Back when I was writing weekly sermons for church services, I often struggled with preaching Biblical texts that were law oriented. When preaching law it is easy to write a sermon that is a jeremiad. I was taught in seminary that in Christian preaching the Gospel (the Good News of God in Jesus Christ) must predominate. Beating people up with spiritual laws is akin to making them feel like whipped dogs. A jeremiad usually accomplishes little but anger and frustration with the preacher.
A jeremiad is an angry scolding or prolonged complaint. The English language borrowed it in late 1700s from the French word jérémiade, which originated in the Latin name for the Biblical prophet Jeremiah, Jeremias.
British writer Hannah More wrote in 1780, "It has been long the fashion to make the most lamentable Jeremiades on the badness of the times…" In her memoirs she used the term to mock the perpetual doom-saying prevalent in her society.
The Jewish prophet Jeremiah lived in the 6th century BCE and a summary of his message is found in the Old Testament writings in the Bible, under his name as the title of the book. His words often accused the people of ancient Israel of false worship and social injustice. Jeremiah denounced the king for his selfishness, materialism, and injustices. He also wrote about his own situation and laments, citing the hardships he endured as a prophet with an unpopular message. Based on Jeremiah’s criticisms of the people of his day, jeremiad was and is coined to describe similar speeches or preaching.
Synonyms of jeremiad can be diatribe, tirade, philippic, rant, and harangue.
Diatribe refers to a bitter or abusive speech or piece of writing. The union rep wrote a lengthy diatribe about how the company's new policy was affecting morale on the shop floor.
Tirade is a protracted speech usually marked by intemperate, vituperative, or harshly censorious language. At the team meeting following the loss, the coach lashed a tirade at the players as they sat around the locker room with their heads hung low.
Philippic implies a declamation full of bitter condemnation. The player was suspended after launching into a foul-mouthed philippic against the head official during the press conference.
Rant suggests complaining loudly, angrily, or unreasonably. The mother said to her three children, “You can rant and rave all you want, but it's not going to change things."
Harangue is a forceful or scolding speech or writing. She launched into a long harangue about poor customer service at the restaurant she visited last week.
In December 2014 Matt McCullough wrote The American Jeremiad: A Bit of Perspective on the Rhetoric of Decline. In the article he uses jeremiad as a rhetorical tradition that has appeared in every phase of American history. The jeremiad tradition began in Puritan New England and continues to this day. Jeremiads lament the harsh realities of the present in contrast with the purity of the founding generation. Jeremiads claim that piety and godly order had once existed and have subsequently been lost. There is a call for repentance and renewal to the ways of before. Social chastisement should lead to moral and spiritual renewal, as the prophet Jeremiah proclaimed.
Andrew Murphy in Longing, Nostalgia, and Golden Age Politics: The American Jeremiad and the Power of the Past (2009) sees the jeremiad as a longstanding form of political rhetoric that explicitly invokes the past and laments the nation's falling-away from its virtuous foundations. Jeremiads are used by Republicans in the United States and Conservative politicians in Canada to chart a path for the future as our only hope of salvation for the country.
The advent, and subsequent popularity of social media, have advanced the frequency of jeremiads against all sorts of things by uninformed populists and those with bitter feelings of disappointment in society. I suggest we use jeremiads sparingly in social comments and Christian preaching, finding constructive ways to point people to a better outcome.
Columnist John Kreutzwieser loves to research words and has an interest in the usage, origin, and relevance of words for society today. Greek and Latin form the basis of many words, with ancient Hebrew shedding light on word usage.
John would like to know if anyone has a sincere interest in a relevant word that he could possibly research for an upcoming column. If so, please send your requests to wordwisdom2021@gmail.com. Words will be selected according to relevance and research criteria. We cannot confirm that all words will be used.
