Theology in Language, Rhetoric, and Beyond

This book seeks to place before a broad audience of students and general readers theological essays on both the Old and New Testaments. Theology is seen to derive from a number of sources: the biblical language, biblical rhetoric and composition, academic disciplines other than philosophy, and above all a careful exegesis of the biblical text. The essay on Psalm 23 makes use of anthropology and human-development theory; the essay on Deuteronomy incorporates Wisdom themes; the essay called "Jeremiah and the Created Order" looks at ideas not only about God and creation but also about the seldom-considered idea of God and a return to chaos; the essay on the "Confessions of Jeremiah" examines, not words this extraordinary prophet was given by God to preach, but what he himself felt and experienced in the office to which he was called. Other essays argue that theology is rooted in biblical words--in and of themselves, and in context--and in rhetoric, where the latter must also include composition. One essay on "Biblical and Theological Themes" includes a translation into the African language of Lingala.