Sinners in the Hands of a Suffering God:
A review of Suffering by Dorothee Sölle

Dorothee Sölle has written a splendid little book which cries out in a prophetic voice from the end of the Vietnam War, years after Mỹ Lai, when the appetite for war had been well and truly sated in many parts of the Western world. As it would seem, her words remain relevant, as indeed one rather wishes they did not. After Iraq and Afghanistan, here in Australia we have recently become profoundly aware of the dozens of little Mỹ Lais that our soldiers in the 2nd Squadron of the Special Air Service Regiment had committed against Afghani citizens towards the end of Operation Slipper. In that kind of environment, a book like Suffering (Fortress Press, 1975) remains incredibly important in the context of theologies of suffering, and the more entrancing theologies of hope. Everett R. Kalin’s translation of Sölle’s prose is quite readable, and would appeal to both theological technician and lay sufferer.