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An Unsettling God: The Heart of the Hebrew Bible

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Overview:

The heart of Brueggemann's "An Unsettling God" (which itself is a distillation of his larger "Theology of the Old Testament") is his statement that, "the distinctiveness of 'God' in Old Testament tradition concerns YHWH's deep resolve to be a God in relation." He goes on to flesh out what YHWH's dialogical (that word is key) relationships are like with his various partners: Israel, The (individual) Human Person, The Nations, and Creation.
I would recommend this book to nearly any Christian, as it is sure to shake up the rather static categories with which we often think of God, and give insight into the dialogical relationship that he sees as the heart of the Hebrew Bible.

(Here is the link to his larger Theology of the OT:http://www.amazon.com/Theology-Old-Testament-Testimony-Advocacy/dp/0800637658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272900757&sr=8-1)

(The following is a book review, about 1 single-spaced page per chapter, that I wrote for an OT Theology class for which I read this book.)

Chapter 1: YHWH as a Dialogical Character

Brueggemann begins his book by discussing how, "the word God is of course so generic that it can (and has been) construed in any number of directions." (1) He goes on to discuss how "God" can be understood as either a generic impersonal force for good as in Gnosticism or New Age thought. An opposite understanding is, one common in classical theology and popular Christian thought, he says, is to understand God "in terms of quite settled categories," and as "a Being completely apart from and unaffected by the reality of the world." (1) But he goes on to say that the God of the Bible (especially the OT), "does not conform to either the temptation of vagueness or the temptation of settledness," but is "a fully articulated personal agent." (2)
He then discusses how the theology of ancient Israel is in some ways taken from its surroundings in the ANE, but also transformed into its own distinct articulation. He says that, "the distinctiveness of "God" in Old Testament tradition concerns YHWH's deep resolve to be a God in relation." (4) This emphasis on relationship and dialogue is key to the entire book. It is precisely because of this emphasis on relational dialogue that he says that God cannot be understood as a fixed, settled entity. "This God," he says, "is always emerging in new ways in response to the requirements of the relationship at hand." (4)
The next section deals with, "Jewish probes of the dialogical." (5) He says that there is a need for Christians need to appropriate a "Jewishness in our ways of reading the text." (6) This is because, "a recurring Christian propensity is to give closure to our readings and interpretations, it is recurringly Jewish to recognize that our readings are always provisional." (6) He then goes on to discuss how God is a God in pathos. God's pathos, "concerns the engagement of YHWH with Israel and with the world, and therefore YHWH's vulnerability and readiness to be impinged upon." (9) Thus, "the peculiar character of this God is as available agent who is not only able to act but is available to be acted upon." (9)
Brueggemann laments in the next section that "much scholastic theology has reduced God to a monologue." (11) He articulates how there is give and take in the relationship between Israel and YHWH. He sums these up with the terms praise, promises, protest, and rebuke. "Praise is Israel's appropriate utterance toward the God who makes promises. Protest is Israel's appropriate utterance toward the God who offers juridical rebuke." (15) He goes on to say that, "the continuing outcome of such a rich, complex, and thick dialogical transaction is a lively relationship in which all parties are capable of candor, in which all parties are available for new possibilities." (15) "It is no wonder, " he says, "that the God of the Old Testament is cast as a person." (15) Thus, "every attempt to move away from the embarrassing particularity of the interpersonal entails a costly loss of that transformative dimension of faith. Scholastic temptations in theology tend to freeze the relationship and to stifle its dynamism." (15-6)
He then finishes the chapter by discussing how the biblical text itself is a result of this dialogic relationship. He says that the biblical text, which is surely a human document, "is at the same time, an act of divine revelations." (16) This dialogicality leads him to understand that, "the biblical testimony is revelation-as-human-imagination." (16) It is in this dialogue, that, "the human person stands alongside YHWH in engagement with the tribulation and wonder of the world." (17)

