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S e c u r e , D i s t u r b e d , S u r p r i s e d – B r u e g g e m a n n ’ s T h r e e M o v e m e n t s i n
R . E . , T h e o l o g y & S p i r i t u a l i t y P a g e | 1
© 2013 Dr Peter Mudge, Unpublished paper, STUDENT VERSION Brueggemann paper
Contents
TITLE: Secure, Disturbed, Surprised – a proposal for theological reflection based on Walter Brueggemann’s three
movements...........................................................................................................................................................................3
ABSTRACT.........................................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................................................4
Education .....................................................................................................................................................................4
Religious Education and Spirituality.............................................................................................................................5
Theology and Theological Reflection ...........................................................................................................................5
Brueggemann’s three movements in the context of religious, theological and spiritual transformation.......................7
Introduction – Echoes of Brueggemann in the Literature............................................................................................7
From Secure Orientation..............................................................................................................................................8
Introduction – Brueggemann’s approach to the three movements........................................................................8
Figure 1 – Brueggemann’s three primary movements and the ‘in between’ seasonal movements, as applied to
education, theology and spirituality........................................................................................................................9
The nature of the educational and spiritual journey...............................................................................................9
A Brueggemannian overture for Secure Orientation...............................................................................................9
Psalms of secure orientation .................................................................................................................................10
Recognising ‘secure orientation’ in the midst of everyday life..............................................................................11
Through Disturbing Disorientation ............................................................................................................................12
A Brueggemannian overture for Disturbing Disorientation ..................................................................................12
Disorientation as the world split open with bold speech ......................................................................................12
Psalms and other texts of disturbing disorientation .............................................................................................14
Disorientation within ‘the “pit” as the wrong place’.............................................................................................15
Disorientation as exile ...........................................................................................................................................16
Recognising ‘disturbing disorientation’ in the midst of everyday life ...................................................................16
Towards Surprising Reorientation..............................................................................................................................18
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................................18
Psalms of Surprising Reorientation........................................................................................................................18
A Brueggemannian overture for Surprising Reorientation....................................................................................19
Not left alone in a world of chaos..........................................................................................................................19
Gathered safely on eagles’ wings ..........................................................................................................................20
Recognising ‘surprising reorientation’ in the midst of everyday life.....................................................................20
Brueggemann’s Three Movements as a Cycle of Theological Reflection .......................................................................22
Figure 2 – Brueggemann’s three primary movements and two in-between seasons expressed as a flow chart of
theological reflection .................................................................................................................................................23
Conclusions and Future Directions.................................................................................................................................24
Reference List.................................................................................................................................................................26

Please cite this article as follows:
Mudge, P. (2013). Secure, Disturbed, Surprised – Brueggemann’s Three Movements in R.E., Theology and
Spirituality. Selection from Unpublished Paper prepared for EARLI Conference, Munich, Germany, August
2013. Baulkham Hills, NSW: Transformative Pedagogies.

TITLE: Secure, Disturbed, Surprised – a proposal for theological reflection
based on Walter Brueggemann’s three movements
ABSTRACT
This paper argues for the adaptability of Walter Brueggemann’s three movements of psalmic spiritual
transformation to the broader fields of education, theology and spirituality. Brueggemann’s three spiral
movements, are – initial secure orientation ('business as usual'); through disturbing disorientation or
displacement; and onwards towards surprising new reorientation (1989a, 1997, 2002b, 2007, 2011b).
These movements have the capacity to challenge individuals and communities alike to ‘stretch’ from
their comfort zone and through their discomfort zone towards new insights (an overall from-through-
towards movement).
This can also be expressed in the form of a cycle of theological reflection. This in turn has the potential
to impact upon the life experience, theology, spirituality, worldview and discourse of each context in
which this cycle is employed.
The paper commences with a consideration of key terms linked to the research, including education,
spirituality, theology, and theological reflection. While it addresses all three movements, it focuses in
particular on the middle movement of disturbing disorientation. The examination of each movement
concludes with a reflection on the relevance of that movement to the context of everyday life. The
paper also assesses the relevance and significance of key terms and concepts linked to the research,
such as ‘trapped in the pit’, ‘gathered up on eagles’ wings’, multiple overwhelmings, blurred
encounters, and modernity as a ‘thantonic age’.
Finally, the paper argues that Brueggemann’s three movements can provide a useful, critically-reflective
pedagogical and theological framework for the discourse and worldview of individuals and communities
alike. This is articulated towards the end of the paper as a cycle of theological reflection which can be
applied to many reflective practices and areas of life. It concludes that, taken together, Brueggemann’s
three movements and in between seasonal transitions represent a valuable reflective and diagnostic
taxonomy for theological reflection in disciplines such as education, religious education, theology and
spirituality.

Introduction
‘The ways in which language creates a worldview are not usually part of the schooling of our young’
(Postman, 1996, p. 177).
The purpose of this introduction is to provide a working definition of key terms employed in this paper,
namely – education, worldview, religious education, spirituality, theology and theological reflection,
transformative pedagogical cycle, and discourse. This article argues that education in general, religious
education, theology and spirituality, each require a critical and transformative pedagogy of
displacement that is organised and understood as a ‘pedagogical cycle’. The aim of this cycle is to
stretch students towards fresh understandings and insights. It is argued that comprehending these key
terms in greater detail (section one) provides the context for a deeper appreciation of Brueggemann’s
three movements and for the forumulation of a theological cycle based on these movements (section
two).
Education
This paper understands ‘education’ in its broadest sense as the basis of religious education, meaning a
discourse which takes students’ life experiences and world views seriously, invites them to form critical
communities of thinking/practice (Harpaz, 2005), and challenges them to ‘stretch’ their current
understandings (cf. e-ducere, to lead out of, to bring or draw out of, in Hanks, 1986, p. 487; see also ‘to
lead forth; cf. producere, to ‘bring forth’, in Sandywell, 2011, p. 249) from what is comfortable to what is
new, different and uncomfortable. In this context, one task of the teacher is to ‘nurture the possibility
of discovery’ through this process of ‘stretching’ (Ibana, 2009, p. 171).
From a Catholic Christian perspective, Holman views this stretching as deeper personal growth and
cultivation of virtue. He asserts that education ‘is not only about growing in proficiency [in a
subject]…Education is about more: it is about what is most deeply human, about the values in terms of
which we live, and the virtues we seek to cultivate. Education is about growth in holiness, in true
happiness and fulfilment’ (2010, p. 1). This aligns with Brueggemann’s understanding of education as a
‘sapiential reflection on lived experience…[a type of instruction which is] much more practical, designed
to help the young reflect crucially upon what they have seen and know firsthand.’ The end point of such
education is that ‘the process of socialization through practical reflection, as through narrative love, is
intensely and intentionally theological’ (2002a, pp. 57-58). Sandywell provides his own pithy summary
of the deeper meaning of education:
[Education refers to whatever] activates and realizes the realms of human potential. Education
ultimately depends upon strategies and techniques of reactivation. Given its autotelic
character, education has affinities with both art and the phenomenological attitude toward
experience. In short, education, in all its manifold forms, is an awakening to experience as a
value in itself. Perhaps like art, education is literally useless; which makes it the most valuable
thing in human life. Without this awakening no form of freedom or human flourishing is
possible. (Sandywell, 2011, p. 249; my italics added to last sentence; all other italics from the
original text).

