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A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming. By Walter Brueggemann. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998, xiv + 502 pp., $32.00 paper.
This book is a combined edition of Brueggemann's previously published twovolume commentary on Jeremiah in the International Theological Commentary series (To Pluck Up, To Tear Down, 1988 [reviewed in JETS 34/3 (1991)1; To Build, to Plant, 1991). The volume begins with a newly written brief survey of "Recent Jeremiah Study" in which Brueggemann assesses the redefinition of Jeremiah studies emerging out of the 1986 publication of three major commentaries on Jeremiah by W. Holladay, R. Carroll and W. McKane. It is Brueggemann@s opinion that these three commentaries, while reflecting substantial differences in approach, nevertheless have in common a disproportional intensity of criticism and thinness of interpretation (see his "Jeremiah: Intense Criticism/Thin Interpretation," Int 42 [19881 279). In Brueggemann's view, the book of Jeremiah ultimately "does not belong to the scholarly guild," but rather to the synagogue and the Church, where it has been preserved and read (p. xiii), although as a "public document" Jeremiah cannot be contained within the Church and synagogue because it "purposes to address all who attend and listen" (p. xiv).
Brueggemann is clearly one of today's most prolific and astute writers on matters of hermeneutical, exegetical and theological import for the contemporary reading of OT literature. His writings are both innovative and imaginative. Reading them can be exhilarating and exasperating, enlightening and elusive at the same time. Reading this commentary is no different from many other examples of his writing. It contains a wealth of material for elucidating the underlying theological issues with which Israel was confronted at the...