Not Being Content with God: Contestation and Contradiction in Communities under Duress
Drawing on recent insights from trauma hermeneutics, this article sets out to investigate the sharply divergent divine metaphors used by Jeremiah while being in prison (Jer 20). In this text, one finds Jere-miah saying in so many words that he hates God; that God had vio-lated him (Jer 20:7). Howeve...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
SA ePublications
[2017]
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| In: |
Old Testament essays
Year: 2017, Volume: 30, Issue: 3, Pages: 609-629 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Jeremiah Prophet ca. 600 BC
/ Apartheid
/ God
/ Language
/ Theophany
/ Jews
/ Hermeneutics
/ Bible. Jeremia 20
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| IxTheo Classification: | AE Psychology of religion FD Contextual theology HB Old Testament NBC Doctrine of God |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | Drawing on recent insights from trauma hermeneutics, this article sets out to investigate the sharply divergent divine metaphors used by Jeremiah while being in prison (Jer 20). In this text, one finds Jere-miah saying in so many words that he hates God; that God had vio-lated him (Jer 20:7). However, in the same breath, he also confesses God to be the Liberator-Warrior God who delivers the needy from the hands of evildoers (Jer 20:11, 13). These divine metaphors that are rooted in contestation and contradiction reflect the deep-seated paradox of faith experienced by the prophet that quite likely also manifested in the people during the time of the Babylonian invasion and exile. In addition, this article explores the dramatic (re)descrip-tions of God in Jer 20 that supplement and challenge the more tradi-tional ways of speaking about God with equally contentious and con-tradictory images for God that emerged in communities experiencing severe trauma such as during the Holocaust as well as the forced removals during the Apartheid era in South Africa. I propose that new images for God that are marked by contradiction serve as a vital means to challenge traditional, often simplistic understandings of God in the name of God that is essential if God is going to survive together with the people. |
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| ISSN: | 2312-3621 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Old Testament essays
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.17159/2312-3621/2017/v30n3a5 HDL: 10520/EJC-da569765c |