Habermas concurs with this philosophy of stretching, flourishing and emancipation. He argues that any
effective model for ways of knowing ‘stretches and maximizes the potential of human beings to know
and act on their knowing, and through this knowing and acting to become most fully human’
(summarised in Lovat, 2009, p. 21). Or, to employ Brueggemann’s threefold taxonomy, education
challenges students to enlarge their lives and worldview from a stance of secure orientation through
disturbing disorientation or displacement and towards surprising new and liberating reorientation
(1982, 2002b). Such a discourse of ‘stretching’ takes place through ‘talk-in-interaction’ so that
worldviews are analysed, and every scope of enquiry gradually widened (Martin-Jones, de Mejía &
Hornberger, 2010).
Religious Education and Spirituality
‘Religious education’ is understood as that form of education focused on religion, which in its general
sense embraces a particular activity that humans do in relation to belief and culture, including elements
such as – sacred beliefs, creeds, rituals, texts, ethics, architecture, inspiring people, spirituality, gender
and power (Nye, 2008, pp. 1-22).
In this paper, ‘spirituality’ denotes a reality overlapping with religion, and which characterises the way
in which a person or community lives out its religious beliefs in a practical and meaningful way, often
linked with a particular tradition such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam and others. ‘Spirituality’,
moreover, is envisaged as ‘a conscious way of life based on a transcendent referent’ (Mason, Webber,
Singleton, and Hughes, 2006, p.2). That is, it acknowledges a reality beyond but complementary to the
immanent, a reality that exists in God, the Mystery, or the Sacred, yet in and beyond the material or
created world (cf. Sinclair, 2003, p.1267). In a more practical sense, spirituality refers to ‘the deepest
values and meanings by which people seek to live…[and] implies some kind of vision of the human spirit
and of what will assist it to achieve full potential’ (Sheldrake, 2007, pp. 1-2; cf. Howles & Tylor, 2011).
Note at this juncture that all terms considered in this section and the entire paper (along with many
other terms not addressed) inform and intersect with each other. Education constantly overlaps with
theology, spirituality, philosophy, history, and many other disciplines. For example, Colleen Griffith,
writing on the confluence between education and spirituality, observes the manner in which: ‘Parker
Palmer…likens education to a spiritual journey [and] invites all those involved in the enterprise to see its
potential to lead persons beyond half-truths and narrow concepts to “whole sight”, a more authentic
and inclusive knowing’ (2005, p. 267).
Theology and Theological Reflection
According to David F. Ford, ‘theology’ can be broadly understood as that discipline which ‘deals with
questions of meaning, truth, beauty, and practice raised in relation to religions and pursued through a
range of [cross-disciplinary] academic disciplines’ (2000, p. 16). This approach to theology recognises
that, ‘if God is really related to the whole of reality, then [those doing theology] need to engage with
not only what usually comes under religious studies but also with other disciplines – such as economics,
medicine, the natural sciences, and law’ (2000, p. 18).

Theology can also be conceptualised as ‘faith seeking understanding’ (St Anselm’s classic formulation) in
the sense that ‘Christian beliefs normatively shape Christian practices, and engaging in practices can
lead to acceptance and deeper [more contemplative] understanding of these beliefs’ (Volf, 2002, p. 258;
see also ‘Faith seeking understanding’ in Stone & Duke, 2006, pp. 7-10). However, some commentators
would criticise some aspects and limitations of Anselm’s definition. It could be argued that theology and
religious traditions are not merely repositories of lifeless doctrines. Erikson comments: ‘The God of
Christianity is an active being…[and so any definition of theology] must be expanded to include God’s
works and [God’s] relationship with them. Thus theology will also seek to understand God’s creation,
particularly human beings and their condition, and God’s redemptive working in relation to humankind’
(2007, p. 22).
Finally, theology can be understood as that lifelong process whereby the believer, in living his/her life,
confronts questions and experiences for which they seek understanding from a God whom they believe
in as the ultimate reality. Based on these concrete foundations, theology can be further articulated as a
vital vehicle for authentic understanding in a global age. In this sense, Christian theology is inherently
Abrahamic (as is Jewish and Islamic theology). That is, there can be no full understanding of any one
theology without reference to the broader Abrahamic tradition. This in turn links with Krister Stendahl’s
principles for theological engagement which can be broadly stated as: (1) In trying to understand
another faith, make sure you engage with, respect and listen to its adherents (rather than demonising
it); (2) In comparing and contrasting faiths and traditions, make sure it’s like for like (i.e. your best and
theirs, your worst and theirs – e.g. Christian crusades and anti-Semitism); (3) Allow for ‘holy envy’ - that
is, be open to finding something you truly admire about the other and think would improve your own.
In effect, each of these three principles is counter-intuitive to the norm where, in theology, RE and
spirituality, so often justification of one’s own tradition (sometimes verging on triumphalism) is
achieved at the expense of other traditions ‘that are different from mine’ (refer to some responses to
Stendahl’s Pauline interpretations in Horsley, 2000).+
Inextricably yoked to all these areas of ‘theology’ is its concrete practice of ‘theological reflection’.
According to Killen and de Beer, theological reflection is ‘the discipline of exploring individual and
corporate [communal] experience in conversation with the wisdom of a religious [interreligious]
heritage…Theological reflection therefore may confirm, challenge, clarify, and expand how we
understand our own experience and how we understand the religious tradition. The outcome is new
truth and meaning for living (2004, p. viii; cf. the dynamics of Brueggemann’s three movements in
section two).
Dorothy C. Bass has identified four particular characteristics of theological reflection – it resists the
separation of thinking from acting; its practices are social and belong to groups of people across
generations (e.g. hospitality to strangers); these same practices are rooted in the past and yet are
constantly being adapted to changing circumstances; and finally, these practices articulate wisdom that
is in the keeping of practitioners who do not necessarily think of themselves as theologians (2002, p. 6).
Needless to say, the entire process of theological reflection incorporates Stendahl’s three principles
above with their interfaith and dialogical characteristics.

