The Practice of Prophetic Imagination: Preaching an Emancipatory Word

Written by Walter Brueggemann Reviewed By Michael E. Littell

Although Walter Brueggemann has written much about preaching, The Practice of the Prophetic Imagination is his first sustained work on the subject in some years. It is a culmination of his mature thinking about the Old Testament and contemporary Christian ministry, and a reflection upon his earlier seminal monograph, The Prophetic Imagination (2nd ed.; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001).

Among the questions that have reappeared throughout his career, one of the most challenging is the practical one: “how does the preacher today relate to the prophets of old?” At times Brueggemann has spoken as though the preacher is the prophet, but in this most recent work he clarifies in the opening pages that the preacher is a scribe of the prophets. The net effect of casting the preacher as scribe is to allow the preacher to act as a free imaginer like the prophets, but also to bring the preacher into a tethered relationship with the texts of Holy Scripture.

The main question, however, is how to communicate God faithfully in a culture that has set itself against God. Brueggemann makes his argument in the six chapters. His thesis, reiterated throughout the book, is that “prophetic preaching is an effort to imagine the world as though YHWH, the creator of the heaven and earth, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ whom we Christians name as Father, Son, and Spirit, is a real character and a defining agent in the world” (p. 23; cf. pp. 2, 45, 71).

Chapter 1 focuses on the narrative clash between the world of Scripture and the dominant culture in which we find ourselves today. Brueggemann grounds his thoughts in Exodus, specifically in YHWH’s rescue of the Hebrews out of a seductive, dominant narrative managed by Pharaoh. Chapter 2 describes in more detail the imaginative fodder for prophetic preaching, which Brueggemann finds most clearly exemplified in the prophetic addresses to the kings of Judah and Israel.

In chapter 3, Brueggemann begins to elucidate the broad movements within prophetic imagination. He focuses on the invisibility of YHWH in prophetic utterance, which depends largely upon the assumption that the world is a covenanted place. In chapter 4, Brueggemann identifies what he takes to be the core of prophetic anger and dismay, which is the underlying empathy of the prophet for a society steeped in anti-YHWH modes of existence. He then demonstrates the pain which YHWH himself expresses throughout the speeches of prophets.

The final movement of the prophetic utterance is depicted in chapter 5, where Brueggemann argues that it is only from within the abyss of pain and loss that the prophet can run back to promises which are deeper than the quid pro quo offer of Sinai, and can appeal to the God of Genesis 18, of whom it is asked, “Is there anything that is too difficult for God?” Brueggemann argues that it is only from the vantage point of that elemental question that the prophets can begin to discern a future that is itself ex nihilo and unforeseen.

In chapter 6, Brueggemann closes the argument by contemplating the continuing mandate for prophetic pastoral work. He argues that the pastor must “empower and enable” his congregation for two things: “to relinquish a world that is passing from us” (p. 136), and, “to receive a world that is emerging before our eyes that we confess to be a gift of God” (p. 138). Thus the preacher is construed as something of a midwife between the passing and emerging worlds in which we live.

Readers familiar with Brueggemann’s work more broadly will find many familiar themes in this present work, but will be pleased to find in this particular book a complete argument, in contrast to the publications of collected essays. Those who are new to Brueggemann will find him insightful and stimulating, but may also be surprised by a number of his assumptions about the nature and flexibility of Scripture. Still, overall, the argument is tight, the exegesis is solid, and the insights are plentiful.

Unfortunately, in the final chapter Brueggemann discards his own assessment that a prophet speaks of a newness beyond what can be seen, and instead asserts that the preacher must help welcome the new moral, political, and religious world which is visibly emerging in our midst. By making such a move, Brueggemann sacrifices the insight that prophetic hope is based on a conviction that God is fundamentally doing something that is epistemologically beyond us, and in its place he seems to offer a nod to a vague cultural pluralism.

Nevertheless, no reader can put the book down without seeing new things in Scripture and gaining helpful perspectives on preaching. What we have in The Practice of Prophetic Imagination are the lively reflections of a man who has spent his entire career thinking about the task of preaching through the lens of the Old Testament. Brueggemann occasionally makes reference to Hebraisms such as the piel form of verbs and infinitive absolutes. Beyond such minor matters, however, the book is accessible to any thinking preacher, and especially seminary students.


Michael E. Littell

Michael E. Littell
Bethlehem College and Seminary
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

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