It has long been noted that the book of Lamentations shares, at least in part, a theological outlook with the prophetic literature that the destruction of Jerusalem was the result of Yahweh's decisive action against the sins of the nation. Too often, however, this relationship has simply been presupposed, or assumed to be a relationship of shared perspective. To date, there has been no systematic exploration of how it is that Lamentations accepts and/or modifies the theological outlook of the prophetic literature. In addition, when the theology of the prophets has been discussed in relation to Lamentations, there has been a tendency to group all the prophetic books together as if they existed as a homogeneous whole and shared a singular outlook. This tendency to simplify the theological complexity of the prophetic literature coincides with a similar tendency to reduce the theology of Lamentations to simple, monotheistic assertions.
Drawing on the literary insights of Mikhail Bakhtin, Boase’s The Fulfilment of Doom? aims to explore in detail the nature of the relationship between Lamentations and the pre-exilic/exilic prophetic literature. Drawing on the notions of dialogism, polyphony and double-voicing, her fascinating work argues that Lamentations enters into a dialogic relationship with prophetic literature, a relationship that both affirms and subverts that literature. Central to the acknowledgement of the dialogic interaction between Lamentations and the prophetic literature is the recognition of Lamentations as a multivalent, polyphonic text in which unmerged viewpoints exist in a tension-filled relationship.
Essential for scholars of prophetic literature, Lamentations, and the interactions between them, this absorbing book is thoroughly researched and heavily resourced. Easily searchable using Logos Bible Software, Scripture passages appear on mouse-over and you can double-click any word—in any language—and your preferred lexicons open to the exact entry you are looking for.
