Walter Brueggemann’s The Prophetic Imagination addresses the dull, exhausted, uncritical, oppressed and theologically stagnant mind of the dominant culture. Brueggemann says that in order to transform the culture through imaginative engagement we first need to rediscover the prophetic tradition and allow it to define us. The ideas expressed in this book have been formative to my own sense of call.
Characterizing dominant culture as corresponding to the paradigm of Dynastic Egypt from which Moses liberated the Hebrew people in the Exodus, such culture is situated upon “royal consciousness,” as Brueggemann labels it. This royal consciousness seeks to perpetuate itself by any means necessary, even at the expense of its soul. Dominant culture always subsists at the cost of tyrannizing, impoverishing and even extinguishing other people. Examples of such oppression are found in the early chapters of Exodus when the Egyptian taskmasters mete out Pharaoh’s harsh punishments or even King Solomon’s insecure monarchy that required displacing clans and tribes and conscripting forced labor (1 Kings 9:15). Fundamental to this oppression is the …show more content…
Moses, as prophet, has two jobs: First, he must criticize empire and expose its corruption. He must publicly express the grief of the people who have suffered oppression. But he can only do this once the groans and complaints of the people can be heard in the streets. The people must see for themselves the falseness in the empire’s presentation of reality. Only then can Moses complete his second job, which is to energize the people of God and help them to embrace a new way of living. This new life encompasses the freedom of God, allowing God to act as God