Brueggemann’s three movements in the context of religious, theological and
spiritual transformation
‘Along with the sense of loss…and acknowledgment of guilt…,the most remarkable fact about “exile” is
that the season of dislocation came to be for Israel a primary time of theological generativity’
(Brueggemann, 2002a, p. 70).
Introduction – Echoes of Brueggemann in the Literature
The aim of this section is to consider in more detail Brueggemann’s three movements – from secure
orientation through disturbing disorientation towards surprising reorientation – in their original context
of Psalmic spirituality, and how this might be extended and adapted as a cycle of theological reflection
to assist the fields of religious education, theology and spirituality. It is important to note at the outset
of this section that Brueggemann’s three movements do not necessarily transpire in the lives of every
individual, community or society. Nevertheless, this paper argues that each person and group is invited
or challenged to negotiate the three movements, whether or not they eventually choose to engage with
them and apply them to their lives.
While this section cites many works across the Brueggemannian corpus, it also references other authors
who perceive similar patterns. For example, Brueggemann’s observation that the from-through-towards
movement constitutes a macro movement across both the Jewish Torah and Christian Bible as a whole
(mirroring Torah – Prophets – Writings/Wisdom) (Birch, Brueggemann, Fretheim & Petersen, 2005, p. 3
and Contents; 2003, pp. 45-60; Brueggemann, 2003, pp. 41-45), is echoed in other writings such as
those of Richard Rohr (2003, pp. 20-21; 2008, pp. 10-11, especially pp. 72-75 on ‘law, prophets,
wisdom’), Bruce Demarest (2009, pp. 14-15), Peter Tyler (cf. his ‘Triple Way’, 2005, pp. 626-627) and
Richard Byrne, who extols them as ‘three foundational moments repeated throughout life’s journey’
(1993, p. 568).
Walter Brueggemann’s from-through-towards model holds great potential for understanding the
educational process in religious education, as well as the tracings of divine and transformative pedagogy
in theology and spirituality. True, the tripartite model has been criticised by some as ‘too simplistic’
(Ashbrook, 2010, p. 103) yet this is a criticism that needs to be levelled with equanimity at the Triple
Way of spirituality and other similar models (as summarised in Tyler, 2005). On the contrary, this paper
argues that Brueggemann’s model needs to be ‘held lightly’, yet at the same time it can allow for a
deeper understanding of education’s and theology’s invitation to stretch a person’s understanding, to
draw them into new, challenging and potentially life-changing situations, and to enable them to flourish
(refer above to Introduction, paragraphs 1-3). Nevertheless, Brueggemann himself posits this from-
through-towards model of orientation-disorientation-reorientation, with the following caveat:
But I want to say, both to those who may critically assess this book and to those who may use the
book as a door to psalmic spirituality, that I do not intend the proposed scheme to be a
straitjacket. I do not imagine that the scheme is [totally] adequate to comprehend the Psalms, for
we do not have such a “master key.” I intend this principle of organization only to help us see
things we might not have seen otherwise. The test of a good paradigm is whether it serves in a

heuristic way for future study [that is, as a guide for self-directed study and investigation] (2002b,
p. viii).
From Secure Orientation
‘”…And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God” (Exod 3:6). The life of Moses is an
interrupted life, interrupted by a ‘mandate’ and ‘imperative’, interrupted by an ‘abiding presence’,
interrupted by a ‘revolutionary future’’ (Brueggemann, 2011a, p. 19; words in single inverted commas
following the scripture quote are italicised within plain text in the original).
Introduction – Brueggemann’s approach to the three movements
These sections on Brueggemann’s three movements echo the phases or cycles of transformation
evident in the more profound or ‘kairos’ moments of education and spiritual formation. That is, they do
not apply to or occur in every educational, theological or spiritual experience (hereafter ‘the journey’),
but usually at those times when a peak or seminal insight occurs in the respective context. It is also
noteworthy that while Brueggemann rejects ‘any regularized movement of a cyclical kind’ in the context
of individual Psalms and the Psalter as a whole (2002b, p. 13), this article is targetted more broadly in
applying these movements to the ‘big canvas’ for the whole of life – to the contexts of the educational,
theological and spiritual journey. In this, it seeks to honour Brueggemann’s original intentions: ‘I offer
[this matrix] simply as a way to suggest connections between life and speech, or as Paul Ricoeur puts it,
between “limit experiences” and “limit expressions”’ (2002b, p. 14); and ‘It is suggested that the psalms
can be roughly grouped [in relation to these three movements], …and the flow of human life
characteristically is located either in the actual experience of one of these settings or is in movement
from one to another’ (2002b, p. 8).
Following from the latter, it is also important to acknowledge Brueggemann’s foundational and related
insight that any consideration of this tripartite movement should focus not just on the individual
movements themselves, but on the space or activity between the movements. Here he suggests that ‘the
life of faith expressed in the Psalms is focused on the two decisive moves of faith that are always
underway, by which we are regularly surprised and which we regularly resist’ (2002, p. 9). These are the
move out of a settled orientation into a season of disorientation, and the move from a context of
disorientation to a new orientation (2002b, pp. 10-15), both of which will be considered in more detail
below. The following diagram aims to summarise the relationship between Brueggemann’s three
primary movements (based on the Psalter’s rhythms) and these two ‘in between seasons’ of the journey
(adapted and expanded from Br, 2002b, p. 12; refer also below to Figure 2).

Figure 1 – Brueggemann’s three primary movements and the ‘in between’ seasonal movements, as
applied to education, theology and spirituality
The nature of the educational and spiritual journey
Given this context, the three movements of the journey are perhaps better understood as a spiral
rather than a cycle. A helpful metaphor to capture this journey is that of the moth slowly circling in
ever-decreasing spirals towards a light, moving away and then returning, but all the time inching its way
ever more closely to the light source in a series of probing ellipses.
With a view to elucidating the tripartite nature of this metaphor, this section focuses on secure
orientation in relation to a general overture to Brueggemann’s treatment of this movement, and a false
view of the secure predictability of life as ‘business as usual’. It then addresses selected psalms of
secure orientation, including the prescience of ‘the pit’, and the logos as a stale formulation of
language. Finally, it explores the dangers of a fully controlled life, trampled language, and a clichéd view
of the Gospel, before considering the presence of this movement within the context of everyday life.
A Brueggemannian overture for Secure Orientation
During this initial movement of ‘secure orientation’ the person or community is ‘well settled, knowing
that life makes sense and God is well-placed in heaven, presiding but not bothering’ (Brueggemann,
1982, p. 17; the author is hereafter referred to in references as ‘Br’). During this phase, the
person/community is focused on the status quo, ‘business as usual’, or the comfort zone of a stagnated
habitus (Br, 1982, p. 21; cf. Dumais, 2002 on stymied school habitus). This is a movement that
Brueggemann characterises as one of ‘guaranteed creation’ (2002b, p. 12).
Those experiencing the movement of secure orientation look upon their faith as ‘important and
satisfying’. In their prayer, liturgy and life they ‘express a confident, serene settlement of faith issues’
(Br, 2002b, p. 16). They perceive God as ‘trustworthy and reliable’ and are committed to ‘the decision to
• Movement 1
Secure Orientation
•"Songs (Psalms) of
guaranteed creation"
First in between
seasonal movement -
from security to
disorientation
• Movement 2
Disturbing Disorientation
•"Songs of disarray"
Second in between
seasonal movement
- from disorientation to
new reorientation
• Movement 3
Surprising
Reorientation
• "Songs of surprising
new life"
This spiral of three
movements repeats
itself endlessly

