MONEY AND POSSESSIONS. By Walter Brueggemann. Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016. Pp. xxii + 319. $40.00.

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-217
Author(s):  
Shelley L. Birdsong
Keyword(s):  
Walter Brueggemann ◽  
The Church

Response

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Brueggemann
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
Third Place ◽  
Thick Description ◽  
Political Function ◽  
Walter Brueggemann ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Church

In this chapter, Walter Brueggemann responds to the other essays in the volume. He likens phenomenology to the methods of “close reading” and “thick description” advocated by George Lindbeck and Gilbert Ryle based on Clifford Geertz’s anthropological method. He argues that such approaches have an important political function: they resist our culture’s totalizing impulse to master and control meaning by exploring the richness of texts. Brueggemann also helpfully situates phenomenology as “readings from and in a third place.” First, there are the “canonical” readings of scripture, reflecting the church’s practices of reading. Second, there are the reading practices of the critical academy, which are often in tension with the church. Phenomenology offers a third mode of reading, drawing from both the church and the academy while in thrall to neither.

On Pentecostals and Pentecostal Theology

Pneuma ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 123-147
Author(s):  
Bob L. Johnson, Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Special Interest ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Spiritual Journey ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Theological Interpretation ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Pentecostal Theology ◽  
Walter Brueggemann ◽  
The Church

Few contemporary scholars have influenced biblical theology more than Walter Brueggemann. As an authority on the Hebrew Bible, he has earned the respect of theologians worldwide. His work speaks to a variety of audiences in the church and academy. Of special interest here are the relationships he has developed with pentecostal scholars in recent years. His rhetorical approach to Scripture, coupled with the prominence this method affords the biblical text, speaks to Pentecostals. His appreciation for the wonder, mystery, and generativity of the biblical narrative likewise reflects a common emphasis. The priority he gives to the theological interpretation of the text contrasts with the historical-critical approach that once dominated the field. Within this theological context, the purpose of this interview was threefold: 1) to hear Brueggemann’s account of his own spiritual journey as a disciple and scholar—that is, his testimony; 2) to explore the origins and nature of his relationship with Pentecostals; and 3) to understand his perceptions of pentecostal theology.

Walter Brueggemann, Prophetic Imagination, and the Productive Science of Homiletics

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-181
Author(s):  
Derek Knoke
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
The World ◽  
Prophetic Imagination ◽  
Walter Brueggemann ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
The Church

This review asks to what degree Walter Brueggemann locates biblical interpretation within homiletics, particularly where homiletics is defined as a ‘productive science’ – the goal of which is to make or create something. To the degree this is true, biblical interpretation is not determined by an a priori referent, whether that referent be a closed rationality of social scientific description (or historical reconstruction) or whether that referent be a resistant theological ideology which one imposes on the text. Rather, such a hermeneutic – a productive hermeneutic – would be determined by a desired goal or outcome. Homiletics, thus defined, is a means to an end – an end achieved by naming God as an acting subject in the world to bring about said goal or outcome. This review suggests that Brueggemann’s biblical interpretation can be described in this way and that a productive hermeneutic may be both social scientifically viable and beneficial for the church.

scholarly journals THE POLITICAL NATURE OF THE CHURCH ACCORDING TO STANLEY MARTIN HAUERWAS, WILLIAM T. CAVANAUGH AND WALTER BRUEGGEMANN

Skhid ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 40-44
Author(s):  
Valerii SEKISOV
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Stanley Hauerwas ◽  
Dominant Ideologies ◽  
Walter Brueggemann ◽  
Church Affiliation ◽  
Areas Of Interest ◽  
The Church

