Faith in Dark Places: New Edition

by David Rhodes

What meaning does my life have? What hope is there for the Church? How can I see beyond the media hype and false images I am bombarded with every day? Where can I find God in all this noise and turmoil? Combining moving stories from the inner city with a fresh approach to the Gospel, Faith in Dark Places explores the revolutionary idea that the good news of God's love is being spoken to a tired and damaged world by those rejected as the homeless and the poor. This radically revised edition, incorporating powerful new insights and reflections, draws on recent theological research and the author's own experience of urban poverty. It examines key biblical texts, such as the Lord's Prayer as a prayer for the poor (in particular the implications of kingdom, bread and trespasses); the Magnificat; and the causes of the crucifixion.

144 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1996

About the author

As a young man, David Rhodes worked in fields, hospitals, and factories across Iowa. After receiving an MFA in Writing from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1971, he published three acclaimed novels: The Last Fair Deal Going Down (1972), The Easter House (1974), and Rock Island Line (1975). In 1976, a motorcycle accident left him partially paralyzed. In 2008, Rhodes returned to the literary scene with Driftless, a novel that was hailed as "the best work of fiction to come out of the Midwest in many years" (Alan Cheuse). Following the publication of Driftless, Rhodes was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2010, to support the writing of Jewelweed, his newest novel. He lives with his wife, Edna, in Wisconsin.

“Rhodes proves that there is still vigorous life in the dark Gothic roots of great American novels.”

—Peter W. Jordan, The Tennessean

Reviews

[Paul Taylor]

There is a limit the the number of books like this that I can read (and I have reached my limit).
The book focuses on the message of Jesus as it relates to the marginalised and addresses the seemingly sexist message by suggesting that the God of the new testament behaves in a womanly, motherly way. This is a plausible source book for a Lent group.

[Gary]

There once was something called "liberation theology" which interpreted Jesus' teachings as advocating a "preferential option for the poor." Many of those involved with the liberation theology movement became politically active, and enough apple carts were upset (in Latin America particularly) that the Church under Popes John Paul and Benedict essentially denounced it.

Though David Rhodes, a British journalist, neither mentions liberation theology nor uses the phrase, "preferential option for the poor," his reading of the gospels has him operating on the same wavelength. His approach is colloquial, his writing accessible to all readers--but it's hard to know how most readers would react to his interpretation of various gospel stories which, while quite brilliant, are also quite conventional. I myself found his take on things to be excitingly fresh and stimulating.

The only thing that dulls the book are a few middle chapters on prayer. There's nothing wrong with what he says about prayer, just that these chapters don't match his others in terms of freshness. Most everything he says about prayer I've read in many other places before.

I have already highly recommended this book to many of my friends.