An Introduction to the Old Testament: The Canon and Christian Imagination

There's a lot of good information in this book, especially if you are relatively new to Hebrew Bible ("Old Testament") studies. But there also lies one of its main flaws. In the Preface Dr. Brueggemann says boldly that, "the present book is my effort. . .to mediate and make available fresh learnings that will be of peculiar force for pastors and Christian congregations" (p. xi). However, the majority of the book is so obtuse that few pastors and/or members of congregations will be able to understand it. It is highly analytical, with technical terms, and theological jargon that complicate what he is trying to say. Once you work through all of that there is much value in what he has to say but, for the most part, it is lost to anyone who is not technically trained in biblical studies. Brueggemann calls the transmission of the Hebrew Biblical narrative "imaginative remembering," which is really a catchy way of saying that the story drives the facts, rather than the other way around. But then he never tells the story. He merely dissects and analyzes the scholarship of the last 150 years and the "story" becomes lost in a maze biblical scholarship. Scholar NT Wright, Anglican Bishop of Durham, England, in his brilliant The New Testament and the People of God, carefully lays out the importance of the story in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Many other scholars have followed suit on relating the importance of "story" (sometimes simply referred to as "the narrative) which embodies the meaning of the message. Current scholarship is fairly unanimous in saying that the theme of the Hebrew Bible is the story of "the faithfulness of God and the unfaithfulness of the People of God." The one example of faithfulness to God is the "ancestor" Abraham. Throughout the Hebrew Bible when YHWH identifies himself to the People of God he does so in terms similar to this: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob" (Ex 2:24, 3:6, 3:15, etc., I Chr 16:16, Ps 47:9, etc.) The faithfulness of Abraham is reiterated in Paul's letters to the Romans and Galatians and especially in the anonymous homily to the Hebrews (possibly written by the great Alexandrian Christian and rhetorician, Apollos (Acts 18:24-28). In Galatians and Hebrews Jesus' faithfulness to God is compared with the faithfulness of Abraham. What does Brueggemann do with this? Nothing. From pages 43-51 the section called "The Ancestors (Genesis 12 - 50)", although it embodies the story of Abraham, never focuses on his faithfulness, nor on its importance in either the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament. Yet following the story of Abraham's faithfulness the rest of the Hebrew Bible turns to the unfaithfulness of the People of God. That fact is railed against by the prophets, especially, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, and Amos. While the author mentions the documentary hypothesis of the Torah by German scholars in the late nineteenth century (an hypothesis lar

Brueggamann sets out to examine the Canon and Christian Imagination according to the Hebrew canon and often times, according Jewish interpretation rather than Christian. For the former, his order is: the Torah, the Prophets consisting of, The Former Prophets, - Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings; and the Latter Prophets - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. Then the scrolls of Ruth, Esther, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations and the Song of Solomon. Finally, he examines what he considers the revisionist historical corpus of I & II Chronicles, Ezra & Nehemiah, with Daniel arriving last. For the latter, I can cite his rejection of Paul's doctrine of the Fall, although he encourages a constant interpretative method akin to the New Perspectives (p38-39) and his insistence that the author of Hebrews `misread' Jeremiah 31 and completely missed the author of Jeremiah's intent (pg 189). On the other hand, Brueggamann deals especially well with Proverbs 8 as seen through the eyes of John's Prologue. Overall, until it comes to his disavowing of anything remotely connected to supercessionism, he presents a balanced view of Christian use of the Hebrew Scriptures. His path is not always what one would expect. While he uses historical criticism, his method involves the focus on what he calls the `end of the traditioning process.' For the author, it is not greatly important how a book came together, but the theology of the book in final form. For him, the process is far from over and should continue now that the canon has been delivered to the `interpretive community of the church'. He makes a strong case that the bible contains more light than a simple `reportage' view can give, and indeed, suddenly becomes a conservative Protestant as he makes his case that more study is needed. Further, he allows for God's work to be unexplained in the manner of normalizing the text and thus the canon through `imagination.' As he canvasses each book (the author splits Genesis into two sections), he moves always with the denial of the conservative position unsaid and instead launches into examining the completed structure with a mention of historical methods. Criticism is not his primary goal, but what the end theological statement is. In Deuternonomy (pg85-93) he starts with acknowledging the scholarly held theories of a priestly perspective in Genesis-Numbers and the Deuteronomic editors of the final book of the Torah allowing for compare and contrast of the two `voices.' He then examines the intentional shaping of the book around the speeches of `Moses' then proceeds to explore this option more thoroughly. He doesn't deny the `old roots' (pg91) of Tradition behind Deuteronomy but asserts that the final shape came to be no later than the 7th century. He does so by comparing this book to political treaties of the area at the time. As with each book, Brueggamann provides the reader with his own summary of the theological aspects of the work in review. The book is well written with the a

This is one of my favorite books on the `Old Testament.' What makes Brueggemann's analysis so compelling is his ability to offer a coherent and comprehensive reading of the Old Testament, while equally dealing with the difficulties, disunities, and flat-out confounding passages that fill the `Old Testament' cannon. Brueggemann does so by looking at, what he refers to as, the `Christian Imagination.' In short, Brueggemann is not as concerned with how the `history' of the Old Testament does or does not match up with the historicism of late scholasticism. After all, I think we can all agree that a person writing in the age of antiquity would have a substantially different method and/or intent in his or her written approach than would an eighteenth or nineteenth century historian. For starters, the Jewish writers of antiquity were writing a narrative history, not a history accompanied with narratives. This is an important distinction. In short, their end goal was to tell their story, which they also believed to be God's story. This story inevitably incorporated, and even required, elements of history; yet it was the story itself that always took first priority. Accordingly, Brueggemann's reading of the `Old Testament' is cohesive and coherent because he understands that it must be read as the narrative story of a historical people, not as a history of a narrative people.

