Redeeming the Past

Fr. Michael Lapsley ;  Stephen Karakashian

"A uniquely alive, wonderful narrative."--Nadine Gordimer

"This book is a wonderful testament to what the Gospel can make happen."—Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

"Michael's life represents a compelling metaphor . . . a foreigner who came to our country and was transformed. His life is part of the tapestry of the many long journeys and struggles of our people."—Nelson Mandela

"I believe this book will inspire people from all walks of life who struggle to triumph over evil and injustice both individually and collectively."--Danny Glover

"This most amazing memoir of a man who writes he 'has never made a distinction between human liberation and my Christian witness.' . . . With dry, self-deprecating wit, Lapsley treats readers to an emotional, gripping tale of a priest, his prosthetics, and his promise, as St. Teresa of Avila put it, to be Christ's hands in the world."—Publishers’ Weekly

In 1990, Fr. Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest active in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, opened a letter bomb that nearly killed him. Though he survived, the blast took both his hands and one of his eyes. This memoir tells the story of this horrendous event, beginning with the journey that led him there—particularly his rising awareness of the radical demands of the gospel and his growing identification with the freedom struggle. But that was not the end of his inspiring journey. In post-apartheid South Africa, Lapsley saw a whole nation in need of healing. He discovered a new vocation: drawing on his own experience of trauma to promote the healing of others, in South Africa, and ultimately throughout the world.