Chapter 2: Israel as YHWH's Partner

"YHWH has acted toward Israel in ways that are defining for both YHWH and Israel," begins Brueggemann in his second chapter. (19) Because of this, "Israel's existence is referred to and derived from YHWH." (19) Israel's very existence, a gift from YHWH, is rendered in two primary narratives, that of the ancestors and that of the Exodus-Sinai narrative. (20) Because if this initiatory act, "this relationship, marked by awe and gratitude for inexplicable generosity, brings with it the expectations and requirements of the sovereign who initiates it." (23) This is what is known as the covenant. Brueggemann rejects the distinction between conditional and unconditional in reference to the covenant. He says, "the attempt to factor out conditional and unconditional aspects of the covenant is an attempt to dissect and analyze the inscrutable mystery of an intimate, intense relation that, by definition, defies all such disclosure. YHWH is all for Israel, and that includes both YHWH's self-giving and YHWH's intense self-regard." (24) He prefers Sander's term, covenantal nomism, which subsumes law under covenant. "By inference," he says, "I suggest that grace must also be subsumed under covenant. Covenant is the larger, working category through which this witness understands its life with YHWH." He says that it is a distortion to attempt to sort out law and grace, because in the OT they are both spoken of within the category of covenant.
The primary response and obligation of Israel to YHWH is to love YHWH. (25) Another response is to do justice, which is a "specific and radical command, " that, "is to characterize the whole life of Israel." (28) He says, because of this call to justice, that, "there is ample ground for the recognition that Israel, as a community under obligation, is indeed a community of social revolution in the world." (29) In addition to its requirement of justice, another obligation is that of holiness. These two obligations are complementary, because, "the sovereign faithfulness of YHWH is for the world (thus justice)," and "YHWH's faithful sovereignty concerns YHWH's own life (thus holiness)." (34)
A key part of Israel's relationship with YHWH, "is that Israel did not respond to YHWH's goodness adequately or to YHWH's command faithfully; Israel thereby jeopardized its existence in the world." (39) The "historical mode of nullification is exile," which, "is indeed the defeat, loss, and forfeiture of life with YHWH." (39) But exile, he says, "is not exhausted in its geopolitical dimension. In the end, the exile is a theological datum concerning Israel's life with YHWH." (39) "In that situation of nullity, Israel is compelled to new ways in its practice and life of faith." (40) This includes repentance, grief, presence in absence (priestly disciplines and liturgy), and resilient hope for regathering. However, YHWH makes a "fresh turn toward Israel", articulated especially in the prophets, where YHWH would gather, love, heal, and forgive Israel. "Israel, in its new circumstance as a marginated political community, understood itself to be primarily a community of obedience." (50) Thus, Israel became, primarily, "a community of Torah piety." (50)

