Testimony to Otherwise

by Brueggemann, Walter

• ISBN13: 9780827236400
• ISBN10: 0827236409
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-12-01
• Publisher: Chalice Pr

Summary

The Bible and its preaching are for every generation urgent and indispensable, but they are especially urgent today. Within the preaching of Elijah and Elisha lie the possibilities and inspiration for the church to recover its voice in a way that is unfettered and unencumbered by old habits. It is the chance, and the responsibility, of this new voice to replicate in the present life of the church alternatives underway in the biblical text itself, to show that life "could be otherwise, " and to make it so. Considering these narratives canonically, Walter Brueggemann shows how the memories of Elijah and Elisha took on a quality and authority of lasting testimony. They exhibit a world profoundly open to the gifts, energies, and visions given by God. Brueggemann shows how such prophetic narratives summon listening Israel to a radical either/or decision, endlessly insisting that there are choices to be made that hold options for the world as otherwise.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction	1	(4)
An Imaginative ``Or''	5	(22)
Preaching from the Old Testment
The Faithfulness of ``Otherwise''	27	(18)
Miracle and Accommodation	45	(20)
The Story of a Military Man (2 Kings 5:1-27)
The Good News of Bread	65	(24)
2 Kings 6:24-7:20
Tell Me All the Great Things	89	(18)
2 Kings 8:1-6
The Overstated Prophetic ``Or''	107	(20)
1 Kings 20:1-43
Conclusion	127	(4)
Notes	131	(7)
Scripture Index	138