Newer approaches to biblical interpretation can address the multiple (and sometimes contradictory) biblical traditions, the significance of different communities of readers and their respective histories and contexts, interdisciplinary insights, and the theological implications of our interpretations, among other things. It is a daunting task, but in The Emancipation of God: Postmarks on Cultural Prophecy, Walter Brueggemann uses these specific approaches to offer new insights on the Bible and its meaning for a life of faith amid today's seemingly intractable divisions. This book is an important resource that will serve us well.
The Emancipation of God: Postmarks on Cultural Prophecy
Understanding the gospel as emancipation has been central to Walter Brueggemann's biblical interpretation. This book illustrates the theme's centrality, addressing the emancipation of God from our attempts to control, the emancipation of the church to be the people of an emancipated God, and the emancipation of the gospel to be a cultural prophecy.
This volume divides into three parts: "The Emancipation of God," "The Emancipation of the Church," and "The Emancipation of the Neighborhood." What the three parts hold in common is the kingdom of God. In each chapter, Brueggemann grinds away at biblical texts that have been muffled, silenced, and disabled to free the text from its cultural entrapments so that that the liberated text can speak for an emancipated God and a liberated church to free the world.
- Publisher Fortress Press
- Format Paperback
- ISBN 9781506498232
- eBook ISBN 9781506498249
- Dimensions 5.5 x 8.5
- Pages 256
- Publication Date January 30, 2024
Endorsements
Cheryl B. Anderson, professor emerita of Old Testament, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
This collection is a rare gift for all interpreters and proclaimers of biblical texts for church and culture. Walter Brueggemann continues to be the most significant biblical theologian speaking to church and culture in our day. The Emancipation of God gives us all the revealing opportunity to see him at work; he clearly identifies his method and then illustrates it immediately in the first essay on the debate over the Bible and human sexuality. Brueggemann regularly shows tensions in biblical texts and how he navigates those tensions. In three parts he mingles pieces on the emancipation of God, the church, and the neighborhood. Don't miss this jewel of delightful and remarkably crafted biblical interpretations.
H. Bellinger Jr., professor emeritus of religion, Baylor University; author of Psalms as a Grammar for Faith and Introducing Old Testament Theology