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Hopeful Imagination: Prophetic Voices in Exile

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This is the second book I have read by Brueggemann on the role of the Prophetic in the life of the Kingdom of God. He uses the books of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and what he terms `second' Isaiah as his source texts, and with them he puts forward a highly plausable, and yet quite incredible argument for the legitimation of the prophetic role within the church.

His theme in dealing with Jeremiah is principally grief. If we want the new thing that God wants to bring about, we must first grieve over the old state. That old state of sin and rigid structure, where God has become a rubber stamp for the wishes of the "managers of the Status quo." God will not put new wine in old wine skins. To bring in the new he will first dismantle the old and then cause new birth and new life to occur.

This part I believe has some major things to say to the church of New Zealand (and possibly to the whole western church structure) right now. The church is coming to the end of a life cycle where the `modern' style and structures are becoming redundant, along with those who try to support them. All too often the ministers and pastors of New Zealand churches are in their 50's and 60's, and they appear to have little understanding of the new structures required to cater for the up and coming `post modern' mind set. Brueggeman contends that many of these church leaders are like those leaders in Jeremiah's time who thought that they could maintain the present religious structure of their day. But God had the exile in mind.

Brueggemann then looks at Ezekiel who was a priest. His concern is with holiness and purity and doing things God's way. These chapters are tough to read as they start with personal holiness (by implication) and then shine the spot light squarely upon the church. Ezekiel was sent to the people of God, and his criticism of the lack of holiness is aimed at them, and at us the church.

The last part of the book is one about memory, and remembering what God has done in the past andthen using those memories as a spark of hope for the future. We are not to live in the "eternal today", as the purveyors of maintaining the present structures would want. We are to remember our past, and hope for the future that God promises. Only then will change occur, when the church starts dreaming of a different future than the one presently presented.

The change from our ways to God's ways will hurt, cause grief, be about purity and refining, but will result in purpose and hope and a church that can fulfill her calling. Brueggemann contents that the function of the church is that of a holy community that models holiness and compassion, being governed by the will and methods of the Kingdom of God.

The book has been quite life changing for me. It has opened my eyes to so much of the purpose of the prophetic, it's hassles and joys, and has caused me to have hope for our church and our national church community. It has also given me understanding as to why so many churches (including my own) spurn the prophetic ministry. The prophet is one who stands up and challenges the status quo, and those who support it. Ie. the church leaders. Of course there will be conflict, and rejection and trial. But now that I understand it, somehow that makes it easier.

This book is for those who wish to see the church really become the community of faith that God desires, and for those damaged prophets who need some encouragement to carry on doing what God has called them to.

This paperback, a sequel to his "Prophetic Imagination", does an excellent job of integrating scholarship with contemorary insights into how these prophetic writings relate to current American life. I have used it successfully as a text in my university and theological seminary courses and believe it to be one of the best texts on the prophets of the exile. I will be using it next month in an adult Biblical class in a church. Dr. Brueggemann was a mentor and advisor of mine at Eden Theological Seminary in St.Louis and is one of the most prolific Old Testament writers today. A must for O.T. interpreters!

A timely work for our current need to face the disaster we are preparing and the hope for renewal we need. Brueggemann is one of the premier biblical scholars and theologians in the world today. I am using this book in an adult class. It has been well said and now is demonstrated in our contemporary life that we are already a people in internal exile. This book can help clarify our need and renew our hope.

One can appreciate the way Brueggemann reads the Bible. For all of Evangelicalism's rejection of Plato and its (rightful, if not always self-understood) suspicion of Hellenism, Evangelicals are thoroughly Platonic when it comes to thinking about the Biblical text.

Evangelicals see the Old Testament as one seamless unity in which all texts[i] have equal applicatory power to the life of the believer. Brueggemann shows how untenable that view is. While sensitive to the fact this is God's word, these texts reveal a highly dynamic sitz em leben. Not only do many texts of the Old Testament--moral and civil texts at that--not easily apply to today's life, they didn't even apply to the life of the "Old Testament" believer in many cases.[ii]

His Thesis

Brueggemann's thesis is helpfully summarized in the final pages of the book: Jeremiah urged "grief" in order for newness to come out of brokenness, a brokenness caused by idolatry. Ezekiel posited God's holiness as the only ground of hope, for only God's holiness remains "undeconstructed." 2nd Isaiah points the way back from exile with new community, new hope, and both by way of a "new memory" (131-133).[iii]

Brueggemann argues that 587 B.C. is a break in Israel's prophetic history (2). After the Babylonian exile, the Prophets had Israel's text--or better her "collective memory"--in a different way. For example, it would not have done any good to preach the covenant promises of Deuteronomy 28-30 to the captive community without radically altering the way they are applied. Therefore, the prophets--Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel--had to draw upon new applications of Israel's older memories. The older stories still work, but they have to work in a new way.

An Hegelian on Crack?

There are some difficulties with Brueggemann's project. Brueggemann sets forth the prophet as the critic of the Bourgeois. The prophet calls against the moral and theological compromise in the power circles. That is good and there is no problem with that. It appears, though, that there must always be a prophet who is critiquing a system that is always corrupt and is calling forth a new system which, too, will soon become corrupt.

It is not fair to critique an argument simply based on the implications of how some will apply the argument--and I largely agree with what Brueggemann is saying. However, it would have been interesting to see how he develops the same true insights in a new setting. In other words, it would have been helpful for him to "imagine" a more normative, yet morally just setting in which these prophetic insights could play.

Conclusion

Unlike other academics, Brueggemann writes with a rare passion for the "church" (leave that word undefined for the moment). He rightfully points out the liberal compromise (prostitution) with modernity and the conservative compromise with the status quo. He calls attention to our idols: sexual myopia, technology, and power. Following the early critics of modernity, he sees economics, justice, and sex as interconnected.[iv] Unfortunately, while Brueggemann is interacting with the text at all times, he is rarely doing exegesis. He is giving the reader excellent applications of certain texts, but is not always interpreting the text.

I only read this book because it was on such a list - and in London. I found it very disappointing.

Apparently, the author was attempting to use segments from the Hebrew scriptures as a takeoff point for US evangelical preachers, who see their time and place as one hostile to the gospels. I would be the first to see capitalism as possible idolatry, but frankly the book has no scholarly value because the connection of ancient Israelites with America is forced and contrived.

I was specifically referencing the book in relation to Deutero-Isaiah. The treatment of the aftermath of the Babylonian exile was a brief sketch, with far less insight or stimulation than scholarly works I have consulted. It included a few basic considerations, then on to application to modern America. The author well may have a strong background in exegesis, but here the Old Testament is merely a peg to show a perceived hostility in American culture.

I cannot see this book as valuable except, perhaps, to US preachers from non liturgical traditions.