It’s not often I read the same book twice. For Prophetic Imagination, I made an exception. This book, originally published in 1978, is the place where Brueggemann “more-or-less found [his] own voice” (xiii). His analysis of the prophetic ethos has formed the way I understand the prophets. The confluence of a research paper assignment and a new 40th Anniversary Edition motivated me to reread this classic. Let’s begin with Brueggemann’s big idea:

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. (3)

This prophetic task is rooted in the radical break Moses made with Egypt. This break is twofold. First, the “religion of static triumphalism” is replaced with “the alternative religion of the freedom of God” (6). Second, the “politics of oppression and exploitation” are replaced with a “politics of justice and compassion” (6). Next, Brueggemann draws comparisons between Egypt and Solomon’s court. “The entire program of Solomon now appears to have been a self-serving achievement with its sole purpose the self-securing of the king and dynasty” (23). Solomon’s court can be described by three interrelating factors:

1. Economics of Affluence
2. Politics of Oppression
3. Religion of Immanence

The royal ideology that marks Solomon’s court is not all bad. It did offer two theological contributions: creation faith, and messianism (34–35).

The prophets challenge royal ideology in two ways. First, “It is the task of prophetic ministry and imagination to bring people to engage their experiences of suffering to death” (41). Kings believe their reign will last forever. The prophets mourn what the kings refuse to see. Second, the “It is the task of prophetic imagination and ministry to bring people to engage the promise of newness that is at work in our history with God” (59–60). Out of death, new life and hope are possible.

Brueggemann closes his book by describing how these two aspects of prophetic ministry are exhibited in Jesus’ life. Here is where my first critique of the book lies: Brueggemann doesn’t go far enough. He closes by speaking of how “[t]he resurrection is a genuinely historical event in which the dead one rules,” presenting this as the paradigmatic moment of prophetic hope. I would suggest that the paradigmatic moment of hope comes at the completion of Jesus’ ministry when he pours out his Spirit, giving new life and hope to all flesh. (I’m indebted to Frank D. Macchia for helping me to see Pentecost as the climax of Jesus’ Incarnation.)

My second critique involves Brueggemann’s “Postscript on Practice” (121–25). He argues that “Prophetic witness is a mind-set” (125) and that prophetic practice involves the “interplay between prophetic texts heard imaginatively and concrete practice” (125, emphasis original). By concrete practice, Brueggemann speaks of ministries that cross racial boundaries and challenge socioeconomic barriers. I would add that the gift of prophecy as described in the New Testament and practiced globally today is also a significant source of prophetic imagination that both announces death and brings newness.

These two criticisms are admittedly tangential to the point of Brueggemann’s work. It is certainly a book worth reading more than once.

Brueggemann, Walter. The Prophetic Imagination. 40th Anniversary Edition, Fortress Press, 2018.