Chapter 3: The Human Person as YHWH's Partner

The third chapter of Brueggemann's An Unsettling God concerns the human person. What is interesting is that he makes no attempt to articulate an abstract anthropology, but instead says "the Old Testament has no interest in articulating an autonomous or universal notion of humanness," because, "its articulation of what it means to be human is characteristically situated in its own Yahwistic covenantal, interactionist mode of reality, so that humanness is always Yahwistic humanness or, we may say, Jewish humanness." (57) The Israelites made no attempt to think of humanity in the abstract, because all of life was understood within the context of the covenant, not outside of it. The physiology of humanity is spoken of primarily in "the categories of spirit (ruah), flesh (basar), living being (nephesh), and heart (leb)." (59) He again returns to the focus on YHWH by saying that, "the central concern of Israel regarding humanity, " is that, "the human person is a person in relation to YHWH, who lives in an intense mutuality with YHWH." (60)
In the next section, he discusses three aspects of the YHWH-human relationship and their corresponding actions. The first is sovereignty (on YHWH's part) and obedience (on the human's part). Then there is YHWH's fidelity and man's freedom in the world. The third is the "dialectic of assertion and abandonment." (65) On this, he says that YHWH has at his "core an unsettled interiority of fidelity and sovereignty. With reference to humankind as with reference to Israel, this unsettled interiority in YHWH has as its counterpoint in the partner an unsettled practice of deference and autonomy, each of which is endlessly qualified and corrected by the other." (66) He then discusses three "disciplines of humanness," which are listening (obeying), wisdom and discernment, and primal trust. Amidst the crises of life, the human in relation to YHWH is to practice complaint, petition, and thanksgiving, he says. "The loss of this standard practice of complaint and petition from theological perspective ...is precisely what has produced false selves. ...Quietistic piety and conformity moralism together have encouraged docility and deference that generate phoniness at the most fundamental levels of human existence." (81-2)
He also discusses the topics of praise and hope. Praise was especially expressed through Israel's Psalms. This complements the practice of complaint, because, "the lack of restraint in praise matches the lack of restraint evident in the complaints." (83) Israel's sense of human hope," he says, "is grounded in YHWH's faithful intention of abundance, which liberates humans from the driving grip of scarcity in order that they begin to act, in hope, out of a conviction of abundance." (88) He says that me need to "consider the ways in which this construct of human personhood, which eschews all essentialism and which stakes humanness on relatedness, contrasts with the predominant temptations of our self-destructive culture." (91)

Chapter 4: The Nations as YHWH's Partner

In the OT, the nations were presented both in relation to YHWH and through their relation to Israel. The OT view, he says, is that "YHWH holds sovereign authority over all the nations and all the nations must come to accept that rule." (100) However, this "Yahwistic claim, surely theological in intent, is never completely free of socio-economic-political-military interest. Israel as a witness, is not above giving testimony that serves its own interest and reputation." (100) He explores the theology of Genesis, saying that, "according to the juxtaposition of Genesis 9-11 and 12:1-3, moreover, the nations are with YHWH and under YHWH's sovereignty, even before the existence of Israel. But Israel's portrayal of the matter is, in the first instance, always aimed at keeping the nations in the purview of Israel." (102-3)
He discusses how within the biblical text there is both the violent destruction of the nations of Canaan, and the idea of being a blessing to the nations inherent in Abram's call. He also discusses a theme in some scriptures where Israel envisions the nations joining them in praise of YHWH, because (in Israel's view) "characteristic actions of YHWH are so compelling and so overwhelming that the nations will want to join Israel in praise on the basis of actions done for Israel." (107) Then he discusses YHWH's relation to the superpowers. Speaking of "oracles against the nations," he says that, "because of YHWH's massive, overriding sovereignty, these oracles assert that the nations are subject to a divine governance, a requirement, an expectation, no matter how secure and self-sufficient they seem to be or think they are. This governance, moreover, cannot be overcome, disregarded, or evaded." (110) He discusses the examples of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Persia. He says, "YHWH intends that there should be world powers, and that these world powers should indeed govern, but govern within the bounds of YHWH's mandate." (126) "The seduction to autonomy," he says, "is the temptation to absolutize power that appears to be absolute but is not. Clearly such absolute zing is impossible in a world where YHWH's sovereignty is said to be beyond challenge." (127)
Then he talks about a passage in Amos that challenges the idea that, "Israel is the only possible object of YHWH's transformative action." (129) "What happens in this striking assertion is that Israel's monopoly on YHWH is broken." (129) He then discusses how parts of the OT express YHWH's freedom with the nations, saying "YHWH in freedom has the capacity to recruit nations for YHWH's own purposes, even if those purposes are not the intentions of the nations, or even if those purposes run against the expectation of Israel." (131) The other side of YHWH's freedom with the nations is that, "YHWH's freedom is evident in YHWH's capacity, according to Israel's testimony, to terminate nations, even great superpowers." (131)

