18 February 2012

enter the story and hear the song


The God of Israel and the claim that God makes [upon Jews and Christians alike] can be known only by taking seriously the full reality of the imaginative language through which that God is presented in the biblical text. Narrative and poetry are the central forms of this testimony about God. Even the nonstory elements of the Old Testament characteristically assume the framework and knowledge of Israel's story about encounter and relationship with God. We are invited, indeed required, to enter the story and to hear the song and to respond according to the shape of the story. In that encounter with Israel's imaginative language we find perspectives on the claims and witnesses of our own experiences as persons and communities. 

Birch, Brueggemann, Fretheim & Petersen
A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament
2nd ed. 2005, Abingdon Press (Nashville)
condensed by Storyteller from page 8

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