stake life on this particular God’ (Br, 2002b, p. 16). At the same time they are conscious of articulating,
maintaining and living under a ‘sacred canopy’ (cf. Berger, 1990) under which they can live out their
lives free from security. ‘Such a satisfied and assured assertion of orderliness probably comes from the
well-off, from the economically secure and the politically significant’ (Br, 2002b, pp. 18-19). On the
other hand, however, Brueggemann detects forms of social control to balance, and perhaps later
challenge, this sacred canopy erected by the elders. He posits that the security of the status quo and
business as usual might be a strategy designed to ‘induct the young into a system of obedience and
rewards, and so promote approved social conduct of a certain kind’. He concludes: ‘Thus the very
psalms that may serve as social control may also function as a social anticipation, which becomes social
criticism’ (2002b, pp. 20, 22). It is possible that secure orientation asserted by the fathers and mothers
might lead to insecure criticism levelled by their sons and daughters.
So in general, the movement of ‘secure orientation’ acknowledges that human life ‘consists in satisfied
seasons of well-being that evoke gratitude for the constancy of blessing.’ This is matched by the psalms
of orientation which ‘articulate the joy, delight, goodness, coherence, and reliability of God, God’s
creation, and God’s governing law’ (Br, 2002b, p. 8). Yet at the same time this security is undercut by
premonitions of shallowness, rebellion, disorientation and the psalmic ‘pit’ (refer to the ‘disorientation’
section below).
Psalms of secure orientation
Brueggemann refers to the Psalms as ‘the most reliable theological, pastoral and liturgical resource
given us in the biblical tradition…The Psalms are helpful because they are a genuinely dialogical
literature that expresses both sides of the conversation of faith’ (2002b, p. 1) – the security,
disorientation and reorientation of humanity, mirrored and provoked, it could be argued, in the
manoeuvrings of God as Mystery. Psalms that echo this first movement of secure orientation include
the Songs of Creation which applaud life’s regularities as reliable, equitable, and generous. Here the
psalmist is grateful that the world is ordered, that they are safe and free, and therefore feel blessed
(refer to Pss 8, 33, 104, 145). These are complemented by the Songs of Torah which acknowledge that
the settled world order is due to God’s power, faithfulness, and graciousness (see Pss 1, 15, 19, 24, 119).
And finally, belonging to the same group are Wisdom Psalms (e.g. Pss 14, 37) and the Psalms for
Occasions of Well-Being (Pss 131, 133) (Br, 2002b, pp. 22-24).
Some Psalter snippets that capture the tenor of this movement as security, including some excerpts
with premonitions of vulnerability and disorientation are:
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters…
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil (Ps 23:1-2).
(Note: unless otherwise stated, all scripture references are based on the New RSV version of the
Bible, from Division of Christian Education, 1989).
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them? (Ps 8:3-4).
I will meditate on your precepts, and fix my eyes on your ways…
I live as an alien in the land; do not hide your commandments from me
(Ps 119:15, 19).
But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother…
O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time on and forevermore (Ps 131:2, 3).
Recognising ‘secure orientation’ in the midst of everyday life
What then does this movement ‘look like’ in relation to day-to-day, personal and communal
experience? While only selected examples are provided here, it is nevertheless likely that those
negotiating this movement during their spiral journey will experience life as ‘business as usual’ or as a
domesticated comfort zone. Life is going along smoothly and is often characterised by anaemic
expressions such as: ‘It’s all good’, ‘No worries’ or ‘Not a problem’.
Yet at the same time those involved sense that something is not quite right – there is an awareness that
something is ‘caught in the craw’, even to the point of a gnawing and troubling prescience. Those
engaging this movement might not be aware that nothing fresh is challenging them in the way of life
goals, work ambitions, social justice, or gospel truths. Life is actually ‘too comfortable’ to the point of
existential numbness or death. Their speech has become stale, dulled and mundane and they live
without passion, challenge or imagination. They become aware of a lacuna in their life which seems
bereft of life and newness. They rarely think of new ideas because their world is ‘prose-flattened’ and
their life is not infiltrated by humour, poetry, art, or other vehicles of wonder and imagination. At the
same time they are aware of a looming void or ‘pit’, a vacuum in their lives that could lead to cost,
terror, alienation or suffering. But they do not wish to acknowledge it, face it, or ‘get free of it by
pretending it is not there. [They will only] get free of it by going through it’ (Br, 2012a, p. 74). This
menacing ‘pit’ could be any number of realities related to their – personality, sexuality, personal
relationships, lack of communication between generations, anxiety in daily life, consumerism, political
viewpoints, lack of meaning in life, absence of commitment to justice and social responsibility, and so
on.
For Brueggemann, ‘this is the mood of much of the middle-class church’ (1982, p. 17). Indeed, as he
travels in order to preach in various churches he is struck by the fact that ‘the mainline churches have so
accommodated ourselves to [maintaining denial] that we’ve lost our nerve about this. So you [the
preacher] have to tone down everything in order to maintain the budget and the program…I think that’s
what’s so disabling for clergy, to live in that contradiction between what must be said and what cannot
be said because it violates the norms and expectations of the Church’ (2012a, p. 64; see also pp. 69-70).
In his use of the expression ‘to tone down everything’, Brueggemann is referring to the kingdom of God,
the challenge of Jesus’ parables, the political edge of prayer and action, the radical counter testimony of

