The pain, suffering, oppression experienced in the world today is not new or unique, but it has been manifested in different ways throughout human history. This reality, in part, is what gives the message of the Bible a timeless quality and relevance in the lives of Christians today. Overtime, however, something has been lost. The power of the story of God and His people has been robbed of its promise and power. Brueggemann writes, “The contemporary American church is so largely enculturated to the American ethos of consumerism that it has little power to believer or to act,” he continues, “that enculturation is true not only of the institution of the church but also of us as person.”1 The restoration of the power of God 's story in contrast to this enculturation is central to the thesis of Walter Brueggemann 's The Prophetic Imagination.
