The Word Militant: Preaching a Decentering Word

by Walter Brueggemann

Against the easy assurance of a too-enculturated religion, Walter Brueggemann refocuses the preaching task around the decentering, destabilizing, always risky Word that confronts us in Scripture - if we have the courage to hear. These powerful essays, previously available only in journals, are here combined with a newly composed preface and introduction. Includes a foreword from the Reverend William H. Willimon.

Contents
Foreword William H. Willimon
Preface
At Risk with the Text
1. Preaching as Reimagination
2. The Preacher, the Text, and the People
3. Ancient Utterance and Contemporary Hearing
4. An Imaginative 'Or'
5. That the World May Be Redescribed
6. The Social Nature of the Biblical Text for Preaching
7. The Shrill Voice of the Wounded Party
8. Life or De-privileged Communication
9. Preaching to Exiles
10. Preaching a Sub-version
11. Truth-telling as Subversive Obedience

Genres: Theology

212 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Walter Brueggemann was an American Christian scholar and theologian who is widely considered an influential Old Testament scholar. His work often focused on the Hebrew prophetic tradition and the sociopolitical imagination of the Church. He argued that the Church must provide a counter-narrative to the dominant forces of consumerism, militarism, and nationalism.

Reviews

[Denise Sudbeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book may be about preaching but it's starting to play an influential role in my theological dissertation as well.

[Lisa Lewton · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy read and hearing this author, you will probably rate this book highly. It is written as a series of essays about preaching, dedicated to his seminary classmates. There is wise digging in these words into the prophet’s proclamations. And there is hopeful news for preachers and churches clinging to a subversive gospel in a power-mongering culture. Although it is written in 2007, it may as well have been written yesterday.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I keep getting asked to preach...