How to Pray When You're Pissed at God

March 11, 2013
Punnett, a radio host and Episcopal deacon, goes against the conventional religious grain by not only arguing that it’s okay to be angry with God, but also showing readers how. He takes pains to demonstrate that his view is solidly based in the Bible, citing figures who contended with God (Moses, Job) and the numerous “cursing psalms” in which the distraught psalmist asks God to break the teeth of his enemy or dash their little ones against a rock. He even suggests that the Bible’s original Hebrew and Greek included a few pretty salty terms. A chapter on psychology is rather simple; indeed, so is the theology. Yet his central point is delightfully honest and subversive: take anger out on God, not a colleague, underling, or loved one. Most moving are prayers Punnett has collected from real people in difficult situations (“God, send me some love, and if you could dial back the suffering stuff a little”). This heartfelt little book is the answer to many prayers.

April 1, 2013
The emotion most people are wariest of is anger. Yet not expressingor at least acknowledginganger, we're told, may lead to a host of illnesses, including depression. What to do? Bring it to the Lord in prayer, Punnett says. If that seems outrageous, it's nevertheless prodigiously attested in the Bible, especially among the Psalms. Problem is, Punnett continues, contemporary Christians tend not to know that. Punnett does, and he uses this fact in his ministerial work, which has been a sideline to his career as a radio host. (He's just abandoned that career because of aggressive tinnitussomething to be ticked at God about, indeed!) Although he helpfully tells stories of angry prayer at work, Punnett may prove most useful for most readers because of the treasury of angry prayershis own Psalms-based examples; 16 more, mostly freer-form, by everyday folks; and 24 classics of the genre from Psalmsthat fill more than half the book. Very fine common-language devotional literature.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)