Walter Brueggemann

Named One of the 50 Best Spiritual Books of 2020 by Spirituality & Practice What is materiality? Jesus practiced materiality when he healed the bodies of the sick, proclaimed Jubilee to the poor, and fed the five thousand. He practiced materiality over materialism. In Materiality as Resistance, Walter Brueggemann defines materiality as the use of the material aspects of the Christian faith, as opposed to materialism, which places possessions and physical comfort over spiritual values. In this concise volume, Brueggemann lays out how we as Christians may reengage our materiality for the common good. How does materiality inform our faith when it comes to food, money, the body, time, and place? How does it force us to act? Likewise, how is the church obligated to use its time, money, abundance of food, the care and use of our bodies, observance of Sabbath, and stewardship of our world and those with whom we share it? With a foreword from Jim Wallis, Materiality as Resistance serves as a manifesto of Walter Brueggemann's most important work and as an engaging call to action. It is suited for group or individual study.

In this varied collection of essays, Walter Brueggemann provides a lens into biblical teachings concerning the present age of fake news, lies, and alternate realities. Compiled and edited by Louis Stulman, professor of religion at the University of Findlay, these essays carry a common theme of truth and hope. As Brueggemann writes in the preface, there is no doubt that the prophetic tradition regularly engages in truth-telling in order to expose social reality as a systemic act of falseness that contradicts the purposes of God. The prophetic tradition of Jeremiah, for instance, is preoccupied with truth-telling that exposes falseness. The prophet exposes the deceit of dominant culture. That same prophetic tradition (like many others) turns eventually to the work of hope-telling. Such hope does not doubt that the faithful God can create futures, a way out of no way. The sequence from truth to hope in the book of Jeremiah is characteristic of the prophetic books of the Old Testament. These several prophetic voices (that gave canonical shape to the prophetic books) knew that this sequence is definingly important. There can be no hope until truth is told. Our temptation, of course, is to do the work of hope without the prior work of truth. Readers will find this collection of essays to be theologically rooted in the concept of prophetic tradition as a means of truth-telling. Brueggemann explores that, without God, truth-telling is nothing more than harping, and hope-telling is only wishful thinking.

This collection features sixty sermons by Walter Brueggemann, preached mostly in the last five years. For his final public appearances, he preached at various churches and the Festival of Homiletics, including his last address there in 2018. Most of these are based on lectionary texts, with numerous sermons on Advent-Christmas and Lent-Easter texts. Preachers will find inspiration in the handful of sermons covering special occasions or themes, including confirmation, evangelism, and funerals.

In this updated edition of the popular textbook An Introduction to the Old Testament, Walter Brueggemann and Tod Linafelt introduce the reader to the broad theological scope of the Old Testament, treating some of the most important issues and methods in contemporary biblical interpretation. This clearly written textbook focuses on the literature of the Old Testament as it grew out of religious, political, and ideological contexts over many centuries in Israel's history. Covering every book in the Old Testament (arranged in canonical order), the authors demonstrate the development of theological concepts in biblical writings from the Torah through postexilic Judaism. Incorporating the most current scholarship, this new edition also includes concrete tips for doing close readings of the Old Testament text, and a chapter on ways to read Scripture and respond in light of pressing contemporary issues, such as economic inequality, racial and gender justice, and environmental degradation. This introduction invites readers to engage in the construction of meaning as they venture into these timeless texts.

