The Bible Makes Sense, by Walter Brueggemann

[wildeabandon]

I started reading this on the recommendation of my spiritual director, and finished it today. It's fairly short and easy to read, but packs quite a lot in. It starts by talking about different ways of looking at the world, and introduces the idea that the Bible's perspective is rooted in a covenantal understanding of history. Looking at the Hebrew Scriptures through that lens centres the Exodus, and the New Testament the Resurrection. He then goes on to talk about different kinds of writing in the Bible - those two core narratives, expanded narratives which surround them and explores the history of keeping and not-keeping the covenant (Judges through Nehemiah, Acts), what he calls the literature of institution - the history of community and religious organisation (later parts of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus), theological reflection (Deuteronomy, Romans), and finally instruction and Vocation (the prophets, Job to Ecclesiastes, Hebrews, most of the Epistles).

He goes on to discuss the strange and unusual nature of God as a promise-keeper, that God is with us and for us, that God keeps renewing God's covenant with us, despite our repeated failure to keep up our side of the bargain. It talks about the way that Jesus acts, again with a focus on the fulfillment of promises, and argues that as we see promises being kept again and again we can have faith that they will continue to be in the future and in our lives. He talks about God as Freedom-giver, Exile-ender, and Home-bringer. The last one in particular gets returned to throughout the book, and hit me, as they say, right in the feels. He spends some time talking about conversion and repentance as a central theme of the bible, and how that relates to the covenantal perspective, as well as how it can and should be seen through both an individual and a communal lens. He talks about life and death, and how more that the simple biological reality, in the Bible life is about relatedness and community, and death is exclusion from community, with each other, and also when we exclude ourselves from community with God. He talks further about life as both task and gift, and how these two aspects cannot be separated from one another.

He discusses the ways in which being invited into the covenant of God is an entry into a familial relationship, and he various ways this is illustrated throughout the bible, with langugage about slaves becoming sons and daughters, orphans becoming adopted children, and what that means in terms of having both a future and a vocation as part of God's family. In his final chapters, he talks about the communities of the bible - the Hebrews and the early Christians from whom in came, and the various ways in which later Christian communities have learned from and interacted with and commented on it, and the ways we continue to do so today. (Notably missing is discussion of later Jewish exegesis, which I suspect is outside his expertise.)

I read the book fairly quickly, but it has definitely already given me a sense of common thread which I think will help me as I return to the scriptures myself. It had recommendations for passages for reflection in each chapter, which I didn't spend any time with, and which I intend to return to when time allows.

Comments

[rosefox]

in the Bible life is about relatedness and community, and death is exclusion from community, with each other, and also when we exclude ourselves from community with God

seekingferret just pointed out this bit in the Gemara in which Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi says that if you see a friend after not having seen them for a year or more, you say the blessing for God as ressurector of the dead, because to be separated for so long is like the other person has died.

A thing a lot of modern Jews struggle with is the notion that someone who fails to observe Shabbat should be put to death, which is repeated several times very firmly toward the end of Exodus. I've seen it spun as "you need to rest or you'll work yourself to death"—that is, death is a natural consequence of failing to rest, not so much a punishment to be doled out. But also, if you work on Shabbat while the rest of your community does not, that's a profound separation. I get this from the opposite direction—people who are even slightly shomer Shabbos are few and far between, and by observing Shabbat (in my fashion) I put myself in community with them—but I live on the outskirts of an Orthodox neighborhood and it's given me a sense of just how disruptive it would be to visibly break the Sabbath in a community where keeping it was the norm. And because Shabbat is supposed to be devoted to study and contemplation, working on Shabbat is also a rejection of a major possible avenue of community with God. So... really not very distinct, in that metaphorical sense, from being put to death or seen as dead by one's community.

[wildeabandon]

Thank you for this comment - having concrete examples like this definitely makes my understanding feel more solid.