Virus as a Summons to Faith

by Walter Brueggemann, Nahum Ward-Lev (Foreword by)

Overview

Why bother with the interpretive categories of biblical faith when in fact our energy and interest are focused on more immediate matters? The answer is simple and obvious. We linger because, in the midst of our immediate preoccupation with our felt jeopardy and our hope for relief, our imagination does indeed range beyond the immediate to larger, deeper wonderments. Our free-ranging imagination is not finally or fully contained in the immediacy of our stress, anxiety, and jeopardy. Beyond these demanding immediacies, we have a deep sense that our life is not fully contained in the cause-and-effect reasoning of the Enlightenment that seeks to explain and control. There is more than that and other than that to our life in God’s world!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781725276734
Publisher:	Cascade Books
Publication date:	04/30/2020
Pages:	92
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Walter Brueggemann is William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia. He has published widely on the Old Testament, including, from Cascade: David and His Theologian, A Pathway of Interpretation, Embracing the Transformation, The Practice of Homefulness, and Truth-Telling as Subversive Obedience.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“What does a gospel preacher say during and after a pandemic? We preachers have learned that we have no more reliable guide when it comes to preaching scripture than Walter Brueggemann. Walt sees COVID-19 as a summons to strong, prophetic, biblical preaching. Once again, Walt has given us the words to say and the faith to say it! A quite wonderful book.”

Will Willimon, author of Leading from the Pulpit, Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry, Duke Divinity School



“In Virus as a Summons to Faith, the summons that Professor Brueggemann hears in the devastation caused by the Covid-19 virus is the same summons that all prophets hear in the midst of calamity: the call into right relationship with Living Presence, a call into deeper, more caring, and mutually beneficial relationship with all that is. In the biblical language that has long been at the core of Brueggemann’s thinking, the devastating effects of the virus summon us to renew our covenantal relationship with God and to renew our responsibilities within that relationship.”

—Nahum Ward-Lev, from the Foreword

Editorial Reviews

What does a gospel preacher say during and after a pandemic? We preachers have learned that we have no more reliable guide when it comes to preaching scripture than Walter Brueggemann. Walt sees COVID-19 as a summons to strong, prophetic, biblical preaching. Once again, Walt has given us the words to say and the faith to say it! A quite wonderful book.”

Will Willimon, author of Leading from the Pulpit, Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry, Duke Divinity School



“In Virus as a Summons to Faith, the summons that Professor Brueggemann hears in the devastation caused by the Covid-19 virus is the same summons that all prophets hear in the midst of calamity: the call into right relationship with Living Presence, a call into deeper, more caring, and mutually beneficial relationship with all that is. In the biblical language that has long been at the core of Brueggemann’s thinking, the devastating effects of the virus summon us to renew our covenantal relationship with God and to renew our responsibilities within that relationship.”

—Nahum Ward-Lev, from the Foreword

From the Publisher