"These sermons are themselves versions of that dangerous but longed-for doxology, and they move from ruthlessly honest cultural analysis to confident praise with such linguistic power that one can easily overlook the superb detail, the impressive craft, and the fine tooling employed by Brueggemann, the master preacher. The impact of these sermons comes not simply from the finished artwork but also from the artist's technique--the preparation of the homiletic canvas, the mix of pigment, and the brush strokes." --from the foreword by Thomas G. Long Volume One: In addition to being one of the world's leading interpreters of the Old Testament, Walter Brueggemann is a skilled and beloved preacher. This collection of sermons demonstrates Brueggemann's fidelity to biblical texts, which come alive with meaning in our contemporary world. Throughout, Brueggemann also reflects on his preaching. Volume One features a biblical index as well as a foreword by Samuel Wells of Duke University who writes: "Enjoy this volume from a master exegete, a master theologian, and a master preacher. They really are neat sermons. And they're for you." Volume Two: This collection presents over fifty masterful sermons from one of the most trusted preachers today, Walter Brueggemann. Brueggemann continues his task of making the biblical text available to the church. He sees preaching as a performance of God's good rule that, in an act of utterance and receptive listening, mediates the truthful, joyous reality of that rule. The sermons are organized according to the church year, starting with sermons for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany and followed by sermons for Lent and Easter and then Pentecost and Ordinary Time. Sermons for other occasions, such as ordinations, weddings, and graduations, are also included, along with a Scripture index. Whether a pastor or a person in the pew, the reader will find inspiration, reflection, and wisdom in Brueggemann's powerful words. Volume Three: This collection features sixty sermons by Walter Brueggemann, preached mostly in the last five years. For his final public appearances, he preached at various churches and the Festival of Homiletics, including his last address there in 2018. Most of these are based on lectionary texts, with numerous sermons on Advent-Christmas and Lent-Easter texts. Preachers will find inspiration in the handful of sermons covering special occasions or themes, including confirmation, evangelism, and funerals."

While conservative interpreters might believe that prophets were predictors and progressives believe the prophets to be simply social advocates, Walter Brueggemann argues that the prophets were emancipated imaginers of alternative. Emancipated from the dominant thinking of their societies, the prophets imagined an alternative reality and invited listeners to join them in their commitment to that new reality. In this collection of studies, popular biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann explores the Major Prophets, the Minor Prophets, and the prophets of the Persian Age. By highlighting the common themes of judgment and hope found in the prophets messages, Brueggemann invites readers to consider what those messages mean for us today. Questions for reflection conclude each chapter. From Judgment to Hope is suitable for individual or group study.

Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann has always excelled at making the Bible approachable and engaging. Drawn from a series of public conversations with Brueggemann and his former student and longtime friend Clover Reuter Beal, An On-Going Imagination explores Brueggemanns most influential biblical-theological concepts and methods: Why should we still bother with the Bible today? What is the purpose of prayer, and what can it do for our lives? How is keeping the Sabbath countercultural? What does it mean to say that the God in the Bible is a God in recovery? Intimate, provocative, and challenging, An On-Going Imagination offers an enlightening introduction to Brueggemanns work for readers who want to learn more and a way back into the Bible for people who feel alienated from it by those on the right and the left who claim to have it all figured out. Brueggemann and Beal reawaken us to the fascinating strangeness of biblical tradition and its incredible power to help us imagine new ways of seeing and being in the world.

This book shows how the message of the Hebrew Prophets, which connects faithfulness to God's laws with justice and mercy, is a consistent stream throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. It then traces this theme in contemporary writers and prophets, from Abraham Heschel and Martin Buber to Martin Luther King and Maya Angelou, and shows how they offer guidance to readers of all faiths and backgrounds.

In this new volume, prolific scholar Walter Brueggemann seeks to show Christian preachers how to consider the faith witnessed in several Old Testament traditions and to help them discover rich and suggestive connections to our contemporary faith challenges. The author also assumes that a wholesale sustained engagement with the Old Testament is worth the effort for the preacher. He recognizes what he calls the "sorry state" of Old Testament texts in the Revised Common Lectionary, which he claims often constitute a major disservice for the church and its preachers. The lectionary gerrymanders the Old Testament to make it serve other claims, most of the time not allowing it to have its own evangelical say. Brueggemann hopes that his exposition in this volume will evoke and energize fresh homiletical attention to the Old Testament, precisely because he believes the urgent work of the gospel in our society requires attentive listening to these ancient voices of bold insistent faith.

The collegium of preachers to which Steve Montgomery and I belong now has it plate exceedingly full of expectation, demand, and responsibility. That plate is full because we now live in a culture of commoditization that is bent toward self-destruction and death, in which human persons and creaturely possibility are ruthlessly transposed into marketable goods. The force of that commoditization is immense in the ominous pursuit of security and domination. In the midst of that force, the preacher is expected to speak some good news that is at the same time honest and compelling.

