Known as one of America’s best theologians and one of the world’s foremost scholars on the Old Testament, Walter Brueggemann has inspired young scholars and students and driven the discourse on theology with some of the biggest players in contemporary Bible scholarship.
In the last several years, Walter Brueggemann’s writings have directly addressed the situation of Christian communities in today’s globalized context, with its consumerist lifestyles, vast inequalities, and near-imperial exercises of power. His insights, forged in rugged encounters with the texts of the Old Testament, are sharp, painful, and indispensable. In the people of Israel Brueggemann finds a model of an alternative community—anchored in YHWH, ever exploring new possibilities, and prophetically bent against empire.
With the Logos Bible Software edition, you can journey through this volume with today’s most advanced tools for reading and studying God’s Word. All Scripture passages are linked to your library’s original language texts and English translations. Enhance your study with Logos’ advanced features—search by topic to find out what Brueggemann teaches on the Exodus, or find every mention of “Psalm 91” throughout his works.
Readers cannot come away from these essays unchallenged or unchanged. The ethic of resistance and engagement that Brueggemann puts forth demands a response equally vigorous and passionate. In that sense, he finds himself in the company of the prophets that the Old Testament scholar so highly esteems.
—Craig Stephans, author, Shakespeare on Spirituality: Life-Changing Wisdom from Shakespeare’s Plays
Walter Brueggemann through his teaching, lecturing, and writing, has effectively demonstrated the significance of the Old Testament for our fractured world today. Recognized as the preeminent interpreter of the ancient texts in relation to questions posed by a variety of academic disciplines, he has shown the way toward a compelling understanding of the major components of the faith and life of ancient Israel, especially its Psalms, the prophets, and the narratives. His award-winning Theology of the Old Testament quickly became a foundational work in the field.
Brueggemann, who holds a ThD from Union Seminary, New York, and a PhD from St. Louis University, is William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia. He was previously professor of Old Testament at Eden Theological Seminary, St. Louis. His many Fortress Press books, including The Threat of Life: Sermons on Pain, Power, and Weakness, exhibit a fecund combination of imaginative power, sound scholarship, and a passion of justice and redemption.
Patrick D. Miller is Charles T. Haley Professor Emeritus of Old Testament Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey.
“Creation is the claim of the text that the life of the world is bounded by the self-giving generosity of God” (Page 8)
“Mutatis mutandis, my bid is that contemporary preaching in the postmodern U.S. setting addresses folks of Christian descent who have been tossed about by the vagaries of historical circumstance and who have largely forgotten rootage in Moses and in Jesus and the ongoing teaching tradition. The task, in such a critical context, is to retext this community, to turn the imagination and the practice of the community of the baptized back to its most elemental assurances and claims.” (Page 36)
“recovery of the text is to mediate hope of utter fidelity into all futures in the face of a dominant text of despair” (Page 13)
“the world is other than we had taken it to be, because the world is the venue for God’s reign” (Page xiv)
“The recovery of the text is in order to mediate a memory of generosity in the face of a dominant text of amnesia.” (Page 9)