the Scriptures (2012a), and the tendency of the church to become ‘a social club’ rather than an
expression of God’s Reign where parishioners mutually support each other, even at times financially
(2012a, p. 65).
The challenge that finally moves an individual or community from secure orientation and onwards past
disturbing disorientation is exactly the one posed by Jesus in his parabolic teachings. According to
Burbules, Jesus as teacher challenges us to find ‘room to imagine a new scope of possibilities when the
pressures of routine and conformity tend to draw us back into conventional business as usual’ (2004, p.
2). The paper now turns to the second movement of disturbing disorientation.
Through Disturbing Disorientation
‘In the tradition and history of Israel, the wilderness is the time of preparation, the place of testing and
repentance. It is the time to travel light, stripped of excess baggage, vulnerable in emptiness. It is the
place of powerlessness where we are fully and perpetually at the mercy of God’ (Kellermann, 1991, p.
134).*
A Brueggemannian overture for Disturbing Disorientation
This section views the middle movement of disturbing disorientation in multiple ways – as the fracturing
of one’s world, an experience of savage incoherence, as part of existing in a ‘thanatonic age’.
Brueggemann refers to it as a ‘season’ during which faith embraces negativity, there is censorship of
bold speech (chutzpah), and there is a waiting upon God in order to unlearn the old ways. It carries a
strong sense of disarray and uncertainty (Br, 2002b, p. 12). It is a movement of trepidatory life in the
wilderness (exemplified by texts of disorientation in the Psalter, Ezekiel and other books), in which
God’s faithful and unfaithful alike are cast into ‘the pit’, where they experience exile, ‘blurred
encounters’, and a profound subversion of the dominant (Pharoanic/imperial) culture. Only as a result
of this tumult can God’s surprising newness erupt and banish chaos and darkness. This section then
concludes by considering the presence of this movement within the context of everyday life.
Disorientation as the world split open with bold speech
Brueggemann describes this movement as an experience of the displacement of one’s existence, the
dislodgement of one’s ‘being in the world’, the fracturing of one’s world, or the dislocation of time-
honoured certainties (cf. Br, 2002b, p. 8). One becomes aware during this movement that, apart from
comfort, equilibrium, coherence, and predictability, life is ‘also savagely marked by incoherence, a loss
of balance, and unrelieved symmetry…[a fact in our own time] that needs no argument or
documentation’ (Br, 2002b, p. 25).
Nevertheless, despite its obviousness, this assertion is supported in Sandywell’s chapter entitled
‘Experience in a Thanatonic Age’, from which a key section is cited below, tracing the historical pedigree
of disorientation as thanatos in the context of modernity:
Sociologists have graced this deadly process with the title modernity…But the word ‘modernity’
also names the epoch of world wars, ‘ethnic cleansing’ and mass slaughter carried out in the
name of competing visions of a Eurocentred world order. The trail of genocides runs from Greek
slave mines and Roman latifundia to the Spanish conquest of the Americas, the Black Atlantic
slave trade, the ruthless elimination of native peoples in North America, Australia, Tasmania, New
Zealand and beyond. The long history of these civilising passions and global genocides prepared

the way for the industrialization of death that punctuates both the beginning and the end of the
twentieth century. In the aftermath of bureaucratically planned mass death, powdered cities and
blasted lives, we could describe the present historical epoch as a thanatonic age. Its most visible
aspect is the total militarization of life on earth. Its most threatening prospect is the death of
nature itself. The growing body of historical knowledge suggests that these periodic bouts of
collective self-destruction have a long history as the very engine of Western modernity (2011, p.
5; refer also to Becker, 1997; Yalom, 2009; John Paul II, 1995).
Brueggemann describes this disorienting movement with words and phrases such as – ‘[the church is
caught up] much more [in] a frightened, numb denial and deception that does not want to acknowledge
or experience disorientation of life…wishful optimism of our culture…[we make the mistake of thinking]
that faith [does not] embrace negativity…the use of these “psalms of darkness”…is [in fact] an act of
bold faith [not of unfaith and failure]…Nothing is out of bounds, nothing precluded or inappropriate [cf.
chutzpah]…Thus these psalms make the important connection: everything must be brought to speech,
and everything brought to speech must be addressed to God, who is the final reference for all of
life…They lead us into the presence of God where everything is not polite and civil…[they take ] the
speaker away from the life well-ordered into an arena of terror, raggedness, and hurt’. He adds: ‘In
some sense this speech is a visceral release of the realities and imagination that have been censored,
denied, or held in check by the dominant claims of society…[these psalms] offend “proper” and
“dignified” religious sensitivities’ (2002b, pp. 26-27, 29-30).
Elsewhere, Brueggemann characterises disturbing disorientation as that time where a person or
community on their journey feels ‘overwhelmed, nearly destroyed’, and where they can be disoriented
by God’s words and deeds which are at times ‘abrasive, revolutionary and dangerous’. Those involved
are familiar with ‘the reality of chaos [and] disorder…in the form of loss of self-esteem,
marriage/relationship failure, the death of a loved one, financial reversal, diagnosis of illness, violence,
natural disasters, a random shooting, bullying, war and so on’ (1982, p. 21).
At this time of displacement, God challenges individuals and communities alike to speak of the chaos of
this world with chutzpah (boldness) right before the very face of the Holy One (Br, 1982, p. 22). The
spiritual pilgrim realises that ‘life is not all roses – life is not an experience of uninterrupted continuity
and equilibrium’ (Br, 1982, p. 23). Boeve concurs when he observes:
The God who ultimately has everything to do with this [Christian narrative] cannot be grasped by
it; instead as the Other of the narrative, God questions the narrative from within, interrupts it,
forces it to collide with its borders. Only when faith experience reckons with this interrupting
aspect of a God who refuses to be reduced to the Christian narrative (even though God cannot be
conceived of without it), can the development of tradition be reflected upon theologically today.
It is for this reason that encounters with others, reading texts, the reflecting on events,
confrontation with joy and sorrow, wonderment and horror, etc. can serve as moments of
interruption in which Christian identity formation is paradoxically questioned from within, because
for Christians it is precisely in these opportunities that God is announced as the One who interrupts
(2007, p. 87; emphases mine).
During this experience, the disoriented person/community is also imaged as a stinking pile of compost,
potentially fertile, and yet the locus of exile (Br, 1993, pp. 63-64). Trapped and paralysed, seemingly

interminably, in this liminal zone or ‘holding bay’, they cannot move and must simply wait upon God.
This is the time of their ‘unlearning’, a disengagement from a story they no longer find credible,
adequate and life-giving – on the contrary it is death-dealing (Br, 1993, p. 24). This experience of ‘being
inside the Great Fish’ (cf. Jonah 2; and Burrows, 2008, pp. 49-88) provides them with a profound
opportunity for dismantling their old world and critiquing their cherished beliefs and lifestyle choices
(Br, 1987, p. 13).
As a result, they must relinquish their control and dominance (let go, let God) and embrace a new
trepidatory life in the desert or wilderness (Br, 1987, pp. 16, 19, 23). This difficult passage is
characterised by anguish, pathos and continuity, by that particular sense of weakness, hurt,
powerlessness, vulnerability (Latin vulnus meaning ‘wound’), failure, and that experience of
displacement familiar to the biblical exilic community (Br, 1987, pp. 58, 35). Like the Jewish people in
exile, those enmeshed in this ‘through’ movement are cut off without resources from Jerusalem and the
Temple, doubtful of God’s power to restore them, dominated by an imperial power, with no prospect of
a way out, and with no hope for the security of future generations. Hope begins to evaporate under the
triple tyranny of silence, civility and repression. The vision of God’s call is stymied by the shadows of
fulfilment and ‘technique’, by the capacity to figure out, analyse, and problem-solve, and to reduce life’s
mysteries to manageable, discrete elements (Br, 1987, pp. 88-89; cf. Ex 8).
Psalms and other texts of disturbing disorientation
The following examples focus in order on disorientation as – personal lament, as communal lament, as
due to the action of other human agents (one of the blackest psalms with no final reorientation of
hope), as a despairing call from ‘the pit’, and as a call of hopeless desperation during the last moments
of life in the Book of Isaiah. The concept of the Pit will be developed more fully in the next section:
How long O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I bear pain in my soul?...
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,… (Ps 13: 1-2,3).
O God, the nations…have defiled your holy temple;
they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the air for food,
the flesh of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth.
They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem,
and there was no one to bury them (Ps 79: 1,2,3).
By the rivers of Babylon – there we sat down
and there we wept when we remembered Zion…
Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us!
Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rocks!
(Ps 137: 1,8-9; cf. Ps 88:18 for a similar dark ending).
O Lord, God of my salvation, when, at night, I cry out in your presence,…
For my soul is full of troubles, and my soul draws near to Sheol.

