Theology in Language, Rhetoric, and Beyond

Essays by the respected biblical scholar Jack R. Lundbom, united by the theme that theology is not merely a philosophical practice.


Theology in Language, Rhetoric, and Beyond places 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; and the essay on the “Confessions of Jeremiah” examines, not the words that this extraordinary prophet was given by God to preach, but what he himself felt and experienced in the office to which he was called. One essay on “Biblical and Theological themes” includes a translation into the African language of Lingala, which weaves together the story of early Christianity with the more recent founding of churches in Africa and Asia.

Jack R. Lundbom argues eloquently through these essays that theology is rooted in biblical words, in themselves, in rhetoric and their different contexts.

Jack R. Lundbom is currently Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois. He is author of 'Jeremiah: A Study in Ancient Hebrew Rhetoric' (1975; 1997), a three-volume 'Jeremiah' in the Anchor Bible Commentary series (1999; 2004), and a 'Deuteronomy commentary' (2013).