Main description:

The experience of reproductive loss raises a series of profoundly theological questions: how can God have a plan for my life? Why didn't God answer my prayers? How can I have hope after such an experience? Who am I after such a loss? Sadly, these are questions that, along with reproductive loss, have largely been ignored in theology. Karen O'Donnell tackles these questions head on, drawing on her own experiences of repeated reproductive loss as she re-conceives theology from the perspective of the miscarrying person.

Offering a fresh, original, and creative approach to theology, O'Donnell explores the complexity of the miscarrying body and its potential for theological revelation. She offers a re-conception of theologies of providence, prayer, hope, and the body as she reimagines theology out of these messy origins.

This book is for those who have experiences such losses and those who minister to them. But it is also for all those who want to encounter a creative and imaginative approach to theology and the life of faith in our messy, complex world.

Contents:

Acknowledgements ix
Foreword by Heather Walton xi
Introduction: Re-Conceiving Theology Through Reproductive Loss 1
1. The (Theological) Silence Surrounding Reproductive Loss 13
2. Reproductive Loss as a Trauma 32
3. Reimagining Miscarriage: Embodied Agents and Moral Failures 59
4. Providence, Petitionary Prayer and Pregnancy Loss 77
5. Miss-Carried Hopes 110
6. What About Hannah? 135
7. Body Theologies 143
8. Teach Us How To Pray 162
9. Aftermath: The Post-Traumatic Remaking of
My Self 186
Bibliography 190
Index 201