Walter Brueggemann
WJK, 115 pages
Pastors and teachers looking for resources for a Christian education series will welcome this book. It is perfect for a six or eight-week adult Bible study. Readers are likely to be familiar with Walter Brueggemann, the preeminent scholar and teacher of our time. Perhaps they will not be as familiar with professor Patricia Tull who contributed a very helpful introduction and added a brief summary of the prophets. Each chapter includes study questions and there is a summary at the end. In other words, this is a very user-friendly guide to the prophets, and for that reason alone it is valuable for congregations. Yet, this is not its only importance. Readers who take the prophets seriously as guides to faithful living will find here rich reflections for contemporary life. The author rightly points out the folly of moving too quickly from past to present. Brueggemann writes, “It is not possible, in my judgment, to ‘apply’ the prophetic utterance directly to our time and place.” The prophets addressed their own times. Nevertheless, while respecting historical and canonical context, it is possible to rely upon the prophetic tradition for imaginative ways of understanding the movement of God in history. In a memorable and carefully written phrase, Brueggemann describes the prophets as “emancipated imaginers of alternative.” He compels us consider what it can mean for contemporary people of faith to discern rightly how to resist denial and despair in order to imagine God’s new future. This book reveals how the prophets can encourage our emancipation from ideologies, cultures and political economies that run counter to God’s alternative. While the prophets spoke directly to their own circumstances, they can be reliable guides for our own discernment and faithful discipleship. Congregations would do well to study this book.