I am counted among those who go down to the Pit;
I am like those who have no help,
like those forsaken among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand.
You have put me in the depths of the Pit, in the regions dark and deep.
Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves
(Ps 88: 1, 3-7).
I said: In the noontide of my days I must depart:
I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.
I said, I shall not see the Lord in the land of the living…
My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a shepherd’s tent;
like a weaver I have rolled up my life; he cuts me off from the loom;
from day to night you bring me to an end;
I cry for help until morning;
like a lion he breaks all my bones; from day to night you bring me to an end
(Isa 38: 10-13; cf. the ‘pit of destruction’ is mentioned in verse 13).
Disorientation within ‘the “pit” as the wrong place’
The ‘pit’ as locus of no escape and looming death is mentioned sixteen times in the Psalms (e.g. 7:15;
35:7; 88:6; 143:7), on forty-six occasions throughout the Jewish Scriptures (e.g. Ex 21:33; 2 Sam 18:17;
Job 9:31; Prov 1:12; Isa 14:15; Jer 18:20; Ezek 19:4 and twelve other verses, the most of any book
outside the Psalms), and four times in the Gospels (Mt 12:11; 15:14; Mk 12:1; Lk 6:39; all references
from NIV Concordance; Goodrick & Kohlenberger, 1990, pp. 882-883; see also Mudge and Fleming, in
press, 2013, on ‘deconstruction’ and the pit).
The pit is typically referred to as a hole in the ground, generally a carved, underground water cistern.
Ryken et al remark upon its precarious nature: ‘A cistern usually had a small access near the top into
which groundwater flowed. Dark, damp, rocky and isolated, the pit provided a near-death experience
for anyone hapless enough to fall in and be stranded inside. Despair quickly followed the realization that
there was no escape’ (1998, p. 646). In the Bible, ‘pit’ occurs under seven categories, all of which link to
the experience of disturbing disorientation – pit as prison, where Joseph and Jeremiah were its most
famous prisoners (Gen 37:22; Jer 38:6); pit as trap, like a wild animal trap or a snare for the spiritually
blind (Ex 21:3; Mt 15:14); pit as the place of despair and dust (Ps 28:1; Job 17:16); pit as grave often
with the body laid on or covered by stones – ‘They have silenced my life in the pit, they have cast stones
over me’ (Lam 3:53; cf. 2 Sam 18:17); pit as access to the underworld (Isa 29:4); and pit as hell, pictured
as dark, deep, murky and disgusting, where one despairs of God’s faithfulness (Pss 88:6; 40:2; Job 9:31;
Ps 30:9). The seventh category is the generic ‘the Pit’, combining several of the foregoing categories,
and signalling descent to ‘moral and psychological depths as well as physical death’ (Ryken et al, 1998,
pp. 646-647; quote from p. 647). The Pit is also mentioned in situations where one is a
foreigner/stranger, a pilgrim or a wanderer (Ryken et al, 1998, pp. 300-302, 643-645, 925-926).
According to Brueggemann, imprisonment in ‘the pit’ gives rise to ‘the speech of the wrong place’,
especially in the Psalms. It is a place that renders people ‘null and void…effectively removed from
life…[and that denies] a person all the resources necessary for life’. It is an experience of ‘social death’

where people are cut off from loved ones and, as a result, feel powerless, silent, forgotten and dead
(2007, pp. 32-33; cf. Ps 28:1). Like being trapped as a prisoner inside a war, the person feels
‘forsaken…among the dead, slain, not remembered, cut off [Ps 28: 4-5]’, and at other times severely
depressed, sick, abandoned, guilty, and imprisoned (Br, 2007, p. 33; cf. Ps 30:9). The cry for vengeance
(e.g. Ps 35:7-8) is a powerful part of disorientation that ‘blames those who have disrupted and
demolished the old equilibrium’, life as it used to be (Br, 2007, p. 34). After much suffering, the Psalmist
and other protagonists realise that God does not want them to focus on eternity in the pit, but on
another realm/mindset ‘where you ought to be’ – under safe wings (Br, 2007, p. 37). This is a locus of
surprising reorientation to be examined in the next major section. Nevertheless, in the final analysis,
this entire set of disorienting encounters could be understood as a deeply felt (and often a life-time)
experience of ‘exile’.
Disorientation as exile
For Brueggemann, ‘exile’ is not just a dominant theme in his writings – it has become a personal
existential metaphor for his own life journey and raison d’être. In his book of conversations with Carolyn
J. Sharp and other biblical scholars he has recently reflected:
I was in a Lilly seminar twenty-five years ago [c. 1987] that went on for three years. To start the
seminar, what they agreed to was for everybody to get to know each other, to adopt a metaphor
that would disclose our life. My metaphor was exile. I can trace all that exilic business, and I think
that’s behind everything I do (2012a, p. 34).
As previous quotes have asserted, to be ‘exiled’ is to be out of place, not at home, on a journey of some
kind involving variables such as disorientation, transformation, danger, chaos, enrichment, and many
more (Hamilton, 2005, p. 294). Disorientation as exile takes account of a number of factors such as –
God is with the person/community in exile, who in turn hope that God will eventually restore them,
return them, reorient them to their former or another homeland; exile is often associated with being
aliens, foreigners or outcasts in the land; both biblical and secular exile journeys often follow the
pattern of ascent, fall and renewed ascent; and finally, many contemporary commentators and activists
have detected parallels between historical exiles and present day refugees and asylum-seekers – ‘To use
the metaphor legitimately, it may be important to have entered the reality of those seeking asylum, and
to have been in solidarity with exiles’ (Hamilton, 2005, pp. 294-295, concepts and quote).
Recognising ‘disturbing disorientation’ in the midst of everyday life
What then does this movement ‘look like’ in relation to day-to-day, personal and communal
negotiating this movement during their spiral educational, theological or spiritual journey will
experience life in some or all of the following ways. It is likely for example that the person/community
so entrapped in disturbing disorientation will experience the fracturing or questioning of cherished
beliefs and worldviews. What they formerly believed does not help them during this time of
displacement. One example of a pastoral situation in which such fracturing and questioning might take
place is having or ministering to a person with HIV/AIDS (Blyth, 2012; cf. Ps 88). At the same time, such
people might be challenged to abandon a current worldview and to adopt a different one (e.g.
rethinking ‘destruction’, ‘negativity’, ‘loss’ and ‘death’ by using the alternative paradigm of plasticity
applied to life and philosophy; Malabou, 2012).