Chapter 5: Creation as YHWH's Partner

Creation, Brueggemann says, is "an outcome of YHWH's generous, sovereign freedom. No reason is given for YHWH's unutterable act of forming an earth that is viable for life." (138) Creation requires of and draws from people wisdom, righteousness, and worship. But beyond seeing the positives of creation, so too "Israel bears witness to the awareness that there is alive in the world a force that is counter to the world of YHWH, a force that seeks to negate and nullify the world as a secure place of blessing." (143) This force of chaos opposes YHWH and His rule, and "thus is posed a primordial dualism in which YHWH has the upper hand but is not fully in control, and so from time to time creation is threatened." (144) "This notion of an effective, powerful adversary to YHWH the Creator pervades the mythological world of the Old Testament." (145) However, many texts speak of this, "power of negation as a force now conquered by YHWH." (147) He discusses some prophetic texts that describe the exile in terms of the undoing of creation. "The exile of Israel concerns not just geographical displacement, but the cessation of life possibilities, the withdrawal of fruitfulness." (152) But, "Israel's witness does not leave the account of creation as YHWH's partner as a tale of termination, negation, and nullification." (153)
He then goes on to discuss how texts that discuss YHWH's destruction are also qualified. The flood story represents an undoing of creation, but YHWH remember Noah, and the earth is made safe again. Even in the destruction of Sodom, YHWH (via Abraham) is still concerned with Lot. In the plagues in Egypt, the Israelite's part of creation in which they lived was spared. He then discusses passages in Hosea and Isaiah that deal with the renewal of creation, saying that, "speech of new creation or re-creation or restored creation functions for Israel's emergence from the nullity of exile." (157)
Thus Brueggemann sums up three primary seasons that creation is seen in in the OT. They are the season of blessing, which is "YHWH's free sovereignty, devoted to the well-being and productivity of the world," a radical fissure, which is "most often understood as an act of YHWH's angry, sovereign freedom, and a radical newness, which comes, "in the face of devastating nullification, experienced by Israel in the fissure of its exile." (160) He concludes by saying that, "it is not in YHWH's character to be a God who settles for chaos." (160) He goes on to say that "in this resolve to new creation, YHWH promises to overcome all forsakenness and abandonment known in Israel and the world. When creation is abandoned by YHWH, it readily reverts to chaos. Here it is in YHWH's resolve, and in YHWH's very character, not to abandon, but to embrace. The very future of the world, so Israel attests, depends on this resolve of YHWH." (161)

Chapter 6: The Drama of Partnership with YHWH

Chapter six concludes Brueggemann's An Unsettling God with some generalities about partnership with YHWH. He reiterates as his main points "(a) the incommensurability of YHWH's sovereign freedom, (b) mutuality rooted in YHWH's generous pathos-inclined fidelity, and (c) the unsettled, always-to-be-negotiated tension of incommensurate sovereignty and mutual fidelity." (163) He suggests a general "dramatic movement for YHWH's partners," of "creation for glad obedience," to "a failed relationship," to "rehabilitation for a new beginning." (164) He says that, "this drama of brokenness and restoration is the primary ingredient of life with YHWH. He says that while this seems parallel to the pattern of creation-fall-redemption, it is actually different because, "Israel is not consistent in its judgment about how human persons end in the Pit. It never occurs to Israel to reduce entry into the Pit to guilt or anything like `the fall.'" (165) He refers to this movement as, "a drama with profound risk and enormous dynamic, in which none of YHWH's partners have any continuing power of their own. In the end, they are summoned outside themselves, in order to rely on this One whom Israel confesses to be uncompromising in sovereignty, but moved to always new measures of fidelity."
He then moves to Israel's articulation of YHWH Himself, set in the context of relation, "because YHWH is always YHWH-in-relation." (167) He is described as having "self-giving engagement," as "one whose incomparable power is not simply for the celebration and enhancement of YHWH's self, but for the generation of a partner." (168) He is also described as rejecting autonomy. He does not allow any of His partners to possess autonomy because, "YHWH's self-regard is massive, savage, and seemingly insatiable. That self-regard sets boundaries to YHWH's initiatory generosity." (168) He is also seen in "life-denying fissure." (168) Another characteristic of YHWH is that he is mobilized by cries from the Pit, because "YHWH is inclined toward and attentive to those in the nullity." (168) Lastly, He is described as giving "the miracle of radical newness, "a newness that the partners cannot work for themselves." (170)
He finishes by discussing "materials for metanarrative." (170) The work of Old Testament theology, it seems to me," he says, "is an articulation of a metanarrative that is a strong contrast to the metanarrative currently available in our society (and in the church, to the extent that the church also partakes of the dominant narratives of society." (170) He defines metanarrative as, "a more-or-less coherent perspective on reality," but qualifies this by saying he wishes to respect the diversity of the text and not engage in reductionism. In contrast to Enlightenment despair, he says we need to learn from Israel's hope. "Israel refuses to accept that any context of nullity -exile, death, chaos- is a permanent conclusion to reality. Israel, in such circumstance, articulated hope rooted not in any discernible signs in the circumstance, but in the character of YHWH." (173) "All of this requires confidence in an agent outside the system of defeat. Enlightenment liberalism, which sets the liberated, self-sufficient human agent at the center of reality, can entertain or credit no such agent outside the system." (173)

