Jeremiah: Pain and Promise
Whether dealing with collective catastrophe or intimate trauma, recovering from emotional and physical hurt is hard. Kathleen O'Connor shows that although Jeremiah's emotionally wrought language can aggravate readers' memories of pain, it also documents the ways an ancient community-and the prophet personally-sought to restore their collapsed social world. Both prophet and book provide a traumatized community language to articulate disaster; move self-understanding from delusional security to identity as survivors; constitute individuals as responsible moral agents; portray God as equally afflicted by disaster; and invite a reconstruction of reality.
- Publisher Fortress Press
- Format Paperback
- ISBN 9780800699307
- eBook ISBN 9781451412291
- Dimensions 6 x 9
- Pages 192
- Publication Date September 1, 2011
Endorsements
"A deeply moving and lyrical performance by one of today's leading biblical scholars. Kathleen M. O'Connor's thoroughly original interpretation of the book of Jeremiah is a 'must-read' for all who have been wounded by violence and loss."
—Louis Stulman
Professor of Religion
University of Findlay, Findlay, OH
"This beautifully written book is unflinchingly honest about ways in which ancient Judean responses to the Babylonian onslaught shaped the Jeremiah traditions. Drawing on trauma and disaster studies, O'Connor illumines ways in which the book of Jeremiah intervenes as a source of cultural resilience through its performance of memories of violence and healing storytelling, its fracturing and renewing of language, and its portrayal of the prophet as iconic sufferer. Jeremiah: Pain and Promise will be essential for biblical scholars, preachers, and pastoral care providers."
—Carolyn J. Sharp
Associate Professor of Hebrew Scriptures
Yale Divinity School
—Louis Stulman
Professor of Religion
University of Findlay, Findlay, OH
"This beautifully written book is unflinchingly honest about ways in which ancient Judean responses to the Babylonian onslaught shaped the Jeremiah traditions. Drawing on trauma and disaster studies, O'Connor illumines ways in which the book of Jeremiah intervenes as a source of cultural resilience through its performance of memories of violence and healing storytelling, its fracturing and renewing of language, and its portrayal of the prophet as iconic sufferer. Jeremiah: Pain and Promise will be essential for biblical scholars, preachers, and pastoral care providers."
—Carolyn J. Sharp
Associate Professor of Hebrew Scriptures
Yale Divinity School
Reviews
Review in Review of Biblical Literature
Review in Word & World
Review in The Theological Book Review
Review in Word & World
Review in The Theological Book Review