For many Catholics, the word missionary brings to mind a centuries-old image of a priest planting a cross in a foreign land and teaching, baptizing and celebrating Mass for its people. Or it may conjure up the slightly more modern image of women religious running a school in Africa or Latin America.

Over the years the biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann has written extensively on various Old Testament topics Among his favorite subjects is the prophet Jeremiah Fifteen of his articles on the subject have been collected in Like Fire in the Bones Listening to the Prophetic Word in Jeremiah P