For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional
by Hanna Reichel
Who should read this?
This is one of those rare books that really is for everyone struggling to affirm their faith in a time of division, suspicion, hate and turmoil. Hanna Reichel uses as the format of this book the liturgical order of the Eucharist: gathering, listening and responding, communion, sending. In each of these sections we are confronted with what the Gospel says to our time. And we receive clear, strong counsel on how to stand up for God’s way/kingdom and how to enact this.
How does the author carry it off?
Reichel continually places the reader in dialogue—with the scriptures, with voices such as Martin Luther, Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Etty Hillesum, the Barmen Declaration of the Confessing Church in Nazi Germany and related confessional statements, and Viktor Frankl, among others. Reichel’s voice is constantly with us, not just as theologian but as pastor. (Reichel is a pastor in The Presbyterian Church in the USA.) This is not just a commentary on the current profound troubles, but much like Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s now famous sermon before the President in the National Cathedral (cited in the book) an authentic encounter of Christ and his teachings with the violence and threats flying around us. It is very much a prayer book for our time.
Why does it matter?
Hanna Reichel does not attempt to exhaustively explain how authoritarians and warmongers emerged so powerfully, how racism and contempt for neighbors spread so rapidly, how demonizing of those who disagree with you and hatred of immigrants became attitudes of pride. Reichel’s scholarly specialization is the response of theologians, pastors and people to the Third Reich from the 1930s on. Reichel abruptly reminds us that regimes and their “worlds” have ended many times before in history, that the unthinkable of past atrocity reappearing is taking place. Yet there is calm and confidence in the proclaiming of the kingdom and Christ’s good news by Reichel.
Why is this book significant / important?|
While Timothy Snyder, Anne Applebaum and Heather Cox Richardson are providing us with probing commentary and analysis of our turmoil today, Hanna Reichel is singular in presenting how faith responds to hate and threat, and in a way that is most accessible.
Why is this book useful / practical?
The author provides several very helpful tools in addition to the essential text of reflections. There is “First Aid Kit,” a list of specific needs like encouragement, grounding in what is good, feeling overwhelmed, powerless, insufficient, impatient or wanting spiritual practices to adopt, particular text references are given. The Study Guide offers questions for discussion, further resources as well as practical applications, actions that readers can take.
What intrigued me (the reviewer) the most?
Hanna Reichel’s ability to address the reader with care and clarity, and marvelous simplicity.
What will you (the reader) like the most?
The sense of confidence that a teacher and pastor and I would emphasize, a person of prayer can convey when words and events around us are like stinging hail.
What will most inspire you (the reader)?
The courageous confrontation of hate, domination, threat with the power of Christ’s good news.
Hanna Reichel. For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional. Eerdmans, 2025. 192 pages
Reviewer: The Rev. Michael Plekon, PhD, Emeritus Professor, The City University of New York, Baruch College, priest in the Episcopal Church, most recently author of Community as Church, Church as Community and Ministry Matters, Cascade/Wipf & Stock, 2021, 2024.