Conversation with 76 Yr Old Biblical Scholar Walter Brueggemann ~ Praxis Habitus - On Race Religion & Culture

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Conversation with 76 Yr Old Biblical Scholar Walter Brueggemann

Filmmakers sat down for an intimate chat with Old Testament scholar Dr. Walter Brueggemann and asked about the role of the visual media artist in the church, life in the Kingdom and anything else we could think of. Brueggemann responds with insight and honesty.


Here's an opportunity to see the expanded use of new media in American religion.

Produced by The Work Of the People, this media organization describes itself as "a community of artists, storytellers, filmmakers, poets and theologians, who create visual media for the church to re-orient God's people around Jesus' good news and mission to make all things new." Lit.ur.gy. noun. pl. liturgies. From the Greek word λειτουργια, (transliterated, “leitourgia”) meaning “the work of the people.”

The Brueggemann "conversation" is a new venture for the organization. Here's a clip where Walter Brueggemann explores the question "Have we made the gospel too safe?" Always vulnerable, and not rushing to answers, Dr. Brueggemann's musings offer a different kind of Christian film experience, one intended to provoke careful reflection. 

I heard him speak when he was a guest at Rob Bell's church at Mars Hill in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The film captures the tone and posture of this man. His writings are fascinating, and there are many books he has written. He may be best known for The Prophetic Imagination.  I appreciated his book on the Psalms and his fat-tome on the Theology Of The Old Testament.  





The Work Of the People also produces "visual liturgy." These can be used individually (they are not very expensive), but I anticipate that they are used in the context of church services as a twist on incorporating media in a manner that is not disruptive to the liturgical flow of "higher church" services. Two samples are below:



LABORERS NEEDED



The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Music by Tracy Howe. www.restorationvillage.com


STRANGER



If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If your enemies are thirsty, give them something to drink. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Music by The Restoration Project. www.restorationvillage.com.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thanks, Gerardo. I appreciate you sharing with us this interview with Dr. Brueggemann. I've glanced at his books from time to time. I think this snippet from the writeup captured the interview quite well: "Always vulnerable, and not rushing to answers, Dr. Brueggemann's musings offer a different kind of Christian film experience, one intended to provoke careful reflection."