From Mayfield Salisbury Church Website

Walter Brueggemann and the role of imagination in Biblical theology

Walter Brueggemann is Professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia. This is a college for theological studies in the Presbyterian Church in the USA.

His primary concern is the interpretation of Scripture for the business of preaching and understanding of Christian faith for the church community. He sees this as urgent for present-day Christians who find themselves in a bewildering atmosphere of materialism and scientific secularism that puts enormous pressure on their inherited faith. A common reaction to this predicament has been either to adopt an unquestioning attitude to Scripture which he associates with fundamentalism, or to accept the objective, analytical approach, discarding in the text anything that does not yield to a rational understanding of faith and theology. He acknowledges the work of Biblical scholars in historical and literary criticism, which has enormously enlarged our understanding of the context and language of holy writ, but questions if it meets the everyday experience of people today. Brueggemann offers a way of reading Scripture that links it rather with human experience – not directly, but through the imaginative interpretation of Biblical metaphors, myths and symbols which were the natural form of expression of the biblical writers. He sees the main object of faith that is grounded in Scripture as the transformation of human life, and this, he thinks, is not achieved by expounding doctrine or ethics or by historical criticism. These do not change people. It is in the telling of stories, in vivid images and analogies, that human imagination is stirred to receive the word of God in Scripture.

Validity of imagination in Biblical study

How valid is this approach to Biblical study? Traditionally there has been no place for the open recognition of imagination in theological writings, since it was seen as subjective fantasy, and unworthy of serious rational thought. However, we are seeing a general disenchantment with scientific method which in spite of its many practical benefits has failed to bring about a saner, more compassionate world. The value of imagination as a guide to reality is being increasingly explored in theological studies, and Brueggemann is one of the many scholars contributing to what is called a post-modern approach, a feeling after a more open, less dogmatic view of Christian faith that resonates with the turbulent world in which we live.

A book entitled Faith, Theology and Imagination was written in 1987 by Professor John McIntyre. He is a highly rational and rigorous thinker who yet recognizes the importance of an imaginative approach to the Bible and theology. He acknowledges his debt to the Victorian writer George MacDonald who identifies imagination as a faculty which creates new thought forms which come to a person from beyond himself, as given to him. “Life has within it large areas of uncertainty”, MacDonald says, “and in them a wise imagination, which is the presence of the Spirit of God, is the best guide that a man or woman can have.”

McIntyre sees the ubiquity of imagination in Jesus’ life and teaching, in the parables and stories, in the Church’s worship and personal devotion, in meditation and use of images. He deplores the wholesale destruction of images and stained glass windows by Puritans at the time of the Reformation, and considers that much was lost. I think the Church today is recovering a sense of beauty in imagery as an aid to worship, and is less worried about the risk of idolatry, at least in this respect.

Cf. Michelangelo’s painting “The creation of Adam”. We may ponder the significance of God’s finger reaching out to Adam. What does it say about the gift of life and Spirit, the possibility of communication between God and mankind? C. S. Lewis said that MacDonald “baptized his imagination” and quotes MacDonald as saying “imagination is the light lit within us by God Himself through His Spirit”.

Brueggemann’s own definition says: “Imagination clearly means in evangelical terms the capacity to think beyond our taken-for-granted world to a world that is promised of God.” Here is a story from the Gospel by way of illustration: Luke 13:10-17.

Brueggemann quotes the passage as an example of the alternative way of seeing which Jesus demonstrated as against the closed system of conventional morality. He points out that the Christian Gospel is a counter to the established view that is widely accepted as objectively real. Jesus calls the woman “a daughter of Abraham”, as indeed are her critics, one in whose body the promises of God are powerfully at work. In her social standing she is considered a cripple and worthless – a role that she has come to accept herself. Jesus renames her and she accepts his counter verdict. “She stood up straight and began to praise God.” The transformation is immediate and goes beyond the physical healing to her new sense of identity – a change that we can recognize in people who suddenly realise their value as children of God, or “see” life from a new perspective.

