Walter Brueggemann - Journey to the Common Good: Updated Edition

JOURNEY TO THE COMMON GOOD

UPDATED EDITION

Also by Walter Brueggemann
from Westminster John Knox Press

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Cadences of Hope: Preaching among Exiles

Celebrating Abundance: Devotions for Advent

Chosen? Reading the Bible amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The Collected Sermons of Walter Brueggemann, vols. 1, 2, and 3

First and Second Samuel (Interpretation series)

From Judgment to Hope: A Study on the Prophets

From Whom No Secrets Are Hid: Introducing the Psalms

Genesis (Interpretation series)

Gift and Task: A Year of Daily Readings and Reflections

A Glad Obedience: Why and What We Sing

A Gospel of Hope

Great Prayers of the Old Testament

Hope for the World: Mission in a Global Context

Hope within History

Interrupting Silence: Gods Command to Speak Out

An Introduction to the Old Testament: The Canon and Christian Imagination, Third Edition (with Tod A. Linafelt)

Isaiah 139 (Westminster Bible Companion series)

Isaiah 4066 (Westminster Bible Companion series)

Living Countertestimony: Conversations with Walter Brueggemann (with Carolyn J. Sharp)

Mandate to Difference: An Invitation to the Contemporary Church

Many Voices, One God: Being Faithful in a Pluralistic World (with George W. Stroup)

Materiality as Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World

Money and Possessions (Interpretation Resources series)

Names for the Messiah: An Advent Study

An On-Going Imagination: A Conversation about Scripture, Faith, and the Thickness of Relationship (with Clover Reuter Beal)

Power, Providence, and Personality: Biblical Insight into Life and Ministry

Rebuilding the Foundations: Social Relationships in Ancient Scripture and Contemporary Culture (with John Brueggemann)

Reverberations of Faith: A Theological Handbook of Old Testament Themes

Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now, New Edition with Study Guide

Struggling with Scripture (with Brian K. Blount and William C. Placher)

Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary, Years A and B (with Charles B. Cousar, Beverly Roberts Gaventa, J. Clinton McCann, and James D. Newsome)

Truth and Hope: Essays for a Perilous Age

Truth Speaks to Power: The Countercultural Nature of Scripture

Using Gods Resources Wisely: Isaiah and Urban Possibility

The Vitality of Old Testament Traditions, Second Edition (with Hans Walter Wolff)

A Way other than Our Own: Devotions for Lent (compiled by Richard Floyd)

JOURNEY TO THE
COMMON GOOD

UPDATED EDITION

WALTER BRUEGGEMANN

For Chris Graham

2010, 2021 Walter Brueggemann

First edition published 2010

Updated edition published 2021

Updated edition

Published by Westminster John Knox Press

Louisville, Kentucky

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Westminster John Knox Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396. Or contact us online at www.wjkbooks.com.

Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible are copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. and are used by permission.

Book design by Drew Stevens

Cover design by Allison Taylor

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Brueggemann, Walter, author.

Title: Journey to the common good / Walter Brueggemann.

Description: Updated edition. | Louisville, Kentucky : Westminster John Knox Press, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: Updated edition of Journey to the Common Good (2010) by Walter Brueggemann addresses the current crises and asks what role the church has in contemporary society as we face even more turbulent timesProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020054642 (print) | LCCN 2020054643 (ebook) | ISBN 9780664267315 (paperback) | ISBN 9781646982011 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Common goodBiblical teaching. | Bible. Old TestamentCriticism, interpretation, etc. | United StatesSocial conditions21st century.

Classification: LCC BS1199.P6 B78 2021 (print) | LCC BS1199.P6 (ebook) | DDC 261.8dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020054642

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020054643

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CONTENTS

I am pleased to acknowledge that the materials in this book, with some updates for this edition, constitute my 2008 Laing Lectures at Regent College, an occasion I remember with great delight. I was graciously hosted by John Stackhouse and Holly Rail, and I enjoyed the hospitality of other staff as well as students. I especially appreciated the companionship of Roger Laing, the donor whose generosity made the lectures possible.

Before these chapters reached their final form at Regent College, I made use of the materials in a preliminary form in several other venues. Readers may hear echoes from those preliminary presentations, most notably in via the General Synod of my church, the United Church of Christ. I am, as usual, grateful to Tia Foley, who completed the formulation and formatting of the chapters, and to Jon Berquist, the generous editor of the original edition of this book at Westminster John Knox Press. I am, with this updated edition, grateful to Julie Mullins for her careful discerning work on permitting this book to reappear.

I am glad to dedicate this book to Chris Graham, my colleague in ministry in the United Church of Christ. Chris practiced ministry with the kind of joy, courage, honesty, and freedom that properly belongs to gospel ministry. I am grateful to him as a partner in ministry and as a steadfast friend.

Within this book, I explore some ways in which Scriptureancient text as authorizing wordmay impinge on the faith and life and practice of the church as we journey together toward the common good that God wills for the world. The task of interpretation that gives contemporary access to the scriptural text is an ongoing one that is never finished. It requires, moreover, venturesome imagination that is always risky; those risks, however, are not as great as the risk of flat, one-dimensional reiteration that does not connect. I have returned to the theme of this book, journey, and the interpretive risks necessary to it, in the midst of our current social crisis. (I write this on the day of the funeral in Houston for George Floyd, who was murdered by police in Minneapolis.) This crisis is deep, thick, and complex, but it has three faces of presentation:

the virus that for now has outflanked our scientific capacity;

the economic meltdown in the wake of the virus; and

a skewed criminal justice system for which police misconduct is the visible front.