The Theology of the Book of Jeremiah (Old Testament Theology)

I really enjoyed Brueggemann's book and highly recommend it to anyone who wants an overview of Jeremiah and a snapshot of how recent scholarship has shifted in viewing this book. While shaped, Dhum's three literary sources (voices) are still accepted. For Brueggemann three traditions ("rootage") are most significant, the covenant at Sinai (Sinai pericope), Hosea (the Northern emphasis), and Deuteronomy (the later shaping of all). These are referenced through out this book. Recent overemphasis on prophetic literature and its late scribal development often creates a bit of despair when approaching Jeremiah. Bruggemann, unlike a number of current scholars, holds to a real Jeremiah but admits that very little can be known about him leaving a subjective guess through filtered readings of the book. The work is concise but comprehensive in its discussion of Jeremiah's message. There is greater emphasis on tensions about how God is viewed than Israel's (Jeremiah's) understanding of the nature and person of God. In this Brueggeman tends to follow his own emphasis on the tension between continuity and discontinuity. Evident also is the author's emphasis upon verbs, especially the six infinitives of 1:10. Brueggemann struggles to fully explain how opposing ideas and concepts survived later redactional work and community (re)composition. Areas like the royal perspective or Jeremiah's position as a trader in view of the preserved view of him as a great prophet of God are examples of such difficulties. The work is helpful in that is combines essential points of many of the author's earlier writings. Discussion about the centrality of Jeremiah for the whole Bible and a section on Jeremiah and the New Testament are found toward the end. With Brueggeman's extensive work on Jeremiah I would recommend this book to any student of Jeremiah.