Date
3-10-2026
Department
Rawlings School of Divinity
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Bible Exposition (PhD)
Chair
Dawn Lewis Sutherland
Keywords
temple-city abandonment motif, divine absence, divine presence, temple destruction theology, exile theology, restoration and return motif, Yahweh’s glory (kābôd), return of glory, Ezekiel 10–11 glory departs, Ezekiel 43 glory returns, Jeremiah temple sermon (Jeremiah 7), Jeremiah New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31–34), Lamentations theology, theology of lament, communal confession, covenant breach, covenant sanctions (Deuteronomy 28–30; Leviticus 26), covenantal faithfulness, ḥesed (steadfast love), Spirit-wrought renewal (rûaḥ), heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36), valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37), temple vision (Ezekiel 40–48), canonical theology, canonical biblical theology, covenant theology, comparative temple theology, ancient Near Eastern comparative studies, ANE temple-city abandonment, ANE divine departure, ANE divine abandonment, Mesopotamian temple theology, deterministic divine decrees, divine caprice in ANE texts, Sumerian City Laments, Sumerian laments, balagĝ laments, balag laments, city laments genre, Lamentation over the Destruction of Ur, Lament for Sumer and Ur, Lament for Nippur, Lament for Eridu, Lament for Uruk, Ur III collapse, fall of Ur (c. 2004 BCE), divine-human relationship in Mesopotamia, mundus inversus, world-turned-upside-down motif, Cosmic Inversus, covenantal reordering, five-stage framework, five-stage motif, destruction–responsibility–abandonment–restoration–return, prophetic indictment, Jeremiah as covenant prosecutor, rejected silver (Jeremiah 6:27–30), temple trust critique, divine judgment and mercy, Yahweh’s return, Christ as true temple, Jesus as temple (naos), Incarnate Temple, tabernacled among us (John 1:14), Johannine temple theology, John 2:19–21 temple of his body, John 4 worship in spirit and truth, Hebrews New Covenant, Hebrews 8–10, Hebrews heavenly sanctuary, once-for-all sacrifice, high priestly ministry, Pentecost and divine presence (Acts 2), Spirit-indwelt people as temple, church as living temple, exilic-yet-indwelt ecclesi
Disciplines
Religion | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion
Recommended Citation
Stewart, Patrick, "From Divine Absence to Eternal Presence: Reframing the Jeremianic Temple-City Abandonment Motif from Its Ancient Near Eastern Roots to Its Fulfillment in Christ as the Ultimate Yahwistic Temple" (2026). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 7984.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/7984
Abstract
This dissertation offers a canonical-theological and comparative study of temple destruction, divine absence, and the logic of return by tracing a five-stage “temple-city abandonment” motif across two corpora: the Sumerian City Laments (and related balag̃ material) and the biblical canon. The Sumerian laments depict the catastrophic loss of temple and city within a deterministic world where divine decisions often appear opaque, emotionally volatile, and only tenuously repairable through ritual lament and reconstruction. By contrast, the biblical narrative interprets the same crisis within a covenantal grammar: Jerusalem’s fall is grounded in articulated covenant breach, responsibility is named and confessed through prophetic indictment and lament, abandonment is endured as the severe experience of Yahweh’s holiness and faithfulness, restoration is promised through the New Covenant’s heart-and-Spirit renewal, and return culminates in Yahweh’s irreversible dwelling with His people.
To clarify this canonical reconfiguration, the study employs the category Cosmic Inversus to describe Scripture’s covenantal and Christological “reordering” of an ancient pattern. Rather than an endlessly repeatable cycle of departure and precarious return, the biblical canon transforms the motif into a secured trajectory that moves from judgment toward new creation. The dissertation argues that this inversion is concentrated and completed in Christ as the true naos: Jesus embodies and traverses the five stages through His crucifixion (destruction), obedient representation (responsibility), cry of dereliction (abandonment), resurrection/ascension and Spirit-outpouring (restoration), and the eschatological consummation of divine presence in the New Jerusalem (return and fulfillment). The project concludes by drawing ecclesial implications for a community that lives as “exilic-yet-indwelt”—a Spirit-formed, living temple whose scattered vocation extends the presence of the crucified and risen Temple until the final descent of the city where God and the Lamb are its temple.
