267 - The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary

The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary
By Walter Brueggemann
Minneapolis, Augsburg, 1984. 206 pp. $10.95.

The author's purpose is to be "postcritical" in a pastoral sense, to hear the Psalms as voices of faith in the life of the believing community, to consider the interface between the flow of the Psalms and the dynamics of our common life. He sees in the Psalms a flow from orientation to disorientation to new orientation, from joy and trust to suffering and alienation to new life and hope. He lays emphasis on the value of the Psalms of disorientation-the cries of complaint and for vengeance-as correctives to romantic piety which would bypass darkness and disorientation. Fifty-nine psalms are discussed.

The book is profoundly suggestive in content as well as method. It is "postcritical" in that it builds on the critical tradition, but goes beyond the confines of biblical criticism strictly conceived. Contemporary novels, poetry, sociology, and theology-as well as significant biblical scholarship feed its richness.

Harvey H. Guthrie
Episcopal Divinity School
Cambridge, Mass.