An Unsettling God : The Heart of the Hebrew Bible by Walter Brueggemann is an honest reading. It is an honest grappling with the text of the Old Testament. John Goldingay's remarks however summarize this reading succinctly. He notes, ""An unsettling God? 'An unsettling Walter Brueggemann' some of my students would say." This book is a real look by a real scholar concerning the peculiarities of the Old Testament concerning YHWH as a dialogical character and His partnership with Israel, the human person, the Nations, and Creation.

This text itself is a condensing of Brueggemann's larger work, "Theology of the Old Testament". In the Preface he lets us know that "The big idea of this book is that the God of ancient Israel is a God in relationship, who is ready and able to make commitments and who is impinged upon by a variety of "partners" who make a difference in the life of God." (pg. xi) Indeed a God in relationship "pervades the Old Testament".

In the first chapter Brueggemann suggests Christians "in the present time" are to undergo a "recovery of the Jewishness in our ways of reading the text." (pg. 6) He says that "a recurring Christian propensity is to give closure to our readings and interpretations, it is recurringly Jewish to recognize that our readings are always provisional, because there is always another text, always another commentary, always another rabbinic midrash that moves beyond any particular reading." He also discusses Martin Buber and his likewise dialogic reading of the text. There is truth to this but we cannot get leave it here. Even as we read the text, all the while understanding a dialogic nature, and then re-read the text again and again over time we still glean truths that emerged from our initial readings. The meaning is then found in a relational aspect since much of the Scriptures appear to be pregnant with meaning. This should not mean however that there is no discernible meaning even at first reading.

He goes on to discuss how God is a God in pathos. God's pathos, "concerns the engagement of YHWH with Israel and with the world, and therefore YHWH's vulnerability and readiness to be impinged upon." (pg. 9) He mentions the work of Abraham Heschel concerning YHWH's pathos. He then writes, "the peculiar character of this God is as available agent who is not only able to act but is available to be acted upon." (pg. 9) He also notes the work of Jurgen Moltmann and the ways Christian theology has "asserted the apatheia of God...by acknowledging the suffering of the Son in which the Father does not participate." (pg. 10) Moltmann believes that "it is necessary to talk in trinitarian terms" concerning "what happened between Jesus and his God and Father on the cross..." He also notes "The Son suffers dying, the Father suffers the death of the Son." (pg. 11) Brueggeman agrees here and says that "Moltmann's statement is completely congruent, in the categories of Christian theology..." For Brueggeman God is "deeply at risk in the drama of fidelity and infidelity in the world." (pg. 11)

