To Pluck Up To Tear Down

Jeremiah's poignant lament over Judah's social and religious disintegration reflects God's own pathos-laden yearning for his disobedient covenant people. In this expository commentary, Walter Brueggemann explores the historical setting and message of Jeremiah as well as the text's relevance for the church today. Offering a fresh look at critical theological issues in the Jeremiah tradition, Brueggemann argues that Jeremiah's voice compels us to rediscern our own situation, issuing an urgent invitation to faith, obedience, justice, and compassion. - Back cover.

Jeremiah's poignant lament over Judah's social and religious disintegration reflects God's own pathos-laden yearning for his disobedient covenant people. In this expository commentary, Walter Brueggemann explores the historical setting and message of Jeremiah as well as the text's relevance for the church today. Offering a fresh look at critical theological issues in the Jeremiah tradition, Brueggemann argues that Jeremiah's voice compels us to rediscern our own situation, issuing an urgent invitation to faith, obedience, justice, and compassion. - Back cover.

Jeremiah's poignant lament over Judah's social and religious disintegration reflects God's own pathos-laden yearning for his disobedient covenant people. In this widely praised expository commentary Walter Brueggemann, one of the premier Old Testament scholars of our time, explores the historical setting and message of Jeremiah as well as the text's relevance for the church today. Offering a fresh look at the critical theological issues in the Jeremiah tradition, Brueggemann argues that Jeremiah's voice compels us to rediscern our own situation, issuing an urgent invitation to faith, obedience, justice, and compassion. This combined edition of Brueggemann's original two-volume work, published until recently as part of the International Theological Commentary series, is an essential resource for students, pastors, and general readers alike. It is reprinted here with a new introduction by Brueggemann that surveys the current state of Jeremiah studies.

This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains a complete record of the twelve messages given as a webcast from Anaheim, California, for the June 2020 semiannual training on the crystallization-study of Jeremiah and Lamentations. The key statements in the following section embody and summarize the crucial truths and main burdens in these twelve messages. The Reports and Announcements section contains “A Mass Distri­bution Update: How to Preach the Gospel in a Time of Pandemic.” Also included is information concerning upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.

"The prophet Jeremiah declared the word of the Lord at a critical time in the history of ancient Israel. In this first volume of a two-part commentary on Jeremiah, John Bracke provides a powerful interpretation of the prophet's message to a nation that refused to listen to the call to repent and to renew covenant living in obedience to God's commandments." "Bracke considers Jeremiah's words to Israel relevant to the church today, a warning against trusting in deceptive words and against clinging to comfortable ways in the false belief that it does not risk judgment. He encourages us to read the book of Jeremiah and apply its lessons to our own lives." --Book Jacket.

In Part Two of his commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations, John Bracke provides a powerful interpretation of the prophet's message to a nation refusing to repent and obey God and points beyond exile and suffering to God's restoration of the people and renewal of the covenant. Books in the Westminster Bible Companion series assist laity in their study of the Bible as a guide to Christian faith and practice. Each volume explains the biblical book in its original historical context and explores its significance for faithful living today. These books are ideal for individual study and for Bible study classes and groups.

Tenacious Solidarity features essays and new writings from 2014 to 2018. As all of Walter Brueggemann's writing is, the chapters are deeply biblical while also concerned with the identities, practices, and obligations of religious communities in contemporary contexts within the United States. Brueggemann consistently attempts to weave the biblical texts--vested as they are with the authority of a storyteller--into the deep contours of his readers' experiences, in order to foster a tenacious solidarity that might overcome both the psychic numbness cultivated by a 24-hour news cycle as well as the anxious possessiveness nurtured by so many privatized spiritualities. Brueggemann brings the "transformative potential" of the biblical texts to bear on critical contemporary contexts, including but not limited to economic disparities, racial injustice and white supremacy, climate and care for creation, and the power of memory and mentoring. He delves deeply in the Psalms, which he says, "provides a foundational script for living into the fullest and deepest realities of human existence." And he draws from the Prophets his foundational concept of totalism, which he defines as "automated fragmentation of social life such that we habitually and callously disregard our relations with others."