Brueggemann describes the counter world of evangelical imagination with its contrast to the present world outlook of materialism, prejudice and power politics, its attitudes rooted in our fearful protectiveness. He insists that we take seriously what the Bible teaches about the origin and purpose of the human person made in God’s image, about the world He has created, and about the Church as a people fully in communion with Himself. He calls this “the imaginative Or”, the imagined alternative to present day accepted values and outlook. How can this be encouraged?

Faith, he sees is a matter of memory – remembering God’s deliverance in the past as the Jews remember the Exodus, as Christians remember Christ’s life, death and resurrection: and of hope in the future rooted in the promises of God. Memory and hope reinforce the present and give us stability in the face of threatening circumstances. We may note the words of Jesus at the last supper: “Do this, remembering me.” Our re-enactment at Communion brings to mind His life and Passion and unites us with him as a living presence. And His words “Let not your hearts be troubled” give us hope for the future. Memory and hope transform the present, make a difference to our attitude and outlook. This is transformation. This is how Brueggemann sees Scripture impinging on our present day experience and our faith. He calls Scripture a form of drama, where characters interact with God and one another, as our life does today. The drama of Scripture is a counter-drama opposed to the worldly drama of contemporary life.

Inside the counter-drama

What is it like inside this counter-drama? He urges that we take the Bible as “the live word of God”, the record of His dealings with His people, in all its problematic character, not trimming the text to suit our modern sensibilities. We are to see that the writers tell their experience in stories, metaphors and images, and are to receive the message in all its strangeness and “impossibility”. We are to recognize that knowledge is not always conveyed in rational statements, but comes across in poetry and story, myth and symbol, parable and analogy. Brueggemann points out that Jewish writing can be paradoxical, ironic, contradictory and scandalous, and to edit the text to suit our rational, modern way of thinking leaves it distorted and emaciated.

What resources have we to read the Bible that go beyond the pedestrian use of 21st century rationality? He suggests that we each have a zone of imagination which can be nurtured to supplement and enrich our understanding. This is most clearly used in our appreciation of the arts – of poetry, music, drama and art. Evangelical imagination is the faculty of seeing beyond our ordinary humdrum existence to the life of the Kingdom of God, promised in the Covenant and demonstrated by Jesus.

Faith as drama

Brueggemann develops his view of faith as drama by seeing it not as a set of creedal statements, but an evolving experience in relationship with God and other people. Biblical writing, he says, is always a dialogue. For instance the Psalms are never a monologue, but always an engagement with God, a personal encounter. This is a fluid and constantly changing, developing situation in response to life’s events and experiences. With this in mind the reader becomes involved in the play and participates in the text in an imaginative interaction which brings about a change in outlook. He suggests that we put aside critical questions such as “How can this happen?” and the need to fit the text into our pre-existent doctrinal assumptions, and take it as it stands.

Karl Barth describes God as the “wholly other”, beyond human understanding. Brueggemann points out that in conventional interpretation the accent has been on the “wholly”, stressing His sovereignty, the contrast and discontinuity with humankind. He suggests that when the accent is placed on “other” there enters the possibility of a dialogue, an interaction which is highly fruitful in transforming the human person. It is our faith that God the Holy Spirit is alive and active in the world, and so the Bible, discerned in the light given by Him can afford us guidance, not least by furnishing our imagination in ways not susceptible to our human reason alone. Cf. Psalm 77: this is a psalm of lament which illustrates the transformation when the psalmist turns from preoccupation with himself to God.

vv.1-6 show the speaker pouring out his distress. He is totally preoccupied with his own suffering, and his complaint is flung at God.

In vv.7-9 he clearly thinks he deserves better of God and can’t understand why this misfortune has come upon him. It is the classic reaction of a conventional believer who asks “Why should this happen to me? I’ve done nothing to deserve it.”

