Jeremiah: Pain and Promise

Kathleen O'Connor has spent her career studying the the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations. Her studies have focussed upon the meaning of these books for the people who lived through the times surrounding the fall of Judah and for us today. A recurrent theme in her studies is the problem of human suffering and our relationship to an all loving God.This most recent monograph, Jeremiah: Pain and Promise is a pinnacle of her ground-breaking work. In it she explores the problem of grief and suffering in a dialectical manner, that of man standing before God, and finds not only meaning, but expression, hope and recovery for those who suffer such unspeakable horror. Noting that Jeremiah has historically been a difficult and disjointed book, Dr. O'Connor shows how its lack of structure reflects the fragmented and dissociated lives that follow disasters of great proportion. Noting that victims of horrible trauma experience events that defy expression in words, she shows how Jeremiah's Laments give voice to the suffering and provide a space in which an individual or community can express it's grief and pain. Part of the dialectical problem of such disasters is resolving the mutual responsibility of God and mankind in the wake of events that seem to create only victims that are lost. The contrast between the complaints of Jeremiah, his sermons, and the historical reality that other's invaded and committed atrocities upon Judah create a tension within the narrative that reflects the tension in the lives of survivors. While this tension is never clearly resolved within the text it reflects the real situation wherein all parties share in responsibility, work of recovery, restoration of life, order and relationship to God and each other. Jeremiah also weeps. He weeps for those who are too numb and stunned to weep. He shows us that is fitting and proper to weep. His words give visceral expression to that weeping. The harsh and often obscene violent language (such as rape) to describe the injury, pain and suffering is shocking but in its extreme give voice to the voiceless wails often barely audible yet lifted up to God in roar. In this analysis of Jeremiah we find a true physical, emotional and spiritual image of what diaster does to individuals, societies and relationships. By giving voice to all aspects of this shattering of our tentative lives, Jeremiah provides the framework for the Scriptural process of grief, lament, anger, contrition, petition and eventually recovery. Jeremiah does not give us an easy solution but a very realistic and painful one. Yet Jeremiah offers us hope. It takes its most succinct form in the Book of Consolation but in toto by anchoring all in our God who loves us and who we need to return to. Yes even victims heal by repentance, if not for any proximate sins that led to their disaster, but as the way towards redemption. The path may lead through a long desert but we shall not walk it alone. The survivors, the children, who seek the Lord's face will find healing and life. Dr. O'Connor's work will endure as not only a valuable theological analysis but one of tender insight and discovery of God's true word for the suffering. It will be of great value for theologians, teachers, ministers and those of us who work with disaster victims, war survivors and victims of disease, trauma, domestic violence and rape. It gives us voice to comfort the suffering by pointing to God's Word for the sufferer. It is a message that eventually gives hope by pointing to the joy of the Gospel and to where all must turn for the one thing needful. Although inspired by secular studies of suffering and disaster, as well as the horrid multiple disasters of the past and current century, Dr. O'Connor does not read secular concerns into the text, change the text to suit her thesis or avoid the mysteries and difficulties of the text. Rather she lets the text speak with its sensitivity and love and find's within the text that God's message for us is as fresh today as it was 2600 years ago. The text stands as it is.

Kathleen O'Connor makes a case for Jeremiah being written as a response to the devastation and trauma of the Exile. This is not a commentary, but it does offer understanding that may help in reading a commentary, since few commentators are able to make much sense of the text's structure.O'Connor's points are generally well-made, but there are some weaknesses. First, while she argues that the violent and sexist images were meaningful to the intended audience, giving voice to their experience, she also calls on modern readers to "condemn" these passages for supporting violence, and sexual violence against women, in the modern world. First, do we as Christians get to condemn the word of God, or does it challenge us to seek deeper meaning and understanding of God's character? Second, she doesn't get to have it both ways, and I believe she's right on the first point. That these images offend us is perhaps testament to our generally-sheltered lives in a world in which far to many still can relate to such horrible images. They spoke to the victims of the Exile. I suspect they would also speak to the people of Cambodia, the Congo, Rwanda, El Salvador, and indigenous peoples around the world. Her assumption that these expressions somehow support rather than mirror violence (and particularly sexual violence) contradicts her thesis.This highlights the second shortcoming: she seems to forget that she is explaining a document written by and for a people with almost three millennia of disaster and trauma to a people that, on the whole, has had very little. If you can afford to buy this book, the odds are that you have not experienced the destruction of your nation and culture. Many of us have experienced personal or localized trauma, and Jeremiah can also be healing for us if we approach it as O'Connor suggests. But I think if she recognizes the magnitude of the trauma that spawned this book, she fails to grasp the gulf that stands between their experience and ours.

This book was assigned to me for a seminary class, and it was one of my favorite books of the year. I'm not a history buff, but it is written in a way to really allowed me to understand for the first time what was happening during the time of Jeremiah. I wish all history was taught with this level of passion and clarity!

A brilliant, if somewhat repetitive, examination of Jeremiah and the prophet's assistance to those who have experienced trauma. The motif of the weeping God is shared with JJM Roberts and runs beautifully counter to the "God is in control"simplicity of much modern religion.

Interesting book for me studying Jeremiah in class. This book caught the essence of the Biblical Jeremiah namely the integration of the harsh judgments and the redemptive passages.

Insightful look at the book of Jeremiah through the lens of trauma. Deep yet accessible. Worth the read!!

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An excellent book, useful for the scholar and the interested which looks at Jeremiah, a complex Biblical book from the perspective of trauma studies to make sense of the text

O'Connor me ha gustado desde hace mucho tiempo. Me parece que su trabajo ha sido muy valioso, especialmente en la literatura relacionada con Jeremías. Su tesis, que versó sobre las confesiones de Jeremías, su comentario sobre Lamentaciones en New Interpreter's Bible y su libro Lamentations and the Tears of the World que leí (y medio traduje al español) hace algún tiempo. Kathleen O'Connor, pues, es una mujer que me ha ayudado a entender un libro tan desconocido como es Lamentaciones y el dolor del profeta Jeremías.En este libro en particular ella nos introduce (a lo menos a mí) a la literatura de traumas muy fuertes. Todos (particularmente los pastores) necesitamos esa clase de ayuda.