role of prophecy

I read this for a class in seminary. I thought it was a great book and many people I've talked about it with concur. It provides really helpful insights into ways of approaching the Hebrew Scriptures as well as ideas we should be thinking about today. ( )

This is the best book I have ever read for understanding the prophets and prophecy genre in the Bible. Brueggemann points out that the work of a prophet is to criticize and energize. Provocatively, he opines that liberal Christianity is good at criticizing the Church and that conservative Christianity is good at energizing it. The two sides hold the related priorities of the compassion/justice of God and the freedom of God, respectively.

Moses is a prophet who calls out to the people of God in a way that re-imagines what that community could be. He is speaking out against the royal establishment as part of an oppressed people group.

In the period of Solomon, the leaders of Israel are well within the royal establishment. Thus the temptation is for the freedom of God and compassion for the marginalized to both be subverted into the interests of the King. The task of the prophet here was to break through the numbness of the royal consciousness. Lament is the primary tone of prophets toward the royal consciousness.

Israel is again the minority culture during the life of Christ, and in his prophetic role, Jesus counters the claims of the royal consciousness and stands in solidarity with the marginal. The resurrection announces the freedom, power, and justice of God.

The Church, likewise, must continually be a self-criticizing and energizing agent, by recovering its disruptive faith tradition and creating an underived community.

I highly recommend this book for those who want to understand the prophecy genre in the Bible. Also recommended for those take on a prophetic role (such as preaching), as the book points the way toward assisting other Christians in envisioning a more faithful community. ( )

brilliant. ( )

Did you ever suffer through a puzzle until you found that one piece you needed to get it done? This is like that. Excellent, excellent treatment of what might be termed the "city" or "royal consciousness" or the "political" and the believers role as a dissenter. This book more than any other has given me resources necessary to articulate criticism of the state and state churches, materialism, consumerism, and all the other isms castigating the world. It does this not by providing its own if different isms, but by exploring what the bible has to say of oppression and the role of the prophet in relieving oppression. Too much material in the bible is devoted to the role of the prophet as dissenter not to take Brueggemann's argument seriously. This is a well written sobering book. I highly recommend The Prophetic Imagination. ( )