Ichabod Toward Home: The Journey of Gods Glory

Rating:
Summary: Glory lost and regained-where is God when you need him most
Review: Once again, Dr. Brueggeman fearlessly, takes one of the most puzzling incidents of old testament history and reflects profoundly upon this story, what it must have meant to the children of Isreal, and how should the church today wrestle with this text. Set in the story found in I Kings, he reviews and expounds upon the loss of the Ark of the Covenant in battle. How could the earthly seat of God be stolen? and could the glory of God be recovered??! and how? For those wanting to deepen their knowledge of old testament themes and what relevance those themes have for us today, a test most worthy of reading!

Rating:
Summary: Prof Brueggemann Lectures much like he teaches!
Review: Sitting in the classroom of Prof Brueggemann, you would not expect him to seem as commanding or imposing of presence as he appears in the pulpit preaching or in these Princeton Lectures! He opens his first lecture with, "The question of what the church is doing and is to do when it stands before the biblical text is a complicated...endlessly important question." While he describes at length how he responds to his opening question, he brings the inclusion of his daily struggle with those in his company "who struggle together with that endlessly contested issue."
Much like his manner of teaching: "There is no doubt that this text intends connections to the Exodus narrative." Then off our favorite Professor goes into his themes of Power and Economic relations...While moving through those crucial themes he reverts to his use of humor: Using the Philistines as enemies of God's chosen people, "who know the credo news from Israel, perhaps having read Gerhard von Rad!" Of course our present day reading of von Rad would not have been possible in their timeline!
In the classroom he is never as imposing or threatening with his boundless resources of knowledge, wisdom and humor! In every visit to Columbia Seminary I am overwhelmingly impressed. Chaplain Fred W. Hood