Compared to Prof Brueggemann's other Old Testament books, my big surprise is a title of The Old Testament rather than The Hebrew Bible! Added surprise is a sub-title of The Canon and Christian Interpretation. In OT Survey classes he contrasted his approach between Jewish interpretation with Christian inter. So I noted his quotes in using the 4 I's of Interpretation, Ideology, Inspiration, and Imagination! They occur in the Intro and near the end of his chap on Torah. On Page 11 "Now it will occur to an attentive reader that these facts of the traditioning process-Imagination, Ideology, and Inspiration (my caps)-do not easily cohere with each other! Specifically the force of human ideology and the power of divine imagination seem to be definitionally at odds. Precisely! That causes the Old Testament, to be endlessly complex & problematic, endlessly interesting and compelling." This carried me back to 2002 sessions at Montreat and Columbia upon first hearing his process of interpretation: "The interface beween the canonical and imaginative is exactly the way in which the most responsible and faithful interpretation takes place." I can see & hear his trip from well-neglected notes on the podium up to the chalk-board, as he hastily wrote the Hebrew for his key scripture. In the dramatic Isa 6, after writing the "living creatures," he sailed down the steps, waving wildly his arms all around the wall of the classroom singing "Holy, Holy, Holy!" He seemed propelled alongside us into the living words of the Prophet. He earned his standing ovation! That was not the only Incident to stress his "Imaginative Remembering." My review of his process of interpretation in the Preface called to mind his statement: "You will not find anything new in my Introduction, since you heard it in all four classes!" I have yet to grasp his meticulous, continual thot about the generative work of the text in his process of providing an "alternative world" that invites faithful imagination! As usual he draws upon the giants of Amos Wilder and Raymond Brown. I am amazed at his memory in every class to give the right quotation, author, book, and even page number! In the Preface he outlines his plan to use the Hebrew Canon as the normative list of books organized into three elements: The Torah, traditionally, "The Five Books of Moses." The Prophets as Canon consists of, The Former Prophets, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings; the Latter Prophets of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel; plus scrolls of Ruth, Esther, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations and the Song of Solomon. Lastly, he considers the revisionist historical corpus of I & II Chronicles, Ezra & Nehemiah, and apocalyptic scroll of Daniel. In spite of many texts & scrolls his coverage is unusually clear and simple! Near endng his work on Torah he cites the characteristic task of Jewish teaching, nuture, and socialization to invite the youmg into the world of miracle...The preaching, teaching, and study of Torah is in order

I have been a fan of Walter Brueggemann, professor emeritus of biblical studies from Columbia Theological Seminary, since I encountered him through his text 'Theology of the Old Testament', which formed the basis of a course I took my first year in seminary. Brueggemann has a clear and strong writing style, coupled with definite and innovative ideas about the development of the Hebrew Scriptures as they have come to us.Brueggemann looks at things from a canonical perspective, ordering the books differently from what most Christians would be used to in their Bibles. Starting with the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, he then proceeds through the prophets and then to the writings. following the canon of the Hebrew bible, and a more likely ordering of original authorship. While all texts have gone through a processes of being handed down, often edited/redacted in the process, their original ideas or events occurred in a particular order.Brueggemann gives due respect to Brevard Childs and his ideas of canonical criticism while recognising that this can become a limiting tool, and so Brueggemann introduces the idea of imagination as a counter. True to form from his early text 'Theology of the Old Testament' and other texts, Brueggeman looks for the truth that resides in the tension between, in this case, in the tension between the normative and the imaginative becoming of the community.Brueggemann brings in the wide range of biblical scholars in the course of his study, ignoring very few noted names along the way. This makes his text an ideal book for introductory courses in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament for undergraduates and seminarians. Brueggemann also puts forward his own interesting arguments and interpretations for consideration. The study of the text requires considerations that are historical, theological, literary, social/cultural, and more. These are all dealt with, but in a manner different from most texts.The three broad sections of the text follow the Tanakh --Torah, Prophets, and Writings. This presents yet another tension for Brueggemann -- the tension between the historical claims and the canonical claims, which also become different from Jewish and Christian perspectives, and even within different Christian traditions. The development of scripture over time, Brueggemann states, is not a neutral academic process, but one in which formative processes and intentions have played a key role, but in which many of these underlying pieces have disappeared from historical view, and are generally absent from the direct text. Brueggemann sets up yet another tension between the ideas of imagination, ideology and inspiration, showing how ideas of these change over time, forming our interpretative paradigms along the way. Brueggemann calls upon the church to take up a traditioning process, one that is disciplined and faithful, one that avoids both 'confessional closure' on the one hand and 'rationalistic impatience' on the other.