In God's Hands is the 2015 Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book. It is a meditation on the infinite love of God and the infinite value of the human individual. Not only are we in God's hands, says Desmond Tutu, our names are engraved on the palms of God's hands. Throughout an often turbulent life, Archbishop Tutu has fought for justice and against oppression and prejudice. As we learn in this book, what has driven him forward is an unshakeable belief that human beings are created in the image of God and are infinitely valuable. Each one of us is a God-carrier, a tabernacle, a sanctuary of the Divine Trinity. God loves us not because we are loveable but because he first loved us. And this turns our values upside down. In this sense, the Gospel is the most radical thing imaginable. It is extremely moving that in this book Archbishop Tutu returns to something so simple and so profound after a life in which he has been involved in political, social, and ethical issues that have seemed to be so very complex.

デズモンド・ツツが到達した境地は、破壊的なまでにラディカルです。長年、正義を求めて闘い続けてきた彼が、複雑な政治的闘争の果てに見出したのは、全人類が「神の似姿」であるという驚くほどシンプルな真理でした。我々が愛されるべき存在だから愛されるのではなく、ただ神が先に愛したからこそ価値がある。この価値観の逆転こそが、本書の文学的思想の中核です。 「神の手のひらに名前が刻まれている」という静謐な隠喩は、個の尊厳が揺らぐ現代において強烈な救いとして響きます。一人を「神を宿す聖域」と捉え直す彼の筆致は、普遍的な人間賛歌へと昇華されています。激動を越えた著者が晩年に辿り着いたこの「極限の愛」の記録は、魂を揺さぶり、生きる希望を再定義させてくれるでしょう。