'Wise words ... filled with a message of hope for humanity and the world' - Irish CatholicWalter Brueggemann is beloved and respected by scholars, preachers and laity alike for his penetrating insights on Scripture and prophetic diagnoses of our culture. Both are woven throughout this new collection of his writings, A Gospel of Hope, which encourages readers to abandon what is safe and routine and instead embrace the audacity required to live out one's faith. This must-have volume gathers Brueggemann's wisdom on topics ranging from anxiety and abundance to partisanship and the role of faith in public life.

The Christian practice of hymn singing, says renowned biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann, is a countercultural act. It marks the Christian community as different from an unforgiving and often ungrateful culture. It is also, he adds, an "absurd enterprise in the midst of the hyper-busy, market-driven society that surrounds us. In this helpful and engaging volume, Brueggemann discusses both why we sing and what we sing. The first part of the book examines the Psalms and what they can teach us about the reasons that corporate song is a part of the Christian tradition. The second part looks at fifteen popular hymns, including classic and contemporary ones such as Blest Be the Ties That Binds, God's Eye Is on the Sparrow, Once to Every Man and Nation, Someone Asked the Question, and We Are Marching in the Light of God, and the reasons why they have caught our imagination. To know why we sing, Brueggemann writes, may bring us to a deeper delight in our singing and a strengthened resolve to sing without calculation before the God who is enthroned on the praises of Israel (Ps. 22:3).

Tenacious Solidarity features essays and new writings from 2014 to 2018. As all of Walter Brueggemann's writing is, the chapters are deeply biblical while also concerned with the identities, practices, and obligations of religious communities in contemporary contexts within the United States. Brueggemann consistently attempts to weave the biblical texts--vested as they are with the authority of a storyteller--into the deep contours of his readers' experiences, in order to foster a tenacious solidarity that might overcome both the psychic numbness cultivated by a 24-hour news cycle as well as the anxious possessiveness nurtured by so many privatized spiritualities. Brueggemann brings the "transformative potential" of the biblical texts to bear on critical contemporary contexts, including but not limited to economic disparities, racial injustice and white supremacy, climate and care for creation, and the power of memory and mentoring. He delves deeply in the Psalms, which he says, "provides a foundational script for living into the fullest and deepest realities of human existence." And he draws from the Prophets his foundational concept of totalism, which he defines as "automated fragmentation of social life such that we habitually and callously disregard our relations with others."

A classic text in biblical theology--still relevant for today and tomorrow. In this 40th anniversary edition of the classic text from one of the most influential biblical scholars of our time, Walter Brueggemann, offers a theological and ethical reading of the Hebrew Bible. He finds there a vision for the community of God whose words and practices of lament, protest and complain give rise to an alternative social order that opposes the "totalism" of the day. Brueggemann traces the lines from the radical vision of Moses to the solidification of royal power in Solomon to the prophetic critique of that power with a new vision of freedom in the prophets. Linking Exodus to Kings to Jeremiah to Jesus, he argues that the prophetic vision not only embraces the pain of the people, but creates an energy and amazement based on the new thing that God is doing. This edition builds off the revised and updated 2001 edition and includes a new afterword by Brueggemann and a new foreword by Davis Hankins.

American Christians today, says Michael Barram, have a significant blind spot when it comes to economic matters in the Bible. In this book Barram reads biblical texts related to matters of money, wealth, and poverty through a missional lens, showing how they function to transform our economic reasoning. Barram searches for insight into God's purposes for economic justice by exploring what it might look like to think and act in life-giving ways in the face of contemporary economic orthodoxies. The Bible repeatedly tells us how to treat the poor and marginalised, Barram says, and faithful Christians cannot but reflect carefully and concretely on such concerns. Written in an accessible style, this biblically-rooted study reflects years of research and teaching on social and economic justice in the Bible and will prove useful for lay readers, preachers, teachers, students, and scholars.

