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Brueggemann: Prophetic Ministry

Decent Essays

In the opening chapter of his book, Brueggemann looks at the alternative community of Moses as a model for the community built on the foundation of the prophet’s work and ministry. Overall, as Brueggemann suggests, “The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us.” (pg. 3) This community is supported by the work of Moses to criticize and energize communities by a promise toward which the community is encouraged to move. This community is very evident in the community of Israel. Moses’ mission criticized the Egyptian empire and helped energize the Hebrew people to exemplify a new community based on the belief of …show more content…

During Solomon’s reign, there is a denial of the Mosaic imagination and a total change which completely shuts out the freedom of God and allowed the king a control on power. Moses was a radical prophet and his mission was radical. Brueggemann sketches out his model for the prophetic imagination. “There needs to be a royal consciousness that is devoted to a satisfaction that is paralleled by an alternative prophetic conscience which is devoted to a covenant with YHWH.” (pg. …show more content…

I think he leaves the topic open for his readers to decide what will be the next move from here on out. He knows that some will simply not be able to bring themselves to following their call. Critique: Something that I appreciate about Brueggemann’s text is that the call for action must be fixed in grief first and foremost. There is no place in his vision for “suburban guilt”. I appreciated that he prophetic imagination required of us a personal connection with the pain of death and the difficulty of the less fortunate in our world. It can’t be faked. It has to be real and it has to be public. If it isn’t, then what is the point in doing all that we do to bring the glory to God? We are showing a half-truth to the public and with that it is difficult to grasp the God that we serve. I also appreciate that Brueggemann seems to leave the understanding of the text to his audience, as if to offer them to neither reject nor accept his arguments, but struggle with an unclear uneasiness throughout his very conversational text, as if there is something crafty waiting beneath the surface of 'consciousness' and 'imaginative' scholarly text. It’s really fascinating that Brueggemann makes the Old Testament come alive with 'alternative' views of widely spread stories and

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