12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
praying from complicity to candor, November 21, 2008
This review is from: Prayers for a Privileged People (Paperback)
For over thirty years now, Walter Brueggemann (b. 1933) has combined the best of critical scholarship with love for the local church in service to the kingdom of God. Now a professor emeritus of Old Testament studies at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, Brueggemann has authored over seventy books. Except for a three-page preface, this entire book consists of eighty-six prayers organized around six broad themes. There is no conclusion, no index, or any bibliography at the end of the book. I found myself wishing that Brueggemann had concluded with a theological-pastoral reflection on the theme of "privilege" as he sees it now in the eighth decade of his life.
Some of his prayers reflect on specific passages of Scripture. Others take their cue from the calendar, like those for Super Bowl Sunday, Income Tax Day, or Mother's Day. Still others follow lectionary days like Epiphany or Easter. The psalm-like poems or prayers embody the ancient maxim of lex orandi, lex credendi, that the way or law of prayer is the way of believing. They combine the prophetic-transgressive and the pastoral-compassionate, and demonstrate just how subversive is the act of prayer for those of us who are all too comfortable with privilege, safety, control, and competence. These prayers lead us toward a spirit of true candor about God, ourselves, and the world. I highly recommend this little gem of a book for both personal and liturgical use.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poetic Prayers, September 15, 2008
This review is from: Prayers for a Privileged People (Paperback)
I have never seen prayers like the ones Brueggemann prays here. They are powerful; they get the congregation's attention; surely they get God's attention. What a feel for the language! I am new to the worship field, although I have written for decades. My pastor has powerful prayers, and I am beginning to get the feel of public prayer, but this is a model of praying that I will work hard to approach. (Work hard = become more spiritual.)
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excavating Hope, July 6, 2009
This review is from: Prayers for a Privileged People (Paperback)
This little volume presents the unfiltered and unflinching personal prayers of a brilliant professor who has dared to utter a faithful "truthiness" that is much needed in our world. These prayers may come as a response to a sacred text. They may arise as a response to changes in seasons (liturgical or otherwise) or perhaps to the events of nation-states.
Whatever the fuse that ignites these inspired prayers, it ultimately doesn't matter. Scriptural themes, Psalm-like intonations, political views, psycho-therapeutic analysis of self and country, poetic license, and prophetic calls for a new way all bubble up together in these words of faith. Holy writ and world-event build together in stark and beautiful conversation.
Keep in mind that this God-talk is not filled with the saccharine-sweet, comfortably sanguine language typically associated with "church" settings. No, those sorts of words are jettisoned here (along with theological jargon) in favor of the sort of risky vocabulary that can only be drawn from faithful exegesis, keen awareness of life's wounds, and harsh honesty.
Brueggemann's prayers are blunt. They dare touch upon such themes as unfulfilled waiting, the sobs of lament, the violence of culture and governments, the inhumane treatment of the poor, and the tattered reality of broken dreams. Still, there remains the low, faithful (and sometimes even playful) rumble of a voice that will not yield hope. It is a pastoral voice that is needed not just (and obviously) in those broken regions populated by the ostracized, dehumanized, or vilified. No, it is a voice also needed among those blinded by affluence and caught in the "less-than" lives of misplaced excess.
Prayers for a Privileged People will not be the book that ranks among Walter Brueggemann's most important in the eyes of history or academia. This is the way it should be. Yet, what this little book may do is touch more hearts and awaken more souls than any of this professor's world-class scholarship ever will. Here's hoping.
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