Stephen Barkley
Walter Brueggemann is a giant in Old Testament studies. His official website currently lists 134 books including classics like The Prophetic Imagination and Sabbath as Resistance, numerous commentaries, and his magnum opus, Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy. My small review of Brueggemann’s The Spirituality of the Psalms remains one of the most viewed posts. Brueggemann is in a unique position, near the end of his illustrious career, to reflect on the field of Old Testament studies and how he fits into the picture. This is the task of The Book that Breathes New Life, a collection of thirteen articles and essays.
The essays are grouped under three headings:
- Biblical Authority
- Old Testament Theology in the Twentieth Century
- A Conversation with Other Theologians
The first section is a clear statement on how Brueggemann understands the Bible to be authoritative. The Bible is not a distant objective source with inherent authority. Instead:
Its only credible authentication is, finally, the readiness of a confessing community to stake its life on the summons of the text. But the church, with its excessive penchant for dogmatic certitude, and the academy, with its fascination with objective rationality, characteristically stop short of the evidence of communal obedience. (9)
Brueggemann acknowledges the (now generally accepted) truth that the act of interpretation shapes the text. In light of this, the text should be interpreted from multiple global perspectives, not just from places of power.
The second section gathers together six overlapping essays that examine the overall shape of the field of Old Testament studies throughout the twentieth-century. Brueggemann generously explains and contextualizes those who came before him, especially Gerhard von Rad and Walter Eichrodt.
These essays contain quite a bit of overlapping material which I found to be pedagogically helpful. As I worked my way through the later essays, I found myself anticipating his arguments. Brueggemann’s varying approaches to the same topic creates a rich topographic map of the field.
This section ends with “Biblical Theology Appropriately Postmodern,” an article where he explores his postmodern convictions. This appropriately leads to the final section where his postmodern interpretive perspective is challenged by dialogue with J. Richard Middleton, and Brevard Childs.
As you’ve probably guessed (if you’ve read this far), The Book that Breathes New Life is aimed more at students and academics than the general public. It is reliable overview of the field of Old Testament interpretation and an invitation for the next generation of global scholars to carry the discussion further.
Brueggemann, Walter. The Book that Breathes New Life: Scriptural Authority and Biblical Theology. 2005. Edited by Patrick Miller, Fortress, 2011.
