The Face of God on the Jeremiah’s Epistle

essay of a Negative Theology in Bar 6

Abstract

The Epistle of Jeremiah (Br 6) contains a critique of idolatry, typical of the Hebrew mentality. The gods are mocked for their inertia and inability to act to help those who invoke them. In this article, the aim is to start from what the gods do not have and try to highlight the characteristics of Israel’s God. This is called negative theology. Thus, it can be made a kind of “creed” containing what is characteristic of Israel and its God. The God of the people reveals himself with a name, “Lord”, and the theology that is linked to him is that of the Exodus, the God who frees his people from slavery and leads them to the promised land. Before Him all prostrate themselves, from the first and most important sovereigns to the last of the earth. His dominion extends from heaven to earth, as God regulates the cycles humanity depends on for survival and establishes rulers who act by divine mandate.