Even though it was written and released with our current moment in mind, we always believed Christ and Calamity would become a lasting balm for believers. Speaking pastorally to our suffering and uncertainty during a global pandemic has the same foundations in faith, no matter what calamities — big or small — we may face. Gene Edward Veith called it “an instant classic,” and Derek Rishmawy said “Harold Senkbeil has given us a timeless book.”
Yesterday, Christianity Today announced their 2021 Book Award winners. Christ and Calamity won an Award of Merit for the Beautiful Orthodoxy Book of the Year.
This book is timely, given the realities of COVID-19, but it emphasizes that calamity visits us all on many different occasions and in many different guises. With short chapters, each focusing on one section of Scripture, in some ways it resembles a classic Puritan devotional. Christ is very much front and center. And hope is embedded in each chapter, but without it feeling like a magic wand to wave suffering away. This is a superb book that will pass the sniff test for anyone truly in pain.
—Stephen McAlpine, lead pastor, Providence Church Midland (Western Australia)
Harold Senkbeil also won a 2020 Christianity Today Book Award for The Care of Souls.
