Hope in the Face of Certain Disaster
Lectionary Date: September 29, 2019 [16th Sunday after Pentecost, Year C]
This week, Rachel and Tim are joined by Dr. Carol Newsom. One of the giants of modern biblical scholarship, Carol recently retired from her post as the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Old Testament at Candler and a senior fellow at Emory’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion. Carol came to Candler in 1980, only the second woman to hold a tenure-track position. In 2005, she became a C.H. Candler Professor, a university-based endowed chair. Her research focuses on the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Wisdom tradition, the book of Daniel, and apocalyptic literature. She has written and edited 13 books and scores of articles, book chapters, translations, encyclopedia articles and reviews. She co-edited the acclaimed Women’s Bible Commentary, which explores the implications of and challenges long-held assumptions about the Bible’s portrayal of women and other marginalized groups. We also recommend her superb commentary on the book of Job, in the New Interpreter’s Bible.
This podcast on Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15. Dr. Carol indicated that Jeremiah was possibly “enacting hope within himself during a siege on Judah by the Babylonians. This resonated deeply with me in that this is probably the state of majority of mankind today. Additionally, never before had I read this text being able to draw out some hope in an inherent state of impending danger. This podcast indeed opened my mind to new and intriguing possibilities within this text.