Living with Holy Tension: Faith Amidst Pandemic - with Dr. Walter Brueggemann

Voxology

Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2020

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How the pandemic exposes our certainty, drives us deeper into faith, and invites us to rediscover God's mercy, justice, and holiness with biblical theologian Walter Brueggemann. In this rich and heartfelt episode, Mike, Tim, and Bonnie welcome Dr. Brueggemann—one of the most prolific theological voices of our time—for an unforgettable conversation on God, suffering, community, and courageous imagination. At 87, Brueggemann challenges us to reconsider what we think we know about the Bible, divine judgment, white supremacy, and the role of lament and protest in spiritual life—all while sharing poetic insights that spark introspection and hope.

Key Takeaways: • Virus as a Summons to Faith – Drawing on the biblical concept of pestilence to explore the pandemic as a deep spiritual call to repentance, humility, and renewed purpose. • God's Holiness Beyond Formulas – Understanding divine action through three biblical frameworks: retributive justice, divine intent for liberation, and the mysterious, unsearchable holiness of God. • Reading the Bible for Transformation, Not Certainty – Why we must resist transactional readings of Scripture that serve empire and instead engage in playful, imaginative interpretation steeped in community. • Protest as Hope – How biblical lament differs from resignation and how authentic groaning becomes the birthplace of new creation. • Racial Justice and Theological Responsibility – Brueggemann's call to dismantle white supremacy in policy, culture, and biblical interpretation, and to embody gratitude for God's mercy through redistribution and justice. • Recovering the Language of Prayer – How to pray truthfully in crisis, with "no-holds-barred" honesty, expressing both suffering and hope as acts of faith.

Guest Highlights: Dr. Walter Brueggemann – One of the world's most respected Old Testament scholars and the author of over 100 books, including the featured work of this episode, Virus as a Summons to Faith. Brueggemann brings a rare blend of poetic insight, deep scholarship, and prophetic imagination to the most urgent questions of our time.

Resources Mentioned: • Virus as a Summons to Faith by Walter Brueggemann – Amazon • Dr. Brueggemann's Website – walterbrueggemann.com • Romans 5 – "Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope." • Elijah and Elisha narratives in 1 & 2 Kings – Examples of subversive oral theology • Psalmic Lament – Models of protest-filled praise in the Hebrew Scriptures

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Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford → https://www.timothyjohnstafford.com Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to hello@voxpodcast.com, and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV.

Our Merch Store! ETSY

Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify

Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon

The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio

Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

Transcript

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0:00.0	Good morning or good afternoon or good afternoon or good evening or good evening or good night, depending on when you're
0:26.6	listening to this podcast episode.
0:28.6	Welcome to the Vox podcast.
0:30.6	I don't know how to intro this piece.
0:33.6	I think we're all equally excited.
0:36.6	And now having done the interview, we're all equally, I don't know, what's the word?
0:43.3	Pensive.
0:45.5	Pensive, introspective.
0:46.8	I'm treasuring.
0:49.3	Yeah, my work in the world is done.
0:51.7	Everything now will be downhill from here.
0:55.3	I learned what I want to be when I grow up.
0:58.8	That's what I learned.
1:00.4	I thought that multiple times throughout.
1:04.5	And we talked about this in the last episode, or like the idea of settling when you get to a certain age and just being like, all right, I'm done.
1:12.7	I'm just going to kind of ride the, I'm going to put it in cruise control and kind of ride this out.
1:16.4	And then you see a guy like this who is 87.
1:19.8	Is that?
1:20.1	87.
1:21.2	87.
1:21.5	87.
1:22.6	I graduated 89.
	...

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