These premature deaths supremely test our faith. This Incomplete One , edited by Michael D. Bush, features sixteen extraordinary sermons from preachers wrestling with the deaths of children and young adults. The preachers here include classic theologians -- Jonathan Edwards, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and Karl Barth -- and select modern preachers. Two especially noteworthy features are a thoughtful foreword by Nicholas Wolterstorff, author of Lament for a Son , and the first English translation of the profound sermon preached by Karl Barth at the memorial service for his own son, Matthias. In the midst of immense grief and suffering, This Incomplete One speaks forth words of quiet hope and comfort. " "Even if we cannot rejoice ourselves, we still hear an entirely different voice rejoice. . . . This voice speaks about the completion of even this incomplete one, about his completion as God's servant brought about through death. It speaks about peace and joy and life to the fullest." -- Karl Barth" In this book: "M. Craig Barnes Karl Barth David L. Bartlett Ronald P. Byars John Claypool William Sloane Coffin Jr. Stephen T. Davis J. Howard Edington Jonathan Edwards Laura Mendenhall Jeffrey J. Newlin Jack Roeda Fleming Rutledge Friedrich Schleiermacher Philip Turner James Van Tholen" When the sticks and stones of illness, accident, and suicide cut young lives short, it seems no words can soothe a parent's grief. But there have been preachers, Bush says, who were less clumsy, at least, at expressing the word of God at times when parents and the world asked in anguish, why? In this selection, Bush presents 15 Christian reflections on lives cut short. Columbia Theological Seminary president Laura Mendenhall's call to baptize a dying infant at Easter reminds her that death is a baptism into the hands of God. When William Sloan Coffin Jr.'s son was killed in an automobile accident, he found consolation in believing that the young man's death wasn't the will of God at all; rather, "God's heart was the first of all our hearts to break." Bush laments that the preachers of too many of these sermons are Presbyterian and that "too many are male, and all are white." What they lack because of those attributes seems more than balanced by the diversity of their personal perspectives. Donna Chavez Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved The death of a child or youth, perhaps more than any other event in life, signals to us that our world is broken. These premature deaths supremely test our faith. "This Incomplete One," edited by Michael D. Bush, features sixteen extraordinary sermons from preachers wrestling with the deaths of children and young adults. The preachers here include classic theologians -- Jonathan Edwards, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and Karl Barth -- and select modern preachers. Two especially noteworthy features are a thoughtful foreword by Nicholas Wolterstorff, author of "Lament for a Son," and the first English translation of the profound sermon preached by Karl Barth at the memorial service for his own son, Matthias. In the midst of immense grief and suffering, "This Incomplete One" speaks forth words of quiet hope and comfort. ""Even if we cannot rejoice ourselves, we still hear an entirely different voice rejoice. . . . This voice speaks about the completion of even this incomplete one, about his completion as God's servant brought about through death. It speaks about peace and joy and life to the fullest."" -- Karl Barth In this book: M. Craig Barnes Karl Barth David L. Bartlett Ronald P. Byars John Claypool William Sloane Coffin Jr. Stephen T. Davis J. Howard Edington Jonathan Edwards Laura Mendenhall Jeffrey J. Newlin Jack Roeda Fleming Rutledge Friedrich Schleiermacher Phillip Turner James Van Tholen