Delivered out of Empire: Pivotal Moments in the Book of Exodus, Part One
About this ebook
The book of Exodus brims with dramatic stories familiar to most of us: the burning bush, Moses' ringing proclamation to Pharaoh to "Let my people go," the parting of the Red Sea. These signs of God's liberating agency have sustained oppressed people seeking deliverance over the ages. But Exodus is also a complex book. Reading the text firsthand, one encounters multilayered narratives: about entrenched socioeconomic systems that exploit the vulnerable, the mysterious action of the divine, and the giving of a new law meant to set the people of Israel apart. How does a contemporary reader make sense of it all? And what does Exodus have to say about our own systems of domination and economic excess?
In Delivered out of Empire, Walter Brueggemann offers a guide to the first half of Exodus, drawing out "pivotal moments" in the text to help readers untangle it. Throughout, Brueggemann shows how Exodus consistently reveals a God in radical solidarity with the powerless.
About the author
Walter Brueggemann is William Marcellus McPheeters Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary. An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, he is the author of dozens of books, including Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now, Interrupting Silence: God's Command to Speak Out, and Truth and Hope: Essays for a Perilous Age.
Brent A. Strawn is Professor of Old Testament and Professor of Law at Duke University. Previously, he was the William Ragsdale Cannon Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. He is the author of numerous articles, chapters, and books, includingThe Old Testament Is Dying: A Diagnosis and Recommended TreatmentandThe Old Testament: A Concise Introduction. He is the editor of the Pivotal Moments in the Old Testament series.
