Role of Old Testament Theology in Old Testament Interpretation : And Other Essays

Essays by the renowned Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann, revealing the development of his understanding of the biblical texts.

This collection of essays is drawn from a series of previous collections to which the author has contributed that were designed to honour senior scholars in the discipline of Old Testament study. Each of these essays reflects a distinct intention depending on the nature of the original collection in which they appeared and the scholar who was being honoured. Taken together, however, this collection amounts to an articulation of Brueggemann's distinctive approach to theological interpretation of the Old Testament. Already in his major volume on Old Testament theology, Brueggemann proposed a dynamism of tension, dispute, and contradiction as the text of ancient Israel sought to give voice to the mystery of God as a sustaining and disruptive agent in the life of the world. Over a long period of time, this collection reflects the author's growing clarity about the task of Old Testament theology. It further reflects on the nature of the biblical text and the way in which the God who inhabits the text runs beyond all of our attempts to define and explain. These essays reflect not so much on methodological issues, but take up the substantive questions that regularly occupied these ancient text-makers.

Walter Brueggemann is William Marcellus McPheeters Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia. He is former president of the Society of Biblical Literature and the author of numerous books, including A Pathway of Interpretation, David and His Theologian, Divine Presence amid Violence, and Praying the Psalms.