Lamentations commentary is now available

I have not seen a copy yet but I have noticed that the Eerdmans website is listing my Lamentations commentary as "in stock" so you can now buy it in the USA and will soon be able to buy it in the UK.

I think I may post a few little bits from it as "tasters" but, for now, I will simply put the front cover up again.

Here is the blurb I wrote (not sure what the actual blurb says):

How can Lamentations function as Christian scripture?

Traditional scholarly commentaries aspire to open up biblical texts in the light of their ancient social and cultural contexts. Parry’s commentary seeks to take the insights of such works seriously but to move far beyond them by considering Lamentations within ever-expanding canonical and contemporary contexts. How do the words of Lamentations resonate when read in the context of Jeremiah? of Isaiah 40-55? of the New Testament? of the Rule of Faith? of the history of Christian anti-Semitism? and of the sufferings of victims today?

The question at the heart of this unusual engagement with the text is, “How can Lamentations function as Christian scripture?” Parry argues that the key to answering this question is to follow the ancient liturgical tradition of the Church and to see the text in the light of the death and resurrection of Israel’s Messiah—Jesus. Lamentations, he argues, is Israel’s Holy Saturday literature—the cries of those caught between the death of Jerusalem and its resurrection. As such Christians are able to make connections between this anguished Israelite poetry, the sufferings of Jesus, and the sufferings of the world. These biblical-theological links have the potential to open up fresh and imaginative theological, doxological, and pastoral encounters with a sadly neglected biblical book.