Redeeming the past
Subtitle: my journey from freedom fighter to healer
By: Michael Lapsley with Stephen Karakashian
Contributors: Karakashian, Stephen
Publisher: Orbis Books
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Maryknoll, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9781570759925
Subjects: Suffering; Pain; Clergy; Church history; Church of the Province of Southern Africa; Church work; Biography; Christianity
Description: In 1990, Fr. Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest and monastic from New Zealand, exiled to Zimbabwe because of his anti-apartheid work in South Africa, opened a package and was immediately struck by the blast of an explosion. The bomb suspected to be the work of the apartheid-era South African secret police blasted away both his hands and one of his eyes. His memoir tells the story of this horrendous event, backing up to recount the journey that led him there particularly his rising awareness of the radical social implications of the gospel and his identification with the liberation struggle and then the subsequent journey of the last two decades. Returning to South Africa, Lapsley saw a whole nation damaged by the apartheid era. So he discovered his new vocation to become a wounded healer, drawing on his own experience to promote the healing of other victims of violence and trauma. As he writes, My visible brokenness creates a bond with others whose brokenness is often less visible but just as real. The truth is that pain unites human beings. In my work as a healer, many people say they can trust me because I know pain. In the end, though, what matters most is whether we are able to transform pain into a life-giving force. --AMAZON.COM BOOK DESCRIPTION.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: The bombing; title: Recovery; title: Disability: accepting brokenness; title: A home-grown faith; title: South Africa: torn apart; title: A crisis of faith; title: Lesotho: living in exile; title: Zimbabwe: the struggle is everything; title: Returning to South Africa: forging a new identity; title: Breaking the chain of history; title: Truth, amnesty, and restitution; title: Deceptively simple; title: Founding the institute for healing of memories; title: Cuba; title: Rwanda and the genocide; title: Australia's "stolen generation"; title: Zimbabwe: the agony continues; title: Torture; title: Healing memories in the United States; title: The story of Pedro, a guerilla fighter for peace; title: Looking forward: daring to hope.