Redescribing Reality: What We Do When We Read the Bible

Writing with clergy and students in mind, Walter Brueggemann provides guidance for interpreting Old Testament texts. He offers both advice for the interpreter as well as examples of working with different sorts of passages: from narratives, prophecies and Psalms. He also demonstrates how to work thematically, drawing together threads from different traditions. His goal is to work through the rhetoric of these passages to reach toward theological interpretation. These investigations indicate Brueggemann’s conviction that the process of moving from text to interpretive outcome is an artistic enterprise that can be learned and practised.