Translating my thoughts into words.
The Review of Biblical Literature has Jan-Wim Wessellius’ review of Philip S. Alexander’s The Targum of Lamentations: Translated, with a Critical Introduction, Apparatus, and Notes.
Review by Jan-Wim Wesselius
Read the Review
Published 1/24/2009
Citation: Jan-Wim Wesselius, review of Philip S. Alexander, The Targum of Lamentations: Translated, with a Critical Introduction, Apparatus, and Notes, Review of Biblical Literature [http://www.bookreviews.org] (2009).
Ah the quientiscential C of E matron. And this additional note from a friend from Louisiana.
Well, I concur with Mrs. Bemish, but the funniest thing of all is that the Vicar “Ken” is really my classmate Kevin Brown. Apparently someone found his picture on his church’s website and thought he looked like a C of E vicar.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc80G6Yzu04
I am writing the Lamentations volume for the small pamphlets in the Bible Briefs series1 that Stephen Cook is editing. These pamphlets are intended to provide a short and (hopefully) stimulating introduction to the books of the Bible that will encourage the reader to then study the biblical text for themselves and perhaps move on to deeper study of the book in question. So, being 4 months late, I am finally getting around to polishing off my pamphlet on Lamentations. I thought I would share my opening paragraphs for your critique. Remember, the audience is Christian laity who likely do not know the book well (or at all) and the goal is to get them interested in reading on through the 2500 word pamphlet.
The Book of Lamentations is one of the smallest works in the Bible and yet it is one of the most powerful and enigmatic. Written in the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 586 BCE by the Babylonians, Lamentations expresses the grief and disbelief of those who lived through the horror and yet still looked to their God. However it is not just an outpouring of emotion, the Book of Lamentations also contains a profound theological reflection and response to the problem of sin and suffering.
This incredibly thoughtful and thought-provoking work is often overlooked in Christian study and is rarely read in the lectionary cycles, either in the Book of Common Prayer or the Revised Common Lectionary. Perhaps the passage best known to Christians comes from Lam. 3 which is read every Holy Saturday and is the basis of a famous hymn.
Lam. 3.22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.While this passage is a statement of the poet’s firm faith in God’s presence and his mercy it does not serve well as a summary of Lamentations. The final two verses are perhaps a better encapsulation of the tone and temperament of Lamentations.
Lam 5.21 Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored;
renew our days as of old—
22 unless you have utterly rejected us,
and are angry with us beyond measure.The five poems that make up the Book of Lamentations move constantly between the cry of anguish at the condition of Jerusalem and her people, to the fear that God may have finally rejected his people forever, and to the affirmation that the Lord is the one who has allowed this to happen and yet he may still have mercy on them if only they repent. It is perhaps this challenging content with its powerful emotions and accusations against God that have caused this little book to be so often overlooked in Christian tradition.
The emotions expressed within these poems are raw and dramatic. Written most likely by those who witnessed the atrocities recounted; the Book of Lamentations recounts the horrors of war and living in a city under siege and dares to call out to God asking him how, how could God possibly allow such a thing to occur to his people. Wars, hardships, and strife continue to this day and so the example of Lamentations and its nascent message of faith remains relevant to the community of faith today.
At which point we dive into date, authorship, etc. So, what do you think? Engaging enough? Too
I cannot find a whole lot of criticism with the argument presented by Thomas Benton (real name: William Pannapacker of Hope College). It certainly is a very tough job market out there for doctorates in the humanities and I regularly have very frank conversations with my students about whether or not they should go on for a doctorate. If you are fully funded and, in the worst case scenario, are willing to “lose” 5 years of your life then fine. But there are very few guarantees. I have likened it to this: Imagine you want to buy a $100,000 Ferrari. You give Ferrari all that money and then you have to get the car around the track in a certain time. If you don’t make that cut they keep your money and the car. Same thing with the doctorate. You give the university your money and if you don’t complete the dissertation or thesis to their satisfaction they keep the money and the degree.
That does not mean that I think we don’t need more good PhD’s in the humanities out there. But we must be realistic about it. I wasn’t, but things have worked out for me. I guess I was just luckier, or maybe even more talented, than I realized.
Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don’t Go
It’s hard to tell young people that universities view their idealism and energy as an exploitable resource
Nearly six years ago, I wrote a column called “So You Want to Go to Grad School?” (The Chronicle, June 6, 2003). My purpose was to warn undergraduates away from pursuing Ph.D.’s in the humanities by telling them what I had learned about the academic labor system from personal observation and experience.
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Just to be clear: There is work for humanities doctorates (though perhaps not as many as are currently being produced), but there are fewer and fewer real jobs because of conscious policy decisions by colleges and universities. As a result, the handful of real jobs that remain are being pursued by thousands of qualified people — so many that the minority of candidates who get tenure-track positions might as well be considered the winners of a lottery.
Universities (even those with enormous endowments) have historically taken advantage of recessions to bring austerity to teaching. There will be hiring freezes and early retirements. Rather than replacements, more adjuncts will be hired, and more graduate students will be recruited, eventually flooding the market with even more fully qualified teacher-scholars who will work for almost nothing. When the recession ends, the hiring freezes will become permanent, since departments will have demonstrated that they can function with fewer tenured faculty members.
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As things stand, I can only identify a few circumstances under which one might reasonably consider going to graduate school in the humanities:
- You are independently wealthy, and you have no need to earn a living for yourself or provide for anyone else.
- You come from that small class of well-connected people in academe who will be able to find a place for you somewhere.
- You can rely on a partner to provide all of the income and benefits needed by your household.
- You are earning a credential for a position that you already hold — such as a high-school teacher — and your employer is paying for it.
Those are the only people who can safely undertake doctoral education in the humanities. Everyone else who does so is taking an enormous personal risk, the full consequences of which they cannot assess because they do not understand how the academic-labor system works and will not listen to people who try to tell them.
