Excellent exegesis without the technicalities, exposition that brings the theology to life in practice, does not shrink from difficulties or resort to stereotypes. Writ large in life experience. He's been there, experienced that! It's all done with the artistry of the poet. I was constantly torn between wanting to read more and not wanting it to end.

The author's personal stories tied together with Bible passages left me with a lump in my throat. The first chapter about their wonderful family friend and domestic help, Bessie Grier, made me realize the innocence of some situations. A wonderful read.

James Lowry captures the real meat of life in these lyrical messages from his childhood and his lifetime in the ministry. Everyone will relate to some part of his experience and share his message of faith. His style reminds me of Fred Chappell and other fine southern writers.

This book is a profound indictment of many churches and synagogues today who fail to recognize the "counter-cultural" prophetic voice of the Biblical faith. Exploring the lives and teachings of Moses, Amos, Isaiah, and Jesus, Brueggemann rightly contends that our religious roots call us to be passionately critical of the cultural status quo and to embrace an energetic, optimistic vision of the future. A very readable, relevant critique which will challenge the views of liberals and conservatives alike.

this book will open the eyes of anyone who touches it i personally like the way it distinguishes the everyday culture from a now present but subtle counter-culture.

This book is counter-cultural in the best sense. It looks at Jeremiah, Isaiah and Ecclesiastes to demonstrate the need for different attitudes and expressions to begin the turn from sameness and despair toward change and hope. It remains one of the most important books in my life and often in the lives of people I have recommended it to. It is filled with astute observations in a clear, deliberate writing style, and it is not preachy. Phil Hey (hey@briar-cliff.edu)

When we chose Prof Bruegge's books to give away as Christmas gifts, one of those was Struggling with Scripture. It brings out one of his personal beginnings in the confirmation service by his Father. At that point he is given the Psalm verse, 119:105: "Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path." In his recorded memory, our good Professor says: "He did in that act more than he knew. Providentially, I have no doubt he marked my life by this Book that would be lamp and light..."

From his long and intimately personal love for the Psalms, he touches upon his early church tradition of "simple, irenic piety from the past..." One of those few pages in Bruegge's writings that he piles up both adjectives and adverbs like, "seemingly, utterly beyond me in its richness, concretely in my hands and unprecedented generativity!" When he comes out with creative linguistics and adds the emotion of his spoken words, it is enough to take you back into time and forward into what will surely follow...In his rapidly moving train of thought!

He touches Biblical Authority through the avenures of Inherency, Interpretation, Imagination, Ideology and Inspiration. In one of his first classes at Columbia Seminary when I was present he used these five huge words beginning with I's. That immediately hooked me into signing on for his Survey of Old Testament and next his Theology of the Old Testament.

Brueggemann's first Chapter lives up to the Preface comments by William Sloan Coffin...where he introduces Prof Blount and then Prof Placher and finally in more detail Prof Bruegge. I cannot say enough good things about this little gem of three chapters and delightful preface of Bill Coffin's. When you have heard these two similarly dramatic speakers then you surely will want to digest their magically miraculous, wondrous descriptive words. Gratefully, Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood

This is a good read, I would not suggest is a quick read. The authors are biblical scholars in their right (Brueggmann, Placher and Blount) and they give the reader food for thought. The book will challenge your thinking and maybe the way you look at the world. Don't read it if you are not honest with your struggle.

This is an excellent, short book. The authors have made it an easy read and it has a lot of food for thought. If you want to expand and challenge your mind, then this is a book for you. I would not recommend this book to anyone who does not want to be challenged or is not honest with their faith journey.

It is impossible to overstate how important this book is for us who yearn for the Gospel to be once again spoken with ardor and relevancy to our 'fearfully complacent' congregations/nation. This is the eighth of Professor Brueggemann's books I have read, and he is a critically needed prophetic voice in our very own wilderness.

"Finally Comes the Poet" is the descriptive title of my recently discovered 'theological tome.' For those of us who search the latest theological tomes for one that misses boredom-This is It!

Prof. Brueggemann engages one's creative imagination to describe the "generative power of biblical texts to summon and evoke new life." He considers "preaching as a poetic construal of an alternative world...whose purpose is to cherish and open the truth."

