Tuesday, 11 October 2016

The Creative Word: Canon as a Model for Biblical Education, Second Ed.,
Walter Brueggemann, Fortress Press, 2015, page 39

Having laid down a challenge over the way the dominant regime forces us to flee the Torah in favour of other parts of the canon, Brueggemann moves on to the suject of risk.

The question was always alive in Israel: Shall we risk these stories? Shall we take our stand on them? If we do, we must do so with the awareness that not only the substance, but our modes of knowing are suspect and troublesome in the world.

But surely that only applies to Jews - messianic and otherwise? They are the only ones who are interested in Torah? Not so, Brueggemann insists:

The question continues to be problematic for educators: Can we risk these stories? The answer is known only when we decide if we want to subvert the imperial consciousness and offer a genuine alternative to the dominant forms of power, value and knowledge.

That seems pretty clear. All those interested in growing the kingdom of G-d, of raising up a people to praise the G-d of Israel, must be trying to offer an alternative to the currnet world system and its values and means of knowing. So we must therefore be prepared to take the risk with these stories and share the Torah as formative wisdom and content for those we teach!