Walter Brueggemann Column
Church Anew is honored to host Walter Brueggemann as our featured columnist. We look forward to sharing Walter’s work with church leaders and faithful people worldwide. May his powerful and reflective writings inspire, energize, guide, and comfort you.
Anticipating the Election
Walter Brueggemann writes on the intersection between politics and faith, and the values that the church must endorse in the coming election.
Out-Interpreting the Ten Commandments
Walter Brueggemann writes on Louisiana’s public exhibition of the Ten Commandments, and how we may interpret and reframe Biblical Law to better serve our marginalized neighbors.
Workable and Purposeful
Walter Brueggemann writes on Biblical and constitutional fundamentalism, and the increasing need for flexibility in a dynamic world.
In Memory of Sam Balentine
Walter Brueggemann writes Sam Balentine, a brilliant writer, brave pray-er, and beloved friend in a eulogy detailing his excellent character and courageous theology.
A Newly Produced World
In this column, Walter Brueggemann writes on technological advancement and its ties to imperialism, and how Scripture can help us avoid the pitfalls of a rapidly advancing world.
Celebrative Dining
In this column, Walter Brueggemann writes on James Baldwin's unfinished work, and how feasts reflect the restorative and abundant power of God and his promises.
The Father God Who is No God-Father
In the course of a family household, there are characteristically two most demanding, most rewarding relationships: the relationship of marital partners and the relationship of parent and child.
The High Cost of Prudence
Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time; for it is an evil time (Amos 5:13).
Lethal Discovery/Toxic Denial
The “Doctrine of Discovery” is constituted by a series of papal teachings in the 15th century, culminating in 1493, the year after Columbus’s “discovery” of the New World. This series of papal declarations asserted that the “New World” rightly belonged to White Europeans and was to be divided between Spain and Portugal, two states fully supportive of the Vatican. That teaching, over time, provided cover and justification for White occupation of the New World with an eager readiness to convert, enslave, or kill the indigenous population.
Written Down, Written Up
The Greek term is apographo, that is, “written down.” All were to be “written down” under imperial auspices in the same way I had been “written down” by the church and by the government. Joseph and Mary, vulnerable peasants from the shabby village of Nazareth, were ‘written down” by the empire in its long reach into the peasant economy.
Finding Your Voice
Newman writes in an almost gnomic style with abrupt half-sentences, wistful unfinished thoughts, and frequent appeal to “threes” that he finds suggestive. The crux of his elusive work is to report on the way in which good writing must adhere to conventions of plot, structure, and genre.