My review is a contrast, even unnecessary alongside the comments of Fred B. Craddock on the book jacket. "Here we have what we have come to expect from Walter Brueggemann; a fired imagination, harnessed and disciplined...offering what the gospel offers, that is an alternative world."

Brueggemann creates four possibilities for healing within the biblical texts in his chapter entitled, Numbness and Ache or The Strangeness of Healing: 1) We cannot alone work our own healing. It requires a priest. 2)Healing requires the submission of some thing of value. 3) Healing is the enactment of atonement... 4) The act of putting away the poison of guilt is done not by ourselves but on our behalf by the priest...

My prayer is for these poetic thouhts to move you to be challenged by our inspired Old Testament prophet-poet-preacher, who is totally at home in the New Testament...I Dare You!

Chaplain Fred W. Hood

In spite of another good review..., I cannot help myself from bragging on this great "Unfolding of an on-going conversation with this Jewish Book." Due to Prof Bruegge's repeated words that it's an amazingly complex Book...because the Jewish people are amazingly enigmatic, complicated people of history!

From Chap 4: Bodied Faith and Body Politic: "In older, seemingly better days the Bible spoke with a single voice concerning faith and morals... For over a century the dominance of historical-critical work has relativized the absolute voice of the Bible. His footnote, also uttered in Class: "The critique of historical-critism by religious conservatives, in my judgment is correct." Next is a surprise: "Historical criticism was not especially interested in theological interpretation!" (This is news to me.)

Before getting to Chap 4, I was struck by Bruegge's emphasis on, "The issue that Israel and Israel's God (and those who continue this line of reflection) must always face concerns pain..." He pursues this theme in the next two essays: The Embrace of Pain; The Rhetoric of Hurt & Hope: "What is it about the Old Testament that is so odd and disruptive and restless that refuses to behave itself...?" Soon after those utterances he explains this question, "that rhetorical world is odd and crucial because it mediates ethical reflection through 'disclosures of hurt and articulations of hope.' "

My favorite essays, also longest are 7, Old Testament Theology as a Particular Conversation; No 8, The Crisis and Promise of Presence in Israel. A favorite picture of his growing theology is an "on-going conversation" with the OT or other scholars... Eichrodt and von Rad. Plus, "the aniconic character of Israel's God implies more than an absence of images." He refers to the value of metaphors from such scholars as Sallie McFague. His favorite nouns besides conversation are speech, utterance, words of rhetorical questions. His opening prayers for each Class are filled with verbs like brood, command, confess, plead, praise, thank, yearn...also, often coupled in faith, generosity, love, pleasure, purity, silence, trust...evidence of his grouping in fives and sevens.

Since most of these essays have come from his years at Columbia, those who have studied there have watched his authentic, steady, consistent growth and mellowing into an ever-ready approachable Gentle-man! I would not have gotten so much out of this year's Old Testament Theology without his incredible, clearly-stated, expositions in related, on-going conversations... favoring an older student!
Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood

Until Brueggeman's Old Testament Theology was published in 1997, this was the largest dose one could find in one place. The articles in this collection were all previously published in journals and other collections, but tracking them all down would be a difficult task. Therefore, the volume is very worthwhile. Even in the light of his most recent publications it is still a useful collection for a couple of other reasons. First, these articles were produced over a period of a couple of decades, so the attentive reader can observe Brueggeman's biblical theology as it developed over his career. Second, many of the articles are sustained treatments of individual texts, the likes of which do not appear in his recent Old Testament Theology. Most importantly, these essays reveal the increasing impact of contemporary literary studies on Old Testament Theology. For all of these reasons this collection is a treasure and may be considered a prerequisite for reading Brueggeman's "Old Testament Theology: Testimony, Advocacy, and Dispute."

I was introduced to this text in a seminary class on Biblical theology and found Fretheim's discussion challenging and provocative. Fretheim demonstrates that the notion of a omniscient,omnipotent God simply is not borne out in the biblical narrative. Rather, we have a portrayal of God as one in a loving relationship with God's people. A loving relationship, by its very nature, implies give-and-take and no one party is allowed control or dominance. Fretheim demonstrates example after example in the scriptures where God is portrayed as influenced, persuaded, surprised,and even confused by the behavior of the people. This is a God who suffers when the people suffer, not a God who is above all and beyond human experience. I have had the privilege to hear Dr. Fretheim speak in person and he is an engaging and challenging theologian with much to offer both the professional student and the arm chair theologian.

