David's Truth in Israel's Imagination & Memory

This second edition of Brueggemann’s David’s Truth seeks, as the original did, to discern“the disclosure of reality that clusters around the person of David” (117). Brueggemann’sinterest is not in facticity but in worldview, in operative convictions about human life andfaith. He asks how the biblical literature makes theological claims that are relevant toparticular social contexts. Although the closing chapter offers a tentative suggestion thatthe ability to “receive and relinquish with some graciousness” (115) characterizes Davidin all strands of the tradition, Brueggemann is far more concerned with elucidating thediversity of the David traditions than with constructing a unified picture of David. Whiledetails of the discussion have changed, Brueggemann maintains the basic thrusts of his1985 edition. In 1 Sam 16:1–2 Sam 5:5 we find “The Trustful Truth of the Tribe,” in 2Sam 9–20 and 1 Kgs 1–2 “The Painful Truth of the Man,” in 2 Sam 5:6–8:18 “The SureTruth of the State,” and in Pss 89; 132, Lam 3:21-27; Isa 55:3; and 1 Chr 10–29 “TheHopeful Truth of the Assembly. [Full Review]