Hurting Yet Whole - by Liuan Huska (Paperback)

About the Book

What is healing when our bodies suffer chronic illness? As Liuan Huska went through years of chronic pain, she questioned how the Christian story speaks to our experiences of pain and illness. Countering a gnosticism that pits body against spirit, Huska helps us redefine what it means to find healing and wholeness, even in the midst of ongoing pain.

Book Synopsis

What if the things we most fear about our bodies--our vulnerability to illness and pain--are exactly the places where God meets us most fully?

As Liuan Huska went through years of chronic pain, she wondered why God seemed absent and questioned some of the common assumptions about healing. What do we do when our bodies don't work the way they should? What is healing, when one has a chronic illness? Can we still be whole when our bodies suffer?

The Christian story speaks to our experiences of pain and illness. In the embodiment of Jesus' life, we see an embrace of the body and all of the discomfort and sufferings of being human. Countering a Gnosticism that pits body against spirit, Huska takes us on a journey of exploring how healing is not an escape from the limits of the body, but becoming whole as souls in bodies and bodies with souls. As chronic pain forces us to pay attention to our bodies' vulnerability, we come to embrace the fullness of our broken yet beautiful bodies. She helps us redefine what it means to find healing and wholeness even in the midst of ongoing pain.

Review Quotes

"Hurting Yet Whole is a welcome addition to the literature about living with chronic illness. Liuan Huska weaves her personal experience with theological insight in an accessible and compelling way. This would be a deeply helpful resource for people just beginning to grapple with the reality of chronic illness in their own lives, and anyone desiring to respond to the limits, pains, and contingencies of their own physical body with less enmity and more tenderness."

--Bethany McKinney Fox, director of student success and adjunct professor of Christian ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary, author of Disability and the Way of Jesus

"Hurting Yet Whole speaks to an issue every Christian--every person--faces: How do we live well in bodies that don't always work 'right'? Every human on the planet has, or will, experience the 'malfunctioning' of our own bodies. But is this only about loss? Can we only think of this in terms of what is wrong? How have those who have gone before us, and members of diverse cultures, thought about and experienced these same phenomena? In the vein of Malcolm Gladwell or Andy Crouch, Liuan Huska has made accessible sophisticated research from areas such as anthropology, biology, psychology, and theology, together with narratives of her own and others, to offer this gift of a book. If you have a body or know someone who does, this book is for you."

--Brian M. Howell, professor of anthropology at Wheaton College

"I have a chronic illness that was misdiagnosed for decades. Countless doctor visits and a fleet of alternative remedies not only brought no real relief but added to the shame, pain, confusion, isolation, and sense of failure I often felt during those years. What I needed most was a companion like Liuan Huska--someone who had not only walked a similar difficult journey but had done the emotional, theological, and medical work that could bring wisdom and insight to the questions that arise around chronic illness. Hurting Yet Whole is a book brimming with honesty about the nature of what it is to be an embodied human being made in the image of God. There are no quick fixes or simple formulas in this beautiful book, but there is something of much greater value in its pages for patients, caregivers, pastors, and anyone who loves someone facing an ongoing illness: compassion."

--Michelle Van Loon, author of Becoming Sage: Cultivating Maturity, Purpose, and Spirituality in Midlife

"Liuan Huska has woven her own story of chronic pain together with theological critique and insight in a way that is both easily accessible and deeply thoughtful. This book is not just a hopeful and honest guide for people suffering from physical ailments. It is also a companion into the pain of a fragmented and disconnected world that longs to be made whole. Hurting Yet Whole invites all of us to understand pain differently than our culture--and the church--has taught us, so that we can find a different type of healing and wholeness."

--Amy Julia Becker, author of White Picket Fences: Turning toward Love in a World Divided by Privilege

"There's a lot of bad theology on suffering to suffer through. Liuan Huska's Hurting Yet Whole does the hard work of sifting through the mire and offering us a finer answer to the eternal question, How do I live in my body now?"

--Erin S. Lane, author of Lessons in Belonging from a Church-Going Commitment Phobe

About the Author

Liuan Huska is a freelance writer who has written for publications such as Church Health Reader, In Touch Magazine, CT Women, Sojourners, and Hyphen Magazine. She lives in West Chicago, Illinois, with her husband, Matthew, and their children.