In the context of the fragmented and multiple theological discourse of postmodernism, one of the important themes that unites modern theologians and political theologians in particular is the theme of the Сhurch. However, it is not about the Сhurch in general, but about those special features and dimensions that have been forgotten or lost in the modern era. Primarily, it is related to the political dimension of the Christian community, which has become the subject of research by representatives of various theological schools.This article is devoted to the theological analysis of the ecclesiology of three prominent contemporary theologians: Stanley Hauerwas, William Cavanaugh and Walter Brueggemann. Each of them, despite belonging to different schools, different areas of interest and church affiliation, addresses the topic of the political nature of the Church in search of a constructive response to current challenges. According to Hauerwas, there should be a restoration of the vision of the Christian community as an alternative to the world in which it is located. For Hauerwas, the Church is not only a community, one of many, but a polis, which challenges both modern empires and dominant ideologies. This is exactly what William Cavanaugh is talking about, when he emphasizes that the Church's tragic loss of its own political dimension has led to the "migrations of the Holy" and the sacralization of ideologies and power structures. At the same time, Walter Brueggemann writes Church’s prophetic authority and practical capability to resist the "royal consciousness", which manifests itself in the demonstration of strength and power, as an important feature of the Church.

Word and sacrament as paradigmatic for pastoral theology: in search of a definition via Brueggemann, Hauerwas and Ricoeur

2003 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 444-463
Author(s):  
Lance Stone
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Theology ◽  
Identity Crisis ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Community Of Faith ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Walter Brueggemann ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church ◽  
Reflection On Practice

The current debate about the nature and parameters of pastoral theology emphasises practice as both the source and the end of theological reflection: pastoral theology as reflection on practice with a view to transforming practice. This raises issues for pastoral theologians from the Reformed tradition, which prioritises word and prizes scripture and preaching as fundamental ways in which the word is mediated to us. Current philosophical, cultural and ecclesiological developments emphasise the constructed nature of our worlds, the crucial place of language in world construction, and the ‘textured’ nature of the community of faith. Thus theologians associated with the term ‘post-liberal’ emphasise that in a time of displacement, marginalisation and identity crisis the church, like the Jewish community in exile, returns to its texts as its home and the source of its identity and its practice. Taking the theology of Walter Brueggemann as a starting point, this paper explores the relationship between proclamation and practice in the church's life, and seeks, through a Reformed paradigm of word and sacrament, a ‘post-liberal’ redefinition of pastoral theology that gives a higher profile to the church's ‘peculiar speech’.

Spiritual Healing, Sick Kids and the Law: Inequities in the American Healthcare System

2003 ◽  
Vol 29 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 269-299
Author(s):  
Janna C. Merrick
Keyword(s):  
Medical Science ◽  
Spiritual Healing ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Divine Love ◽  
Religious Minority ◽  
Human Need ◽  
East End ◽  
The Church

Main Street in Sarasota, Florida. A high-tech medical arts building rises from the east end, the county's historic three-story courthouse is two blocks to the west and sandwiched in between is the First Church of Christ, Scientist. A verse inscribed on the wall behind the pulpit of the church reads: “Divine Love Always Has Met and Always Will Meet Every Human Need.” This is the church where William and Christine Hermanson worshipped. It is just a few steps away from the courthouse where they were convicted of child abuse and third-degree murder for failing to provide conventional medical care for their seven-year-old daughter.This Article is about the intersection of “divine love” and “the best interests of the child.” It is about a pluralistic society where the dominant culture reveres medical science, but where a religious minority shuns and perhaps fears that same medical science. It is also about the struggle among different religious interests to define the legal rights of the citizenry.

Ideas and Leaders in Contentious Politics: One Parish Priest in El Salvador's Popular Movement

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (01) ◽  
pp. 76-101
Author(s):  
PETER M. SANCHEZ
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Parish Priest ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
Resource Mobilisation ◽  
The Church

AbstractThis paper examines the actions of one Salvadorean priest – Padre David Rodríguez – in one parish – Tecoluca – to underscore the importance of religious leadership in the rise of El Salvador's contentious political movement that began in the early 1970s, when the guerrilla organisations were only just beginning to develop. Catholic leaders became engaged in promoting contentious politics, however, only after the Church had experienced an ideological conversion, commonly referred to as liberation theology. A focus on one priest, in one parish, allows for generalisation, since scores of priests, nuns and lay workers in El Salvador followed the same injustice frame and tactics that generated extensive political mobilisation throughout the country. While structural conditions, collective action and resource mobilisation are undoubtedly necessary, the case of religious leaders in El Salvador suggests that ideas and leadership are of vital importance for the rise of contentious politics at a particular historical moment.

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