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Prayers for a Privileged People

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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.

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.)

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.

Walter Brueggemann's Prayers for a Privileged People attempts to bridge the world we live in with the retreat we have in prayer life. In this sense, he looks as much to the newspaper as the Bible in choosing his prayer objects. While this approach may work in a collect, I found these prayers too impersonal for personal prayer.

Brueggemann's prayers are generally a page or two in lengthen and he organizes them into six sections: 1. Opening our hearts: The Collect, 2. Well-arranged lives, 3. The world in not safe, 4. Brick production, 5. Can we risk it? and 6. Choirs of hope. The topics he chooses are timely (e.g. Super Bowl Sunday, p. 25) and provocative (e.g. On Controlling Our Borders, p. 95).

I approached this book as a devotional. For me, devotional prayer follows a certain rhythm. My selfish heart needs to be warmed up. The ACTS format works to warm up the heart and push it into more generous realms known only to the head. By eschewing structure and rhythm Brueggemann leaves the supplicant to feel guilty and inadequate. While this may be a legitimate objective in a congregational prayer, where the typical worship service frames the collect with other forms of worship and prayer, the objective of personal prayer is more normally to build relationship with God and foster spiritual growth.

Stephen W. Hiemstra

Brueggemann is a brilliant writer. He is a hard-hitting theologian, but in the case of this book, he is a person just like you and me. I would recommend this book ot everyone, Christian or not. Brueggemann has captured humanity.

Bible students know well the name of Walter Brueggemann, retired professor of Old Testament from Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur GA and prolific writer and scholar. Brueggemann's students also know well his prayers; the professor launched his powerful lectures with prayerful poetry full of Biblical imagery and prophetic voice. Any study of Biblical texts, Brueggemann embodied, brings an encounter with the God who both gives life and demands our allegiance.
This volume of prayers engages the reader with this God.
But be ready to be shocked, pushed, pulled, challenged, and changed if you pray these prayers from your heart. As privileged people, we tend toward sloth, indifference, and ease. Yet a genuine encounter with God promises to unsettle. These pages offer no droning monotones that repeat familiar phrases or ask for Aunt Sally to be healed. These prayers connect us to the God of the universe, God's initiating grace and steadfast love, but also to God's passion for justice, God's desire for us to change, God's compelling ways that promise to renew our hurting world.
Brueggemann students may know about his scholarship. This book gives a glimpse into the professor's heart and faith. Life with God is dynamic, full of confession and honest struggle, sincere about the difficulties of faithfulness, especially among privileged people and a world of disparity and in need of healing and peace.
This book will feed your devotional life and inspire your faithfulness.