The Old Testament provides powerful ways of thinking and seeing. Preeminent Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann considers the artistry of 1 and 2 Kings as it mediates between history and faith. Walter Brueggemann has spent many years engaged with the composition and imagination of the Old Testament, pondering the ways of power in church and society, and he makes clear that those issues of in the ancient texts pertain to contemporary times. The chronology of the kings is complex and fractured in detail. Brueggemann reports upon the length of years of rule for each king as given in the text. At the same time, he situates each king according to a critical chronology. While the book proceeds text by text, special focus is placed upon Solomon, Elijah, Elisha, and Josiah as models of faith. Brueggemann provides a useful guide for the reader to maneuver between flat history and absolute faith. Written in commentary form, 1&2 Kings invites the reader to view fresh ways of faithful insight and wisdom. Written by accomplished scholars with all students of Scripture in mind, this innovative new commentary series is designed to make quality Bible study more accessible. Pastors, professors and students of Scripture are discovering that this commentary is a wonderful new tool for enhancing interpretation. Walter Brueggemann served as the William Marcellus McPheddeis Professor of Old Testament at Columbia Seminary in Decatur, Georgia.

Beloved and respected by scholars, preachers, and laity alike, Walter Brueggemann offers penetrating insights on Scripture and prophetic diagnoses of our culture. Instead of maintaining what is safe and routine, A Gospel of Hope encourages readers to embrace the audacity required to live out one’s faith. This must-have volume gathers Brueggemann’s wisdom on topics ranging from anxiety and abundance to partisanship and the role of faith in public life.

When the earliest Christ-followers were baptized they participated in a politically subversive act. Rejecting the Empire's claim that it had a divine right to rule the world, they pledged their allegiance to a kingdom other than Rome and a king other than Caesar (Acts 17:7). Many books explore baptism from doctrinal or theological perspectives, and focus on issues such as the correct mode of baptism, the proper candidate for baptism, who has the authority to baptize, and whether or not baptism is a symbol or means of grace. By contrast, Caesar and the Sacrament investigates the political nature of baptism. Very few contemporary Christians consider baptism's original purpose or political significance. Only by studying baptism in its historical context, can we discover its impact on first-century believers and the adverse reaction it engendered among Roman and Jewish officials. Since baptism was initially a rite of non-violent resistance, what should its function be today? ""In this wide-ranging discussion across New Testament texts, Alan Streett locates baptism in the context of and in relation to Roman power. He argues that baptism was a believer's sacramentum, a pledge of allegiance that sets up complex interactions with allegiance to Caesar and the imperial system. This is a significant and much-needed contribution to understandings of baptism."" --Warren Carter, Professor, Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University ""Centuries of comfortable Christendom have tended to domesticate baptism to a benign religious ritual entirely at home within the empire. But Caesar and the Sacrament awakens us to the true radical nature of Christian baptism. Alan Streett's latest book is an important and timely work that calls Christians to live out their baptismal identity in fidelity to Christ and resistance to empire."" --Brian Zahnd, Pastor, Word of Life Church, St. Joseph, Missouri ""Alan Streett's fascinating Caesar and the Sacrament places the meaning and practice of baptism in early Christianity into a full and nuanced context . . . Streett's carefully researched and well written book joins a number of other studies that have appeared in recent years rightly underscoring the importance of knowing well the Roman world in which Jesus and his movement emerged."" --Craig A. Evans, Professor of Christian Origins, Houston Baptist University ""In this bold, comprehensive, and compelling study, Alan Streett makes a convincing case that the earliest Christians understood baptism as their pledge of allegiance to Christ and his kingdom, which involved renouncing all other allegiances . . . when most view baptism as nothing more than an innocuous 'religious' sacrament, it would be hard to overstate the importance of digesting this remarkable work."" --Gregory A. Boyd, Senior Pastor, Woodland Hills Church, St. Paul, Minnesota ""Streett does nothing less than show that the understanding of baptism in Constantinian Christianity that privatized and spiritualized baptism was a gross misinterpretation that we, at the end of Christendom, may now unlearn. One may hope that Streett's study will awaken the church to the wide and deep accents of baptism that is both a gift from God and mandate to an emancipated transformed public life."" --Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary R. Alan Streett is Senior Research Professor of Biblical Theology at Criswell College, Dallas, Texas. He is author of Subversive Meals (Pickwick, 2013).