Disorientation might also transpire when these people are challenged to transform the gospel from a
mundane, prose-flattened cliché to a poetic and prophetic word by embracing Jesus’ challenges to leave
behind security, money, convenience, consumerism, and even family for his sake and that of God’s
Reign (Platt, 2010; Kavanaugh, 2011). This aligns with Brueggemann’s challenge to exchange images of
the prophets as clichéd texts for an appreciation of prophets as the ‘uncredentialled purveyors of
covenant, who call us to moral coherence in a world of power, money and violence…the shrill rhetoric
that breaks despair…the grief of loss as divine judgement…[and] the promisory language that breaks
despair’ (Br with Scorer, 2011, pp. 7, 15-90; cf. Br, 2012b, passim).
Those endeavouring to abandon disorientation for surprising reorientation will also be challenged to
engage in chutzpah with God – by bargaining, negotiating, crying out, complaining and lamenting (Br
with Scorer, 2011, p. 19). The movement of disorientation can also be discerned in the midst of
debilitating conflicts such as between – commodification and fidelity; worship as death-dealing and life-
giving; morality as reductionist and virtue-laden; living with anaesthesia and imagination; anxious
entrapment and freedom (Br with Scorer, 2011, pp. 21-90). In the same parish discussion resource,
Brueggemann with Scorer consider the thought-provoking conflict between – power/money/violence
and moral coherence; scientific reasoning and poetic/prophetic imagination; safe subsistence and risky
gospel living; passively accepting a ‘thanatonic culture’ and facing up to loss, grief and weeping; and
secure isolation versus brave neighbourliness and social justice (Br with Scorer, 2011, pp. 45-90).
Those struggling to name and yet escape disorientation might also experience times of ‘wilderness’ such
as exclusion, homelessness, racism, violence, war or personal/ financial destitution, as well as
estrangement from family, friends or society. In addition, they may have to wait upon God with
patience and humility in times of confusion, uncertainty and trauma. They could also experience or
support others who are trapped in ‘the pit’, including those in prison, those grieving after the loss of
loved ones, those lonely and socially excluded, or those arriving as migrants or refugees. They might feel
displaced when they attempt to challenge the dominant consciousness of society in the form of
exploitation and violence by arguing for an alternative consciousness of peace and non-violence. At
times they might be entombed by seasons of chaos and darkness, as in the case of physical,
psychological, cultural or global suffering, violence or trauma.

Towards Surprising Reorientation
‘The book of Acts is written so that assets need not stay frozen. This witness makes a simple affirmation:
power for life is unloosed. It is a generous offer of an alternative. It is given to you. It is a dangerous
chance. You can be on the side of the newness that God is now working. All our frozenness cannot stop
the newness’ (Brueggemann, 2011b, p. 58).
Introduction
This section focuses on the final movement of ‘surprising reorientation’, a season of ‘surprising new life’
(Br, 2002b, p. 12). It emphasises key themes linked to this movement such as – being overwhelmed by
God’s grace, mercy, joy and light; selected psalms of reorientation; a profound experience of ‘all things
new’; where those involved are released from and given freedom for certain new opportunities; some
deeper meanings behind the biblical metaphors of mountain, banquet, wedding feast and rushing wind;
awareness of God’s presence with and working among them even in times of severe abandonment; and
the key metaphorical experience of being transformed by hope: those disoriented are suddenly and
graciously lifted up from ‘the pit’ and transported to great heights by ‘eagles’ wings’. It concludes by
considering the presence of this movement within the context of everyday life.
About this movement of uplifting, Brueggemann writes: ‘Human life consists in turns of surprise when
we are overwhelmed with the new gifts of God, when joy breaks through the despair. Where there has
been only darkness, there is light’ (2002b, pp. 8-9). In the same passage, he aligns this movement with
‘psalms of new orientation’ which he believes speak boldly about a new gift from God, a fresh intrusion
that makes all things new. These psalms not only make reference to the surprising reorientation that
has taken place but also to the early movements of mundaneness, chaos and danger from which the
person/community has escaped, often without any hope of restoration.
Psalms of Surprising Reorientation
Psalms that address surprising reorientation include the following verses:
I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up,
And did not let my foes rejoice over me.
O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
And you have healed me.
O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol,
Restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit (Ps 30:1-3).
O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.
Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous works among all the peoples (Ps 96:1-3).
The Lord loves those who hate evil; he guards the lives of his faithful;
he rescues them from the hand of the wicked.
Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.
Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name! (Ps 97:10-12).
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits –
who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s
(Ps 103: 1-5).
A Brueggemannian overture for Surprising Reorientation
Sympathetic with the spirit of the foregoing psalms, Brueggemann describes this final ‘Towards’
movement as one where the individual or community is ‘surprisingly reoriented’ (1982, pp. 16-17). Here
once again, the ambit of from-through-towards movements is understood as an ever-intensifying spiral
journey inwards toward God or attracted to the Divine Presence. This third movement transpires as we
are drawn towards God through creation, the Scriptures, or other forms of divine revelation. Such
encounters with God evoke eloquence in us, fill us with passion, and turn us towards the Holy One with
ever greater attention and intensity (1982, pp. 15-20).
Brueggemann calls these texts of reorientation ‘surprising songs of newness’ (2007, p. 11). He describes
their dynamics as anything other than the former status quo: ‘This is not an automatic movement that
can be presumed upon or predicted. Nor is it a return to the old form, a return to normalcy as though
nothing had happened. It is rather “all things new”’ (2007, p. 11). When this surge of reorientation
happens, it is always perceived as a surprise, as the unmerited grace and mercy of God. As
Brueggemann notes, these songs of newness invariably move us to graciousness and gratitude – to an
appreciation of wondrous revelation.
Not left alone in a world of chaos
Such moments and responses are sometimes glimpsed during moments of personal, communal and
international relationships when those involved are generous, merciful, gracious, forgiving, friendly, and
risk reconciliation (cf. 2007, p. 11). People of faith realise that such events do not occur without God’s
grace and governance, which make us more keenly aware that ‘God has not left the world to chaos’ (Br,
2007, p. 12) As Isaiah 45:18-19 acknowledges, God created the heavens but ‘did not create it a
chaos…did not speak in secret in a land of darkness…did not say to the offspring of Jacob, “Seek me in
chaos.” I the Lord speak the truth, I declare what is right’. Responses such as these inevitably lead to
praise and thanks, to the realisation that God sometimes surprisingly intrudes into our lives and makes
them joyful, peaceful and memorable (Br, 2007, p. 12). The Psalms and other texts of surprising
reorientation are not dusty texts devoid of emotion and power. On the contrary Brueggemann declares:
The Psalms are not used in a vacuum, but in a history where we are dying and rising, and in a
history where God is at work, ending our lives and making gracious new beginnings for us. The
Psalms move with our experience. They may also take us beyond our own guarded experience
into the more poignant pilgrimages of sisters and brothers (2007, p. 15).
During this stage of the journey, the person/community speaks, hears and responds to what have
already been referred to as ‘surprising songs of newness’. These songs are always received as gifts of
graciousness (God’s grace), as experiences that evoke gratitude. At such times, they come to accept the
powerful, dangerous and joyful rawness of human reality (1982, pp. 22, 19). They sense that they are
drawn into the inescapability of crucifixion, which can be transformed into the power and possibility of
resurrection (Br, 1982, p. 22), in both their various manifestations (for example, crucifixion as

