"The Theology of Jeremiah" by John Goldingay. A Review.

 

The Theology of Jeremiah: The Book, the Man, and the Message

John Goldingay

IVP Academic

ivpress.com

ISBN: 978-0-8308-5527-8; January 20201; $22.00

 

Truly a man of sorrows that Jeremiah. And it just so happened that in my daily devotional reading while I was studying this biblical prophet, out comes a new 160-page paperback by John Goldingay, professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, titled, “The Theology of Jeremiah: The Book, the Man, and the Message”.  I was delighted to delve into Goldingay’s work while reading through Jeremiah. The volume’s arrival was as timely as can be, and very accessible. This is a volume I will refer back to throughout the years.

 

The manuscript is not a commentary, in the typical sense, but it has a lot to say about the book, the man, and the message! Goldingay breaks his work down into two sections. The first takes the 20,000-foot view, perusing who Jeremiah was, what he did, the connections between the word of Yahweh and the words of the prophet, his prayers and protests, disappointments serving the people and dismissal by the population. The author works through the earlier themes of Jeremiah in chapters 1-25, and then the latter matters in 26-52. He softly, but steadily, shows how “Jeremiah was more successful after his death than during his life” (11). Not only did I appreciate Goldingay’s emphasis on the authenticity of the book of Jeremiah and the legitimacy of the manuscript we have today, but I also found heartening the author’s stress on the prophet’s enduring value. “It would be easy to imagine Jeremiah thinking that his life and ministry had been pointless. He had been a failure. But the very fact that we are reading the Jeremiah scroll now shows that it wasn’t. You have no idea what God will do with your life or how God will bless people through you without your knowing it” (17).

 

The second part of the book comes down to the tree-top level, takes on the theology of Jeremiah. This was a most intriguing section. Here Goldingay works out the various aspects of how Jeremiah describes God; who the people of God are, what they were supposed to be, and what this means for Christians; what was wrong, and the types of wrong done; what it means to be a prophet of Yahweh compared to the prophets of shalom; and lastly, the future both the near and the far. The section on the wrath of God, on pages 127-129, felt unsatisfying – something like a strange meeting between Marcus Dodds (God’s wrath is impersonal) and J.I.Packer (God’s wrath is personal). But after the author develops these topics from Jeremiah, he ends each chapter with what it all means in Christian theology. While working through this section, a reader will be alerted to Jeremiah’s premises and perspectives and will be better able to see them when they surface, and how they’re developed.

 

Of the many subjects Goldingay addresses that I found useful, the primary one was the prophet’s role. The author weaves into several sections over the volume what a biblical prophet really was and did, the actions that distinguished them from the “other” prophets, and how perilous it was for one to be a genuine prophet of Yahweh. I didn’t agree with every part of his description, such as who was in Yahweh’s celestial cabinet and how these entities might change Yahweh’s plans. But in an age when one hears the mantra “We need to be prophetic” and when one has run across men and women who call themselves “prophets of God” I found the author’s explanations (which seemed to me to cloak subtle warnings) extremely meaningful. Most think it is glorious power and potency to be a prophet. But Goldingay shows how being a real prophet, to be prophetic, is to invite long-term stress, failure, ridicule, incarceration, abuse, rejection, infamy, and downright life-threatening danger.

 

“The Theology of Jeremiah” is a scholarly work, and yet readable by most anyone. It will enhance your appreciation for the prophet and be a beneficial aid to one’s studies in the biblical book. Seminary professors should add this to their reading list for classes on Christian ministry, or the Old Testament Prophets. Pastors need to take up a copy and pour over its contents, especially as they consider preacher and teaching on this prophetic work. Christians, older and younger, will find it a valuable resource for their own biblical knowledge. With my concerns noted above, I gladly recommend the work.

 

My thanks to IVP Academic for sending the book, on my request, used for this review. As always, they never made any stipulations on me, other than that I present my own analysis. Therefore, the evaluation given heretofore is my own, provided without my being under any duress.