Creative Word: Canon As a Model for Biblical Education

by Walter Brueggemann

The author analyzes the theology and function of the three divisions of the Hebrew Torah, Prophets, and Writings.

Genres: Theology, Education, Religion, Old Testament, Christian

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

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

[Andrew “The Weirdling” Glos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a superb exploration into the power of the Bible, it's ability to create and shape our worldview and hence our world. Written by someone who is arguably the single greatest Old Testament scholar of the last several decades, he elucidates the ways in which scripture functions in communities of faith and in our own lives. He uses those explorations to show ways it can further function in order to be a liberating and healing presence in our modern world.

Most of Brueggemann's writings explore specific issues and minutiae of the Hebrew Bible, it's text, and the ways in which that text can be interpreted for modern hearers. Creative Word is a little different in that is gives us a deeper look at the underlying thought process which Brueggemann employs in this other works. We see here something of his whole philosophy for how the Bible "works", how it should, and also how it should not.

This is a must read for Brueggemann nerds, Bible nerds, and theology hounds.

[Phillip Nash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Even better than when I first read it many years ago. Torah, prophecy, writings - disclosure, disruption, discernment. A masterful exposition of the Old Testament and its power to shape our humanness. Trust and obey, for there’s no other way!

[Donner Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting read on what the Hebrew scripture could teach us concerning biblical/theological formation. He uses the tripartite division of the old testament - Torah-Prophets-Writings (Jer 18:18)- as a basic framework for his reflection. He points out that historically this is the order by which the OT scripture was canonised and that this canonical process could shed light on the educational journey of Israel as she moves from a period of certitude (Torah) to a time of disruption by 'new truths' (Prophets) to a time of settling down with the mundane and the mystery (Writings).

This sheds light on the church's appropriation, transmission and growing with the scriptures. How to be faithful in handing down the living tradition without fossilizing it. Brueggemann thus helps us with living out the Word of God faithfully and expectantly for God's words to be spoken afresh and embraced in each generation. The final chaper 'obedience as a mode of knowledge' draws the three strands of God's ethos, pathos and logos into a common mode of discourse: dialogue. Ala Martin Buber's 'I-Thou' conception of true knowledge, Brueggeman shows from the Psalms how Israel's mode of knowing is essentially a dialogic one. Once again, this astute professor has a way of opening up the bible in a fresh and surprising way to any reader who is willing to be taken in wonder by the Word of God.

[SusanJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book a long time ago, but its basic message and premise have stayed with me, especially the fact that Christians read the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible as part of a linear, chronological narrative leading from creation through the history of the Jews, flowing directly from the prophets to the genealogy and birth of Jesus in the Gospel according to Matthew. Whereas Jews read Tanach/Hebrew Bible as concentric circles, with Torah at the center, then the Prophets (including what Christians call the historical books), then the Writings. The books are mostly the same, but the arrangement and context is different.

[Brenda Chance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top 10 Books

[Brandi Diamond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brueggemann - always for the win.

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thesis: *Canon is transmission process. It would have shaped education (Brueggemann 3). He gives a tripartite canon found in Jeremiah 18:18. These represent knowledge and authority structures. Each of these three patterns of knowledge has a special substance and distinct mode. Premise: what Israel knows and how Israel knows it are linked (10).

Epistemological structure: Knowledge in the Torah is a gift given with firmness, because it is undoubted--with graciousness, because there is eagerness to share--with authority, because the speaker both owns and is possessed by the story. As always, Bruggemann has beautiful comments on the Law and the Prophets: Torah as Nomos as articulation of “world-coherence” (19). It shapes a reliable order, a barrier against the chaos that waits so close (Jer. 5:22). Torah stands against the ominous structures of Babylon, Canaan, Egypt

“The narrative form of Torah intends to nurture insiders who are willing to risk a specific universe of discourse and cast their lot there...The question was always alive to Israel: Shall we risk these stories? Shall we take our stand on them? If we do, we must do so with the awareness that not only the substance, but our modes of knowing are suspect and troublesome in the world” (27)

The Disruption for Justice

The word of the prophet is a mode of knowledge that is not known until it is uttered (41). This prophetic epistemology challenges all public structures of knowledge. epistemology is partly shaped by our contexts, interests, etc. Epistemology has communal overtones. Prophets are “peripheral communities” (50). Poetic rationality: by poetry the prophets create new arenas for discourse. This is in utter contrast to the positivist and atomist. Bureaucratic consciousness is based on the notion that life is not organically connected (Berger, quoted in Brueggemann 84). There is no Logos. There are no logoi that instantiate the Logos.

Brueggemann sums up his earlier claims about knowledge: knowledge has a social dimension and it incorporates intangible dimensions such as memory, but always in the context of obedience to Yahweh.

Conclusion and Criticisms:
*The book was mostly unified, though at the end of the last chapter he spent a lot of time on OT critical theory--which is fine--but it didn't seem immediately relevant to the larger argument.
**His comments on Law and Prophets are always timely.

[Andria Fredriks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an amazing book! Incredibly interesting, rich, and biblical.

[Steven Bullmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a marvelous book! More is packed into its 117 pages than many 300-page books I've read. Love Brueggemann's educational model based on the divisions of the canon--Torah, Prophets, and Writings.

[Benjamin Falcon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read on the different functions of the three parts of the Hebrew canon - Torah (Pentateuch), Nebi'im (Prophets), and Ketubim (Writings). Brueggeman describes their respective functions as "disclosure", "disruption", and "discernment".