Proclamation from grief and carnage: A homiletical conversation with Nick Cave

In 2015 Australian singer and songwriter, Nick Cave lost his 15-year-old son Arthur in a tragic accident. Last year, together with Irish journalist, Seán O’Hagan, he published Faith, Hope and Carnage, in which this journey of pain and grief is explored in a series of conversations. In this paper, I will use this book and Nick Cave’s insights as a starting point for a homiletical conversation about both the revelatory and transformative power of grief. The aim is to interrogate Nick Cave’s insights as an artist and how this artistic or creative disposition could help the preacher in understanding grief at a time when the dark presence of death and sorrow is again shaping the concerns of many in the pews.