148 - David's Truth in Israel's Imagination and Memory

David's Truth in Israel's
Imagination and Memory
By Walter Brueggemann
Philadelphia, Fortress, 1985. 128 pp. $7,95.

In this study of the rich variety of traditions associated with David, Brueggemann is concerned with "the disclosure of reality which clusters around the person of David." He combines sociological analysis and literary criticism, insisting that each Davidic text be taken with equal seriousness, even Chronicles. His interest is not in reconstructing the David of history, but in uncovering those truths embodied in David that shape Israel's memories, liturgies, and hopes, and may function as a paradigm for discovering truths about ourselves. In analyzing four bodies of literature in their social contexts, he turns up four "modes" of truth: the "trustful truth of the tribe" (I Sam. 16-11 Sam. 5:5); the "painful truth of the man" (11 Sam. 9-20; 1 Kings 1-2); the "sure truth of the state" (11 Sam. 5:6-8:18); and the "hopeful truth of the assembly" (Pss. 89, 132; Lam. 3; Isa. 55; 1 Chron. 10-29). The most provocative, and most problematic, of these discussions concerns II Sam. 7, which was written for "tendentious and skewed reasons," as propaganda in the service of monarchial ideology. One wonders whether there is any significant continuity between the unconditional promise to David the king and the messianic hope. Overall, Brueggemann shows in a helpful way that these truths cannot be orchestrated into a unison, but must remain polyphonic if they are to retain a richness for today comparable to the music provided for Israel at various stages of its life. Brueggemann has enabled many of these texts to sing anew.

Terence E. Fretheim
Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary
St. Paul, Minn.