism, and of the devastating toll that HIV/AIDS has taken on lives and on the body of Christ in Africa come from penetrating intelligence and a heart fierce in faith, deep in hope, and authentic in solidarity. Ackermann's feminist theology of praxis is as critical as it is intimate, as demanding as it is heartening, as urgent as it is hopeful."
M. Shawn Copeland
Boston College
"This entire book is a letter of faith from a woman of courage! In personal confrontation of the locust plagues of apartheid and HIV/AIDS in South Africa, Denise Ackermann plots a landscape of struggle and hope."
Letty M. Russell
Yale Divenity School
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