In chapter five Brueggeman goes on to point out that "YHWH takes creation--the whole known, visible world--to be YHWH's partner." He points to Genesis 1-2 as obvious example and says others not so obvious. He cites various passages in this chapter including Psalm 19:1-4; Psalm 24:1-2; Psalm 104:14-23. He defines creation as "the network of living organisms that provides a viable context and home for the human community...an outcome of YHWH"s generous, sovereign freedom." (pg. 138) Often times we do not take into account God's role with creation. Brueggeman rejects Creation ex nihlo and posits that God "ordered the 'preexistent material substratum.'" (Pg. 138)

He goes on to note that creation includes "human creatures but not especially human creatures--are looked after, cared for, sustained, and protected by the generous guarantees that the Creator has embedded in the creation." (pg. 139) YHWH gives the "blessing of life" as "guarantees for all creatures" (pg. 141) and wisdom compels us to give attention to things that "keep the world generative." (pg. 141)

Speaking of a "Renewed Creation out of Hopelessness" Brueggeman brings out attention to Hosea 2:2-23. He notes that on the basis of this text that "the future to be given by YHWH, it is no longer possible to keep distinct the future of Israel and the future of creation..." (pg. 157) He takes us into many texts but cites Isaiah 65:17-25 and says that the "new creation now promised concerns not only Israel, not only the entire human community, but also all of creation, so that hostilities at every level and in every dimension of creation will be overcome." (pg. 160)

Brueggeman concludes that there is a "basis for a genuine alternative to the nihilism of the modern world...This testimony of Israel, echoed by Christianity, not only gives different answers--it insists on different questions, wherein the answers offered are...tenuous...the intramural quarrels in the church, and the ancient alienations between Christians and Jews, are unconscionable...when this lean, resilient tradition stands as a fragile alternative to the embrace of the Nihil." (pg. 176)

This book is not for the faint of heart, or the "weekend warrior". If you are a student of the word and want to dive into the heart of the Hebrew Bible then read this book. You may not agree with everything but you will learn something.

I first encountered Walter Brueggemann's project as a senior at Milligan College, but I really became a disciple of Bruggemann's in 2000 when as a seminarian I read his gigantic 1997 Theology of the Old Testament. Here was a teacher who certainly wore his ideology on his sleeve (no friend of the Enlightenment's arrogance or the national security state's duplicity here) and whose attention to relationships between texts still impresses me a decade later. I've since had the privilege of attending a few of his public lectures, and this book continues to remind me why being a disciple of Brueggemann is still the most faithful way to read the Bible that I can figure out.

Brueggemann states in this book's introduction that, after ten years, he had decided to revisit some of the central ideas of Theology of the Old Testament, and at several points in the book he retracts certain points of technical scholarship (that is to say, stuff that's so specialized that eight years in English lit have rendered me unable to sustain interest in them), but his more interesting project is to expand significantly on his idea of theology as a dialogical practice.

The idea, although it uses a Hegelian-sounding word, is really just a recognition of the relationships implicit in the Bible: for one, the voice known as YHWH becomes known not by rational deduction but in disruptive, memorable moments of revelation. Moreover, most of the text of the Bible (with very important exceptions) has to do with YHWH's relationships with the Abrahamic clan, then with the Hebrews, then with Israel, then with the Church. The continuities and discontinuities in that succession of relationships is worth thinking on, but the common thread that Brueggemann highlights is that YHWH always and only comes to us in relationship with other entities, and each section of the book treats one large category of those relationships.

