FI MessiahLifeways UnscriptedMagazine Fall2024 - Flipbook - Page 27
“ WA LT E R B R U E G G E M A N N ’ S
P R O P H E T I C I M A G I N AT I O N ”
BY CO N RA D L . K A N AGY
Recommended by: Warren Eshbach, Pathways
Institute Instructor / Messiah Village Resident
Who might be interested in this book:
Readers who enjoy biography, theology, and
who are interested in pursuing personal and
spiritual growth, as well as living in a more
peaceful society
There are two elements that make this book
important to me. One element is the biography
it gives of Old Testament scholar Walter
Brueggemann, a longtime theology professor
at several colleges and seminaries. Brueggemann’s
basic thesis is that when studying the Old
Testament, you have to take seriously the text,
what it meant when it was written, and what it
means in our lives today. He particularly zeroes
in on what some of the prophetic texts in the Old
Testament have to say to today’s situation in terms
of empire, fear, scarcity, and treatment of others.
The other part that is fascinating to me is that the
author off this book is a Professor of Theology
at Elizabethtown College, and he learned about
Brueggemann by reading his books off the shelf of
the college’s library. Through his reading, Kanagy
came to see how theology and sociology can be
complementary in telling the story of the God
of the Hebrew, Christian, and Muslim traditions.
He also advances the idea that God may be
dismantling the church as we know it to give
rebirth to something new.
The relevance for today's reader is that this book
explores polarity in today's world as a result of our
misunderstanding of the way that God calls us to
live. To change the ways of the world, we need to
draw closer to God.
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