# Sabbath as Resistance (Brueggemann)



## RamistThomist (Feb 19, 2020)

Brueggemann, Walter. _Sabbath as Resistance_.

Let's go ahead and get the "bad" out of the way. Brueggemann's sabbatarianism is largely divorced from explicitly theological concerns. On the other hand, though, he comes down close to the Sabbatarian side and sees the healing aspects of the Sabbath (don't worry; just spiritual and mental healing, not necessarily physical).

“The demands of market ideology pertain as much to consumption as they do to production” (Brueggemann xii). It is “Pharaoh’s insatiable script.” 

“Wherever YHWH governs as an alternative to Pharaoh, there the restfulness of YHWH effectively counters the restless anxiety of Pharaoh” (xiii).

_Sabbath and the First Commandment_

God is embedded in a narrative and cannot be known outside that narrative (2). The Sabbath commandment is drawn into the Exodus, whose narrative matrix is that of YHWH. 

The economics of Pharaoh:


every socioeconomic system will be legitimized by some god (3).
The system is designed to create endless surplus, and thus endless storerooms. 
it makes a fetish of the market. The market generates a desire for commodities of a social value, making us want even more commodities, which takes on a life of its own.
It creates anxiety.
Pharaoh is anxious about the food monopoly (26). 
It is an ontology of violence (30-31).

The Sabbath is a commitment to covenant (relationship) rather than commodity (bricks). Most of the ten commandments have something to do with the horizontal “Other,” my neighbor. The economics of Pharaoh does not allow for neighborliness. The economics of the Sabbath demands it.

_Both Creation and Exodus culminate in Sabbath._

Thesis: “Sabbath is a bodily act of testimony to alternative and resistance to pervading values and assumptions behind those values” (21). Images domesticate God and turn him into a commodity. The Subject becomes an object. 

_Resistance to Anxiety_

Anxiety makes neighborliness impossible (26). God counters anxiety with neighborliness.

_Resistance to Coercion_

The prosperity of the land will eventually lead to two economic systems: possession or inheritance (38).

The aim of consumer ideology is to make us forget our rootage and to let ourselves be defined by alien expectations (39). The Sabbath makes us remember that God broke the cycle of coercive production.

_Resistance to Exclusivism_

Who does Brueggemann think are the “Insiders?” Brueggemann suggests that Isaiah 56 reworks Dt 23 so that Sabbath is the criterion of membership (54). A Sabbath person is defined by justice, mercy, and compassion, and not competition, achievement, and production.

_Sabbath and the Tenth Commandment_

The 10th commandment rejects an attitude of “and a forced action to secure what is craved” (71). Given that the term “neighbor” occurs 3x in the commandment, it is also about preserving the neighborhood. 

Brueggemann speculates, albeit with some justification, that these were agrarian peasants and the commandment ultimately applied to protecting them against urban elites, which in today’s terms meant:


state power
corporate wealth
legal sharpness
credentialed religion

In conclusion, the tenth commandment, and Sabbath-practice in general, is a safeguard for a certain way of organizing social power in the interest of the neighborhood (77).

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## Seeking_Thy_Kingdom (Feb 19, 2020)

Am I wrong for getting really strong socialist vibes from your review? This is reminding me of a discussion I had regarding the Sabbath with a radical socialist Christian.

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## RamistThomist (Feb 19, 2020)

Seeking_Thy_Kingdom said:


> Am I wrong for getting really strong socialist vibes from your review? This is reminding me of a discussion I had regarding the Sabbath with a radical socialist Christian.



Brueggemann leans close that way. I am not a socialist (as anyone who follows me on FB knows). I do think, however, that we can reject the commodification and consumerism of modern life and not be socialist.

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## Jake (Feb 19, 2020)

I read this book a while ago, and actually re-read it recently. I was surprised at how much Bruggeman assumed the Puritan conception of the Sabbath. I even heard an interview with him about the book where he was deriding Sunday football games. While I do not agree with the end of where his politics were going, I think he made a good critique of our modern consumerist society and found a lot to be commended in the book.

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## RamistThomist (Feb 19, 2020)

Jake said:


> I read this book a while ago, and actually re-read it recently. I was surprised at how much Bruggeman assumed the Puritan conception of the Sabbath. I even heard an interview with him about the book where he was deriding Sunday football games. While I do not agree with the end of where his politics were going, I think he made a good critique of our modern consumerist society and found a lot to be commended in the book.



About half of what he says in any given book is outstanding. The other half is awful.

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## RamistThomist (Feb 19, 2020)

And he is an electrifying speaker at times.


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## iainduguid (Feb 19, 2020)

BayouHuguenot said:


> About half of what he says in any given book is outstanding. The other half is awful.


This is pretty much Brueggemann in a nutshell. He is a stimulating writer, but his presuppositions are so different from ours that he can be extremely frustrating. A discerning reader can benefit from him, but he cannot be recommended widely.

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## RamistThomist (Feb 19, 2020)

iainduguid said:


> This is pretty much Brueggemann in a nutshell. He is a stimulating writer, but his presuppositions are so different from ours that he can be extremely frustrating. A discerning reader can benefit from him, but he cannot be recommended widely.



Agreed. I wouldn't recommend his works to the average layman. I know his presuppositions and I went to undergrad under profs who were friends with him.

Some of his lectures on Jeremiah did show a fairly sophisticated understanding of the textual history (wish I could find them).


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## jwright82 (Feb 20, 2020)

BayouHuguenot said:


> Brueggemann, Walter. _Sabbath as Resistance_.
> 
> Let's go ahead and get the "bad" out of the way. Brueggemann's sabbatarianism is largely divorced from explicitly theological concerns. On the other hand, though, he comes down close to the Sabbatarian side and sees the healing aspects of the Sabbath (don't worry; just spiritual and mental healing, not necessarily physical).
> 
> ...


It seems like he is a sort of James K.A. Smith type, is that correct?


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## RamistThomist (Feb 21, 2020)

jwright82 said:


> It seems like he is a sort of James K.A. Smith type, is that correct?



They overlap, though Bruggemann long predated Smith. Brueggemann is also a textual scholar and is usually more anchored in the actual text. But yes, they both have the same type of rhetoric.

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