A Pathway of Interpretation: The Old Testament for Pastors and Students
Overview
Writing with the pastor and student in mind, Walter Brueggemann provides guidance for interpreting Old Testament texts. He offers advice for the interpreter as well as examples of working with different sorts of passages—including narratives, prophecies, and Psalms. He also demonstrates how to work thematically, drawing together threads from different traditions. He works through the rhetoric of these passages, reaching toward theological interpretation. The investigations reflect Brueggemann’s conviction that the process of moving from text to interpretive outcome is an artistic enterprise that can be learned and practiced.
Get more from Walter Brueggemann in the Select Works of Walter Brueggemann (9 vols.).
- Examples of Old Testament interpretation
- How to work with the Old Testament texts
- Step by step teaching
- Introduction: That the World May be Redescribed
- Setting the Stage: The Church's Task of Interpretation
- Steps in Interpretation: Jeremiah 5:14-17 as Example
- Four Characters, a Grudge, and the Place of God: Genesis 50:15-21
- From Problem to Resolution in Four Scenes: First Samuel 1
- Truthful Witnesses, Capacity for the Future, and Responsibility: Isaiah 43, Habakkuk 3, Psalm 44
- The Absence of God: Texts that Refuse to Be Explained Away
- Concerning Secondary Resources
- Conclusion: Interpretive Outcomes
Top Highlights
“there is no governing certitude in interpretation, no ultimate ‘final solution’ to the text” (Page 26)
“The outcome has been an innocuous Bible that has mediated very little transformative energy in the church and that in fact is not very interesting. Such interpretation lacks compelling interest because what is centrally interesting in the biblical text is this God who stalks the earth in ways that do not accommodate modern rationality. When that God is toned down to manageable proportion, there is not much left that interests or compels.” (Page 18)
“ Scripture intends to call things by their right names” (Page 4)
“Serious Bible reading may well recognize that there are voices in the text that are other than echoes of our own voices” (Page 24)
“the church should not speak or teach on either of these issues without a complementary statement about the other” (Page 24)
One of the best and most esteemed interpreters of Scripture shows here how he does it. . . . Vintage Brueggemann: incisive, penetrating, provocative, and always seeking to uncover the cutting edge of the text.
—Patrick D. Miller, Charles T. Haley Professor of Old Testament Theology Emeritus, Prince Theological Seminary
. . . seldom has an author taken us step-by-step through the actual progression of that thought. This is precisely what Walter Brueggemann does in this book.
—Dianne Bergant, distinguished professor of Old Testament studies, Catholic Theological Union
This is the book that those of us who have studied with Walter Brueggemann have been waiting for. Here is the teacher we have known in class: telling us how he has come to read Scripture as he does and showing us how he does it.
—Edwin Searcy, pastor, University Hill Congregation, United Church of Canada, Vancouver, BC
- Title: A Pathway of Interpretation: The Old Testament for Pastors and Students
- Author: Walter Brueggemann
- Publisher: Cascade
- Print Publication Date: 2008
- Logos Release Date: 2015
- Pages: 180
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Bible. O.T. › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Bible. O.T. › Study and teaching
- ISBNs: 9781556355899, 9781498210966, 9781621893349, 1556355890, 1498210961, 1621893340
- Resource ID: LLS:PTHWYNTRPRTTN
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:30:43Z