The Peculiar Dialect of Faith
Ebook
Biblical utterance, in contrast to the sounds of power and certitude, offers imaginative probes into the mystery of God's creation and into the hidden complexities of human hurt and human hope. Thus the dialect of the Bible is offered in relational terms, so that the key ingredients to lived reality characteristically concern justice and righteousness, steadfast love, faithfulness, and compassion. Insofar as the church relies upon and attests to this dialect, we may expect that in church we will speak in a different rhetoric, and consequently we will speak about different subject matter. To be sure, the church is sometimes seduced away from this relational dialect to speak in cadences that are elementally alien to the Bible and to the claims of the gospel. Such seduction of the church takes place, for example, when our nation is at war and the church is tempted to reflect and reiterate the force of that social reality. Or such seduction occurs when the church is captured by any ism, notably in our time, racism or nationalism. Or alternatively, ideological conservatism that craves the language of certitude or ideological liberalism that is easily bewitched by the rhetoric of psychology or the market. When the church is domesticated to such alien claims, it loses its distinctiveness, and consequently loses its nerve and its courage for serious mission. Thus attentiveness to our peculiar dialect is an important investment. --from the Preface
“Quintessential Brueggemann! He has one screen open to the Bible, another to the broader culture, and a third screen open to developing theories in the fields such as economics and sociology. And he has the sound up to eleven on all the screens at once. Yet in the cacophony, Brueggemann hears the word of God and proclaims it with articulate faith and reverent humility.”
—Rolf Jacobson, professor of Old Testament, Luther Seminary
“Walter Brueggemann exhorts us to take seriously the power of our words and to be brave in our use of language that is world-creating and prophetically imaginative. The peculiar and relational dialect of the church should empower, not embarrass, us to give enlivened expression of the steadfast and tenacious love of God. We have been deputized to speak in a new tongue!”
—Clover Reuter Beal, co-lead pastor, Montview Blvd Presbyterian Church
“Among biblical interpreters, Walter Brueggemann is a singular wordsmith. His luminous essays in The Peculiar Dialect of Faith explore biblical words in their literary settings and historical conditioning to expose the language worlds they create. Brueggemann refuses to leave these poetic worlds in the past or to wield them as weapons against the present. Instead, his powerful words about texts embrace readers of faith, draw us to full attention, expand our understanding, and call us to renewed hope amid throbbing sufferings of our present moment.”
—Kathleen M. O’Connor, professor emerita of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary
- Title: The Peculiar Dialect of Faith
- Author: Walter Brueggemann
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Print Publication Date: 2023
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666715194, 9781666715170, 1666715174, 9781666715187, 1666715182, 1666715190
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666715194
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-05-23T22:39:58Z
Walter Brueggemann is William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. He is past president of the Society of Biblical Literature and the author of numerous books, including David’s Truth: In Israel’s Imagination and Memory, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching Genesis, and The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary.