In this unique volume, father-and-son team Walter and John Brueggemann take a close look at our fractured American society and suggest ways for improvement. Using six themes identified by some scholars as the moral foundations of society—care, fairness, liberty, loyalty, authority, and sanctity—they examine the unsustainable patterns of our contemporary society and reveal how those patterns played out in the ancient world of the Old Testament. Brueggemann and Brueggemann demonstrate how comparing the current state of these moral foundations with what God wanted them to be can help us better respond to the challenges of today. They assert that achieving any significant change will require the work of all of us and will be grounded in a vision of neighborliness. Rebuilding the Foundations will inspire readers to reorient toward a better way of living, both for themselves and for all living things.
“In the tradition of the best of American theology this son-father duo marries critical sociology and Scripture, issuing in a searing prophetic cry to fellow Americans that the oppression of the poor and the degradation of the earth cannot last without the destruction of our soul. They do not for a moment take their eyes off God’s righteousness, which, simply put, is the way to peace. That two generations in this creative family are so much in tune with the truth is in itself a hopeful sign of the Light that will not be overcome by the darkness of our time.”
—M. Douglas Meeks, Cal Turner Chancellor Professor Emeritus of Theology and Wesleyan Studies, Vanderbilt University Divinity School
Walter Brueggemann was a beloved and prolific writer, astute biblical theologian and Old Testament scholar, and an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. He was 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. Often heralded as a prophetic voice in our time, Brueggemann constantly reminded readers of God’s covenantal love and God’s call to speak truth to power, to remember that grace abounds, and to loosen the bonds of injustice.