Customer Reviews

Texts Under Negotiation: The Bible and Postmodern Imagination

5 star:		(1)
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After getting familiar with our Professor's earlier books from Fortress Press, I discovered his best hidden jewel! As he refers to the Counterworld of Evangelical Imagination, he states his thesis negatively: "If this evangelical infrastructure is not carefully constructed the congregation will rely on the dominant infrastructure of consumerism..." Positively, the open situation of the postmodern condition makes such an evangelical construal possible when the church works orally, locally, and in timely ways..." These positive and negative statements lead to more specific themes for his final chapter, "Inside the Counterdrama."

This general thesis becomes Bruegge's early approach to pastoral care, which he calls his discovery of "the finished self." As he often connects the intimate lament psalms of the Old Testament in giving voice to "the unfinished self" he refers to these in notes from both Rainer Albertz and Reinhold Niebuhr: "when the believing self turns to God in profound need & profound trust." This opens the door for him to use the pastoral psycho-therapy of Freud as "pastoral eschatology sounding the voice of petition that cedes one's life over to the purpose and power of God." This is a familiar theme of Prof Bruegge's class lectures!

His most gripping statement comes on page 67: "I submit this way of reading the text (and reading our life) contains enormously helpful access points for pastoral care. The Bible provides a script (not the only script available) for a lived drama that contains all the ingredients for a whole life."

From my intro into "Finally Comes the Poet," until my tenth trip into Bruegge's "Theology of the Old Testament" ...This gripping statement provides his bluntest, simplist, clearest formula for personal change and therefore spiritual growth!
Enough said for my whole-hearted vote of five stars!
Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood

Very well written discussion about how the postmodern imagination can bring new life to the Bible. Postmodernism is not an enemy of Christendom, but an opportunity. Good discussion on how scripture can be authoritative for Christians today. Defines and discusses the origins of modernism and postmodernism. The Bible has its own worldview. By telling all the Bible stories, people can place themselves into the greater Story.