Psalms and Life of Faith

By Walter Brueggemann

Book Overview

Walter Brueggemann's unique gift of joining historical-exegetical insights to penetrating observations about the traumas and joys of contemporary lifeboth personal and socialis here forcefully displayed. Everyone who is familiar with his work knows the power of his speech about "doxological, polemical, political, subversive, evangelical faith: and about the ways such faith is enacted in the praise of ancient Israel and in the church.

Readers of this book will find fresh insight into:

the Psalms as prayer and praise

the categories of the Psalms

the social context in which psalms were prayed and sung

the theology of the Psalms

the dialogical character of the Psalms

justice and injustice in the Psalms

the study and "use" of the Psalms by the church

praise as an act of basic trust and abandonment

the impossible wonders of God's activity that overturn conventional ways of thinking and acting

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0800627334
• ISBN13: 9780800627331
• Release Date: September 1995
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

One whose writing, teaching, preaching, relating are Big!

Having read and/or perused, Finally Comes The Poet, Israel's Praise, The Prophetic Imagination, I decided to wade thru the waters of W.B.'s "out of the depths" of The Psalms And the Life of Faith! Chapter One is remarkable for 81 footnotes, most from Westermann, Wink, Ricoeur, Gunkel, Heschel, Buber and Barth. W.B. favors writing, speaking, thinking in pairs: "creation and Israel, sun and moon, prisoners and widows, loss of certitude and loss of power... On the one hand, the faithful power of God destabilizes, puts us at risk... On the other hand, the faithful power of Yahweh makes new and leaves us with abiding astonishment, healing, forgiven, restored..." Skipping over chapters to Pastoral care in the one he describes, Covenanting as Human Vocation... "distinct from a narrowly based psychology or counseling, means nurturing persons... into a fresh metaphor that holds the possibility of making all things new!" (What a magical wordsmith!)This description of Pastoral care illustrates W.B. as having researched Paul Tillich's Theology as basis for Pastoral Care. He most likely is familiar with the marvelous stories of Fred Craddock, Abraham Heschel and Martin Buber. All of the above are related qualities for good pastoral care. I am so convinced of W.B.'s genius for writing, teaching, thinking, preaching, relating, that I look forward to the possibility of auditing his fall class in the Prophet Jeremiah. Hopefully and Imaginatively, Chaplain Fred W. Hood