2012 Reviews and Articles

Book Review: Disruptive Grace: Reflection on God, Scripture, and the Church

Parker , Angela N.

This collection of essays by significant Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann stems from his many public appearances between 2002 and 2009. Brueggemann orders his reflections around the themes of God, Scripture, and the Church by dividing them into four parts: Torah, Prophets, Writings, and Canon and Imagination. Especially inspiring is his use of a wide range of scriptures in order to honor the multi-vocality of the Old Testament. Additionally, Brueggemann adeptly shows that he reads the Old Testament from the foot of the cross as he expertly weaves New Testament passages into his various arguments. Brueggemann uses his skills to argue that just as the priestly, Deuteronomistic, and prophetic traditions were struggling with their conceptions of God in the midst of dominating empires, the present day Church must continue to struggle with its conception of God in the face of continued exclusionary absolutism in order to imagine an alternative reality.