The book that our team at PBTS has completed the first draft of our new book— Dalamhati at Luwalhati: Theological Reflections on the Filipino Experience. It is now being reviewed by our publisher. We shall see what happens during that process, but we are expectant of having good news soon. If things go as planned, the book will be available in the Philippines by the end of the year.

It is a bilingual book with some chapters written in English and others in Pilipino. Quoting the (first draft of the) back cover:

This book is the fruit of a presentation by Federico Villanueva that explored a Biblical response to grief, suffering and loss. Reflections on this presentation led to several essays that are compiled here. These reflections can be loosely categorized into three types— Biblical, Theological, and Contextual. After the first two chapters present the paper of Dr. Villanueva along with the symposium responses, the next two explore the topic as observed in the Old Testament.

The next two chapters explore the topic from a more strictly theological viewpoint. These two, along with the other essays, explore grief, suffering, and loss in the Filipino context. As such, they are activities of contextualized theological reflection. However, the final two chapters address the process of contextualizing or localizing theology. They consider what it means to say that a theology is contextual or local.

It is the hope of all contributors that this work would help each reader to gain insight on one of the most challenging topics— understanding and responding to grief, suffering, and loss in the Christian life. Further, it is hoped that this book will inspire others to take up the mantle to study, reflect on, and produce theological insights drawn from God’s revelation through the lens of the Filipino experience.