After the first introductory section, section two deals with "Israel as YHWH's Partner." Brueggemann breaks up the classical Protestant dualism of works and grace in the opening of this chapter and reminds his reader again and again that it's simply inadequate to the Old Testament. Israel's ethical obligations are real and binding, Brueggemann insists, but those obligations only make sense as responses to entirely gratuitous acts of grace on YHWH's part (38). Moreover, Biblical narrative tends to follow a pattern, though not slavishly, that gives the lie to the hermetic separation of grace and obedience. The steps to that pattern Brueggemann lays out thus (52):

* love for Israel (God's election of Abram, God's rescuing Israel from Egypt)
* command to Israel (covenant of circumcision, Torah of Moses, institution of Torah-cultus by Josiah)
* scattering of Israel (era of oppression after the Exodus, Assyrian conquest, Babylonian exile)
* YHWH turns back to Israel (Isaiah 40, restoration of Hosea's wife and children)
* gathering back to YHWH (rise of Davidic monarchy, return from Babylonian exile)

Brueggemann argues that not only is the overarching narrative of Israel shaped roughly thus; in addition, the Psalms often reflect this narrative sequence. And beyond that, texts like Job, which treat non-Israel individuals, often follow a similar pattern (59). And beyond that, oracles against the nations in Isaiah and other prophets, not to mention the primordial story of the tower of Babel, indicate that the same series of relationships governs how the Bible imagines non-Israel nations (134). And beyond that still, some prophetic oracles, especially those that envision re-enactments of the Exodus plagues, imagines the same series of relationships governing God's relationship with the whole of creation (149). To repeat, Brueggemann is not asserting that every section of the Bible adheres in some sort of neo-classical manner to this pattern; instead, what Brueggemann would point out is that the relational moments (oracle and text, revelation and recipient of revelation, witnessing people and witnessed-to nations) in which the faithful always encounter God extends, in the Bible's imagination, to every relationship that God maintains with every part of creation.

Brueggemann's point here is that the Bible does have a full and robust sense of providence, but that providence is always in tension with an equally full and an equally robust sense of real and powerful agency on the part of YHWH's partners. In other words, although the most frequent and often the most memorable testimonies about God in the Bible are in regard to YHWH's power, authority, and sovereignty, for Brueggemann (and as I said before, I think of myself as his disciple), when a theological datum arises to disrupt that larger picture, the faithful reader of the Bible must take heed and resist the urge to erect systems that silence the datum.

Datum, of course, is the singular where "data" are plural. (My own composition students know well that in my classes, even if not on the cable news, "media" and "data" are always plural.) What Brueggemann means by a theological datum is one of those moments of revelation in which, contrary to the conclusions to which mortals come, God reveals something. Perhaps it's that the sins of mortals actually increase divine wrath, indicating that there was less wrath before the sin and more after and that, therefore, something at the core of divine being really does respond to human agency. At other times a theological datum might be a story in which a mortal's pleading convinces YHWH to refrain from massive destruction. At any rate, contrary to some systematic theologies that make a regular practice of dispensing with such moments as "anthropomorphic" or "primitive," Bruggemann insists that, so long as they share the page with the texts that support systems of theology, they deserve the same sort of weight as those texts bear, even if that means that the text remains paradoxical rather than neatly sorted.

Perhaps it's the English major that I completed before I started seminary, or perhaps it's the sense I have that airtight systems of thought, be they materialistic or theistic, tend to miss some important things about real life, but I remain convinced that this absolute devotion to the text as it stands is going to continue to govern my own theology as I go on teaching and preaching. Brueggemann's book concludes with his expressing a hope that this sort of reading will inspire "different questions" (176) from the ones that theology has classically inspired. If my own career as a Christian teacher counts, it's working already.

Faith is like a language. You have to learn it. You have to practice it. You have to have people teach you what it means to be faithful. And there are few teachers that are more thought provoking, challenging, and patient than Walter Brueggemann.

In many ways, Brueggemann forces us to consider whether or not our assumptions about God are rooted in the biblical witness. And in a generation that has a loose commitment to biblical authority, it seems that this book is timely.

It is short enough to be approachable for a novice, thoughtful enough to stimulate scholars, and for everyone in between, it will break down poor assumptions that hinder the most faithful and resurrect a passion for the God of the Old Testament.