This collection of essays pertains to matters that urgently concern our faith. My work consists in recognition that our various systems of meaning, power, and control are decisively penultimate, even though we conduct ourselves as though they are ultimate. Thus, our articulation of theology and faith are momentary and require endless rearticulation. Our various expressions of nation, race, class, and gender are momentary arrangements that give us assurance, but that are sure to be, yet again, unsustainable claims.The idiom in which biblical faith is given us is inescapably poetic, an exercise in imagination, elusive imagery, and playful phrasing. The long history of the church consists in the seductive practice of trying to "catch" such poetic utterance in settled prose that we parse with logic and precision. Such efforts are always less than adequate, as the poetry of testimony always surges beyond our best prose. Thus, as a case in point, the church has engaged much energy in parsing the creeds. But in the end, the creeds are poetry designed for liturgic affirmation, rather than reduction to cold rationality bereft of context.For much too long the church has focused on private, spiritual, other-worldly matters. In fact, the biblical reportage and advocacy concern the continuing struggle for an alternative economy that is governed by neighborly generosity, an economy that eschews private accumulation by the powerful at the expense of the vulnerable. On all counts it is my hope that this collection of essays will serve all those who do the continuing work of faithful study, faithful worship, and faithful action in the world.
