From Whom No Secrets Are Hid: Introducing the Psalms - Softcover

Brueggeman, Walter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0664259715 ISBN 13: 9780664259716

Publisher: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2014

Synopsis

The Psalms express the most elemental human emotions, representing situations in which people are most vulnerable, ecstatic, or driven to the extremities of life and faith. Many people may be familiar with a few Psalms, or sing them as part of worship. Here highly respected author Walter Brueggemann offers readers an additional use for the Psalms: as scripted prayers we perform to help us reveal ourselves to God.

Brueggemann explores the rich historical, literary, theological, and spiritual content of the Psalms while focusing on various themes such as praise, lament, violence, and wisdom. He skillfully describes Israel's expression of faith as sung through the Psalms, situates the Psalmic liturgical tradition in its ancient context, and encourages contemporary readers to continue to perform them as part of their own worship experiences. Brueggemann's masterful take on the Psalms as prayers will help readers to unveil their hopes and fears before God and, in turn, feel God's grace unveiled to them.

About this title

About the Authors

Walter Brueggemann is William Marcellus McPheeters Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary. An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, he is the author of dozens of books and hundreds of articles.

Brent A. Strawn is Professor of Old Testament at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. He currently serves on the editorial advisory board of the esteemed Old Testament Library series, published by Westminster John Knox Press.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Every person has secrets that cannot be told that must be told. Moreover (and with a glance at Faulkner), almost every community and congregation has secrets that have not yet been told that must be told in the presence of the God of all truth. The fullness of the repertoire of the Psalms reaches all of the emotional extremities of ecstasy and agony, a reach that is especially urgent in a reductionist, technological society such as ours that wants to reduce emotional extremity to (at best) banal therapeutic expression (among other reductionisms). Thus I imagine that the church at worship remains an uncommon and peculiar venue where deep secrets of exuberance and dismay can be voiced, a voicing that is indispensible for the social and economic health of the body of faith and the body politic." --from the preface

Edition details

• Publisher: Westminster/John Knox Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0664259715
• ISBN 13: 9780664259716
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224
• Editor: Strawn Brent A.