Terence Fretheim's _The Suffering of God: An Old Testament Perspective_ is an outstanding book, particularly for those concerned with the long-neglected subject of Divine pathos. It is an excellent corrective for two equally disturbing trends in much of the currect thought about God: First, the view of God as a grandfatherly, essentially innocuous figure--Niebuhr's "God without wrath Who sent a Christ without a cross into a world without sin"; second, the view of God (especially prominent in certain Christian circles) as an omnicausal, impassive Unmoved Mover. Fretheim's book masterfully navigates between this latter-day Scylla and Charybdis.

The last five chapters of the book ("God in Human Form"; "God Suffers Because"; "God Suffers With"; "God Suffers For"; "Prophet, Theophany, and the Suffering of God") are especially insightful, beautifully complementing Abraham Joshua Heschel's thoughts on Divine pathos in _The Prophets_.

The concluding chapter--"Prophet, Theophany, and the Suffering of God"--is especially powerful. Today, the Prophets are mined primarily for eschatalogical and/or apologetic insight-- oftentimes, sadly, to the detriment of other, no less vital matters, such as the pathos of God. So very much may be learned from these remarkable souls, in whose words one cannot help but hear (i.e., apart from any prior philosophical convictions!) God weeping and raging, and not only for His chosen people, the Jews, but for all mankind and even the earth itself, its very flora and fauna (see, for instance, "God as Mourner" [pp. 130-36]).

The very idea of such intense Divine vulnerability is staggering, not to say liberating: No longer is one faced with an impassive God Who sits on high, micromanaging every last detail of history to His chosen ends; one sees how very _gracious_ God is, how He has entered into dynamic relations with the world in such a fashion the He, too, may suffer pain, rejection, abuse. As Fretheim makes abundantly clear, though, the ways of God are not the ways of man: Where a human would become bitter or callous or simply remove himself/herself from such suffering, God remains ever faithful, ever merciful. Even when judgement ultimately falls, one cannot divorce God's wrath from His pathos. Truly, His compassion fails not!

I cannot recommend this book too highly. It is essential reading for any who wish to enter into genuine intimacy with God.

To one of his more recent students in classes and lectures at Columbia Seminary, Prof Bruegge is already a Living Legend! In the beginning of every class there is his personal, inspired prayer to the "One Who Listens; Yahweh; Holy God; Giver of all our years; You, the God of Truth; You, You, You..."

Lately, in his OT Survey, I wrote a few snatches of his opening addresses to: "You, You, You giver of Life; You who are the One Sovereign Judge, King, Lawyer, Counselor...O God as we watch powers rise and fall, We watch ourselves, we watch and see the World. You who comes late and sometimes soon... Come quickly Lord Jesus!"

My thoughts often return to his opening prayers in every class. My wish for all of last year: "Why does not someone publish them?" So now we have many of them. From 1976: "You are the voice we can scarely hear..." From 1992, "Healing sovereign God, overmatch our resistant ears..." How many sparkling ways that he creatively addresses the Living Personal God! In these few weeks I have used this Jewel of Prayers, I have been particularly struck by the first group: "And then you; You...and therefore us; For how you hope; The other side of the street; Our true home." The second section that I have re-read is "A people with many secrets," and the 11th one, "The God we would rather have."

Dedicated to "a long stream of treasured colleagues of 25 years at Eden Theological Seminary and 17 years at Columbia...with thanks and appreciation." When I purchased this treasure in the School's Book Store, I first saw it in the hands of one of his friends from the Seminary Offices. Now the one who prays to the "Liberator, Redeemer, Emancipator..." will continue to be the one I know who includes his students in his caring compassion!
Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood

Brueggeman's finest exegesis is applied specifically to preaching in the 21st century. Application for today's preachers is powerful amidst a culture absorbed with materialism.

Although the first section moves just a little slow for the lay reader (he speaks of pyschological backgrounds in family relationships), the rest of the book is typical profundity as one would expect from Brueggemann.

In fact, this book is probbaly the most quotable Brueggemann to date (I've read about a dozen of his books).

Among the discussions: *The "dialectic" between PRAISE and COMPLAINT in the Christian life; *The concept of "othering" as the risky, demanding, dynamic process of relating to one who is not us; *Approaching God as EROS