Hopeful Imagination: Prophetic Voices in Exile
Overview
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.
Professor Walter Brueggemann here examines the literature and experience of an era in which Israel’s prophets faced the pastoral responsibility of helping people to enter into exile, to be in exile, and to depart out of exile. He addresses three major prophetic traditions: Jeremiah (the pathos of God), Ezekiel (the holiness of God), and 2 Isaiah (the newness of God). This literature is seen to contain the theological resources for handling both brokenness and surprise—with freedom, courage, and imagination. Throughout, Brueggemann demonstrates how these resources offer vitality for ministry today.
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.
Key Features
- Provides essential Old Testament scholarship from one of the most prominent living scholars
- Contains two series of lectures, that take up the three different prophetic traditions of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah
- Includes material perfect for pastors, professors, counselors, and Old Testament scholars
Contents
- Introduction: Exile and the Voice of Hope
- Part 1. Only Grief Permits Newness
- Jeremiah—Designed for Conflict
- “Because No One Cares”
- Part 2. Only Holiness Gives Hope
- Ezekiel—Tough and Submissive
- “For the Sake of My Holy Name”
- Part 3. Only Memory Allows Possibility
- Second Isaiah—Homecoming to a New Home
- “Sing, O Barren One”
- Conclusion: Hurt as Hope’s Home
Product Details
- Title: Hopeful Imagination: Prophetic Voices in Exile
- Author: Walter Brueggemann
- Publisher: Augsburg Fortress
- Publication Date: 1986
- Pages: 160
About Walter Brueggemann
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.
Top Highlights
“The exile of the contemporary American church is that we are bombarded by definitions of reality that are fundamentally alien to the gospel, definitions of reality that come from the military-industrial-scientific empire, which may be characterized as ‘consumer capitalism.’4 In a variety of ways the voice of this empire wants to reshape our values, fears, and dreams in ways that are fundamentally opposed to the voice of the gospel.” (Page 92)
“The actions of God are new, but they are cast largely in the molds and images of the old memories so that the discernment and presentation of the new depend profoundly on knowledge about the old.” (Page 2)
“Yahweh’s sovereignty is a powerful source of hope.” (Page 5)
“The poet thus must be heard through the metaphor of exile. The words grow out of and are aimed at an alienated community (cf. Psalm 137). The central fact of the community of 2 Isaiah was the power and authority of Babylonian definitions of reality (cf. Isa. 39:1–8). Babylonian cultural voices in many ways shaped Jews just as they succeeded in shaping everything and everyone else in the empire. In as many ways as possible, it was the ideological intent of the empire to talk Jews out of Jewish perceptions of reality and into Babylonian definitions of reality, to define life in terms of Babylonian values, Babylonian hopes, and Babylonian fears.” (Pages 91–92)
“God is leaving, is terminating his commitment to his holy city, to our known and previous world. God is not greatly in grief about this departure. Indeed God’s departure is coupled with a massive judgment and slaughter of those who have excessively presumed upon God (9:5–6, 9–10). God is, so says Ezekiel, free and can walk away from it all. God cares for God’s self and is not trapped in this oriental village called Jerusalem. Indeed God is not trapped in any of the places which have been prepared to house God.” (Page 54)
- Title: Hopeful Imagination: Prophetic Voices in Exile
- Author: Walter Brueggemann
- Publisher: Fortress Press
- Print Publication Date: 1986
- Logos Release Date: 2013
- Era: era:Contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Bible. O.T. Jeremiah › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Bible. O.T. Ezekiel › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Bible. O.T. Isaiah › Criticism, interpretation, etc
- Resource ID: LLS:HOPEFULIMAG
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-02-12T03:54:49Z