I have heard Walter Brueggeman speak before and had read bits and pieces of his work, but after hearing him speak again this past weekend I picked up my dusty copy of The Prophetic Imagination and began reading. You are right that the language can be distracting at first glance, but after hearing him speak my ear seemed to be more in tune with his language and it seemed much more approachable this time around. After a while, the language actually became something I enjoyed. It is poetic and very inspirational.

I have to admit that this may be one of the most important books I’ve read in years. I don’t think I can ever read the bible and particularly the old testament the same way again. Through the lens of Walter Brueggeman, the Bible is a beautifully subversive political document that describes the hope of a new type of neighborhood/community/covenant full of justice, love, and peace.

One aspect that struck me as profound is that the royal consciousness (Imperial power) plays to our sense of despair. Despair and hopelessness is a key component to the continuation of the status quo and the entrenced powers of domination systems. I think that Christianity has bought into this by morphing its theology to insist that this life is doomed and has no chance of being saved. We have been taught that this life itself is evil and the only hope we have is in what may happen in the next life. That view of salvation leads to disempowerment which leads to despair which leads to apathy.