Holy Anger

The topic of this book is one of those greatly neglected areas that has cried out for serious analysis and exploration. We read today of rage in many manifestations- road rage, computer rage- but anger has its role in structuring faith. This is what this book is about and in the process it is also a brilliant exposition of anger in the Biblical accounts of Jacob, Job and Jesus. The Old Testament is in many ways an account of a running battle between God and man. 'Why do the wicked prosper' 'Ho, Assyria, the rod of my anger'. Job shakes his fist at heaven and complains angrily at God. 'It is certain', writes the author 'that anger with all its different shades is an element in a living faith. Experience of anger constantly renewed structures our lives as believers as we become adult. The anger of Jesus encourages us to welcome our own anger'. The God of this book is not an oxygen tank nor a funk hole. He is a Biblical God of astonishing pertinence to our lives today. Basset has a sovereign command of the biblical material, of early Christian commentaries on it and on Jewish interpretations of it. Here is a new vision of the relationship and the role that anger plays in it.