V.10 is the crucial turn in the psalm. Brueggemann says the speaker looks both ways – back to the “I” statements of vv. 1-6 and forward to vv.11-end: back to the loss of previous faith, but with the chink of hope to the opening of a deeper, more mature trust. It is, he says, a risky, dark place where we may either go back to loss and despair and get stuck there, or move forward, uncertain whether we are right or wrong.

V.10 leaves the issue unresolved. It means leaving behind old certainties. These were wrongly based on a misguided notion of the nature of God. The dramatic move concerns the abandonment of self as the prime focus, for the divine Other who is not constrained by our self-centred expectations, the God who acts in freedom. It is a crucial move for Biblical faith. The move from v.10 is hazardous for any of us. It is beyond reason, beyond our natural inclination for self-preservation. The psalmist takes the step, recognizing the free “Thou” as the origin of all life. And we recall the words of Jesus on the same theme: “Whoever saves his life will lose it: but the one who loses his life for my sake will gain it.” (Mk.5:35)

At the heart of this is a question about the nature of God – the domesticated God of conventional religion, or the free, unpredictable God who works wonders in the human soul. In the end of Ps. 77 nothing has been resolved, but everything has been put in a new context of God’s freedom and incomparability. In the critical moment of v.10 there is an inner change of outlook, a remembering of God’s deeds in the past providing hope for the future. This critical point of transformation puts a whole new complexion on present events. There may be no change in the events themselves – but the change takes place in the psalmist’s attitude. He knows that there is a reality beyond the present circumstances, that as it is written in Ephes.3:20 “God is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine.” He has the freedom to go beyond the rational expectations of human thought.

The impossible possibility

Brueggemann calls this the impossible possibility. A similar juxtaposition of the possibility of God confronting the impossibility of human reasoning is seen in the story of Abraham and Sarah. You remember how Abraham entertained three strangers – collectively identified as the Lord and depicted in Rublev’s ikon of the Trinity. The Lord said to Abraham, “Where is Sarah your wife? I will surely return to you in the spring and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age … so Sarah laughed, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you in the spring, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Sarah’s laugh represents the normal disbelief of a rational person. The promise of a son represents God’s “impossible possibility” that is His freedom to go beyond human expectations: v.14 “Is anything impossible for Jahweh?”

The question asks whether the power of God is contained in the bounds of worldly possibility. Brueggemann says that question, put concretely, even scandalously – is the question that the Abraham tradition has unleashed on Biblical faith. It is a question that asks about the freedom of God to go beyond conventional definitions of reality, and beyond the control of modern man. Faith that is reliance upon the freedom of God against the assumptions of human reason makes things possible that the world defines as impossible, and brings about transformation in the human spirit that strengthens and renews a person’s life, moving him on to a deeper, more creative faith.

A personal postscript

The faith tradition of Abraham persists throughout the Bible in spite of the extreme challenge of worldly values. Jesus worked within that tradition to the last desperate days of His Passion, and promised no less a challenge to His followers. Given His relationship with God and His obedience to his mission, the life of Jesus was entirely rational, terrifyingly so. He was entirely consistent with Himself. His teaching appealed to the common sense of his hearers. For instance, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock …” (Matt.7:24) So, to use our imagination in interpreting Scripture does not mean that we abandon our reason – only that we are true to the first principles of the faith that we profess, imaginatively construed; and that we entertain the impossible possibility of the coming Kingdom of God.

Bibliography

John McIntyre. Faith, theology and imagination. Handsel Press, 1987

Walter Brueggemann. Texts under negotiation. The Bible and postmodern imagination. Minneapolis, 1993

The psalms and the life of faith. Minneapolis, 1995

Praying the psalms. Winona, 1993

An introduction to the Old Testament. The canon and Christian imagination. Westminster John Knox Press, 2003

The prophetic imagination. Minneapolis, 1978