Poetic Pathos: the Suffering of God in the Laments of Jeremiah

Modes and meanings in the study of theology have been a source of endless conflict for scholars and religious communities alike, but the theological work of describing the character of God has also been a source of comfort and reassurance, particularly in times of trauma and upheaval. Especially well-worn in these contexts is discourse on theodicy: the exoneration of God’s action (or lack thereof) in the face of human suffering. A related discourse that has received less attention is divine impassibility: can God be said to suffer alongside humanity? Readers ancient and modern have used the texts of the Hebrew Bible—both in its composition and its reception—for answers to the question, “Who is God?” more broadly and to answer questions of theodicy and divine impassibility more specifically. This project looks at the lament poetry of the book of Jeremiah to consider how the authors and redactors of these sections of Jeremiah portrayed God through their portrayal of the character of Jeremiah. It looks at the literary forms of the text as a vehicle for theological meaning. To describe the theology(s) of a biblical text, however, is a complex task; towards that end, this project works towards a “dialogical biblical theology,” to use Benjamin Sommer’s term. A dialogical biblical theology reads the biblical text alongside its interpreters, Christian and Jewish in this case, and seeks to understand the afterlife of the text as an illuminating and important feature in teasing out the theological meaning of the text. This project considers rabbinic sources (ch. 3) and Christian theological traditions (ch. 4) as a means of revealing potential theological meanings within the biblical text that are not readily apparent in a surface reading. Chapter 5 turns to a discussion of genre: how is lament poetry uniquely suited as a medium for this type of theological discourse? Overall, this dissertation offers the close reading of a selection of texts to demonstrate how theological meaning can be conveyed through the genre of lament poetry, and offer a case study in a biblical theology that takes seriously the afterlife of the biblical text and its interpretive traditions as a means of uncovering meaning within the biblical text itself. This is done against the backdrop of how humans through history have sought solace in discussions of theodicy and divine impassibility through their readings of texts: how can we understand the character of God in a way that allows us to make sense of human suffering.