Prophetic Imagination (Brueggemann)

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RamistThomist

Puritanboard Clerk
Brueggemann, Walter. Prophetic Imagination. Fortress Press.

As with all of Brueggemann’s works, it is rich in insight and weak in-depth.

Great in terms of theoretical critique, weak in terms of solution. Brueggemann appears to advocate perpetual socialist crisis as the ideal for living faith. A number of problems with his approach: he advocates that community must be formed around a prophetic leader. Let us look at that. You can see elements of that in the OT. I'm not sure one should model that for the modern man. In fact, applied to the church this is nothing but a recipe for abuse. In any case, for WB this prophetic leader is useless unless he has something to prophesy against. Thus, there should be a perpetual bad guy, preferably male and capitalistic. The philosophical marxism should be immediately apparent: perpetual crisis for perpetual flux and change.

Actually, for all of his talk about eschatology, he advocates a de-eschatologized marxism: perpetual class warfare without the “eschatological moment” when class is eliminated.

This book, for all of its problems, has its good moments. Unfortunately, its good moments only apply to communities that are highly disciplined and are able to appropriate their freedom in responsible manners. WB frames the debate in terms that the true solution cannot be mentioned (e.g., while it is good to talk about speaking the truth to power, this isn’t always the reason that communities are oppressed. Usually, the oppressive power is often connected with government bureaucracies).

As with all of Brueggemann's works, we are treated to engaging (and often entertaining) writing. None of his solutions, such as they are, however, should be taken seriously.
 
Consistently every day for 15 years

Not sure if that is a full answer.

Anyway, I always appreciate your reviews.

I am starting a breakdown of Torrance's work in popular form. When I put it together, I would love to send you a copy for your consideration and honest analysis.
 
Not sure if that is a full answer.

Anyway, I always appreciate your reviews.

I am starting a breakdown of Torrance's work in popular form. When I put it together, I would love to send you a copy for your consideration and honest analysis.

It really depends on the season of the year. Some months and weeks I can get more reading in. I also listen to audiobooks, though it is more difficult to write reviews on them.

Usually a target goal is about 100 pages a day. I also take notes on google drive as I read.
 
It really depends on the season of the year. Some months and weeks I can get more reading in. I also listen to audiobooks, though it is more difficult to write reviews on them.

Usually a target goal is about 100 pages a day. I also take notes on google drive as I read.
Everything for me is audio these days. I think I listen to at least 100 pages per day but my listening time is taken up with podcasts. Given my ability to listen at 2.5-3x speed I can blow through a lot of things that I listen to TTS.
 
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