Prophecy as Hope: Interpreting the Silence of Holy Saturday

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Abstract

In this paper I reflect on the theological relationship between silence and words, between futility and faith, and I do so in the context of prophecy as hope. I engage with the Book of Jeremiah to ask how the reversals and seeming contradictions in prophetic utterances of desolation and redemption break open the trauma of the present and orientate it towards the future through the invocation of hope. I hold in creative tension the Wittgensteinian paradox that whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent, and the impulse (which is always a theological impulse) to speak against the void in order to arrive at that of which one cannot speak. We must constantly push against the limits of language in order to recognise its creative possibilities and its defeats.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProphetic Witness and the Literary Reimagining of the World
Subtitle of host publicationPoetry, Theology and Philosophy
EditorsHilary Davies
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherRoutledge, Taylor & Francis Group
Volume5
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 2020

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