psychological, physical or sexual trauma; resurrection as the consciousness that one is called freedom to
embark upon a new phase of one’s life, relationships and being-in-the-world).
Gathered safely on eagles’ wings
The eagle has been described as ‘a large, solitary bird of prey,…known for its keen eyesight, power and
sharp beak and talons…[their young] remain helpless for a long period, up to 100 days…[the eagle also]
appears as one face of the four mighty cherubim who attend the throne of God (Ezek 1:10-14; Rev 4:7)’
(Ryken et al, 1998, p. 223). Yet for all its ferocity and strength, and its ability to tear its prey apart, the
eagle is also often imaged biblically, especially in Isaiah, Psalms and other books, as the face of God who
brings hope, safety and joy (refer to a selection of the relevant psalter texts treated above). In an
Exodus text of liberation from slavery through Passover, the Lord says: ‘You have seen what I did to the
Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself’ (Ex 19:4). One of the most
famous tracings from disorientation to reorientation is Isaiah 40:31: ‘But those who wait for the Lord
shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint’ (cf. Dt 32:11; Rev 12:14).
On this necessary transition from the pit to the wings, Brueggemann concludes:
It is clear that the Psalms, when we freely engage ourselves with them, are indeed subversive
literature. They break things loose. They disrupt and question. Most of all, they give us eyes to see
and new tongues to speak. And, therefore, we need not enter the Presence of the Holy One mute
and immobilized. [We] receive the new future God is speaking to us…[we] repent of the old
orientation to which we no longer belong. It is to refuse the pit which must first be fully
experienced for the sake of the wings which may be boldly anticipated (1982, p. 48; my
emphases).
Recognising ‘surprising reorientation’ in the midst of everyday life
One text that sums up the import and meaning of ‘surprising reorientation’ (indeed all three
movements) is the famous Pauline passage: ‘Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who
though he was in the form of God…emptied himself…and became obedient to the point of death – even
death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every
name,…’ (Phil 2:5-9).
What then does this final movement ‘look like’ in relation to day-to-day, personal and communal
negotiating this movement during their journey will become more aware of God’s healing presence
through experiences of grace, mercy, joy and light. The psalms of surprising reorientation in particular
enshrine classic and universal themes of new life wrenched from the jaws of death. Their discovery of
new seasons of life have sustained generations of spiritual seekers for thousands of years. Therefore it
is not unexpected that such seekers will see the gamut of their experiences from security to
disillusionment to new life reflected in such ancient writings.
Those individuals/communities that move into the season of surprising reorientation typically
experience, not a return to normalcy or ‘business as usual’, but a profound experience of ‘all things
new’. They begin to reflect in their relationships with others what they themselves have been freely

given – grace, mercy, forgiveness, friendship, the unreasonable risk of reconciliation. This surprising
reorientation is equally present during any experiences of dying and rising, or moving from darkness to
greyness to light, when they are permitted to make sometimes unexpected but nevertheless new
beginnings. At other times, they might make the transition from isolation and guarded experiences (my
personal security) to more of a deeper identification with the pilgrimages of others (living insecurely
with the whole group, many of whom I might not necessarily ‘like’ or ‘agree with’).
The season of surprising reorientation can also occur when one is freed from a life of control, precision,
and monotony (calculative knowing/thinking) and freed for a more fulfilling life of ambiguity, poetic
creativity, liberation, contemplation and ‘life to the full’ (meditative knowing/thinking; cf. Jn 10:10). And
as with the relevant biblical metaphors of mountain, banquet, wedding feast, and rushing wind, those
who are surprisingly reoriented become more aware of God’s expansiveness, of God’s merciful and
hospitable inclusion of those people, communities, indigenous people and others who are ‘different
from me’.
Finally, those transitioning from disturbing disorientation to surprising reorientation become more
aware of and drawn to God’s abiding presence, in moments of joy and even in situations of human
abandonment (e.g. personal trauma, war, natural disasters, genocide). They realise that God will
deliver, protect, answer, rescue, honour, and reveal truth to them. Their lives and worldviews are
transformed by hope – they are literally drawn out of ‘the pit’ and gathered up to great heights by
eagles’ wings. Yet they are not smug in their surprising and grace-filled rehabilitation, but appreciative
for this ‘lifting up’, at the same time knowing that this spiral of security – darkness – resurrection will
reoccur many times as they slowly gravitate from darkness through greyness into light.
This section concludes with a story of freedom in the face of long-term imprisonment. It adeptly
crystallises Brueggemann’s three movements by asserting that chaos and incarceration are not the end
of the story. The wall and the prison bars are barriers, it is true, but they also provide the key to
surprising new life, freedom and resurrection:
The philosopher Simone Weil describes how two prisoners in adjoining cells learn, over a very
long period of time, to talk to each other by tapping on the wall. “The wall is the thing which
separates them, but it is also their means of communication,” she writes. “Every separation is a
link.”
[This reflection on Brueggemann’s three movements] is about that wall. It’s about our desire to
talk, to understand and be understood. It’s also about listening to each other, not just the words
but the gaps in between. What I’m describing here isn’t a magical process. It’s something that is
part of our everyday lives – we tap, we listen (adapted from Grosz, 2007, p. xii; the bracketed
section is my addition to the original text).
The most effective way to engage with the three movements and ‘the gaps in between’ is not to sit still
and watch the wall, nor is it to blow up the wall or to try surreptitiously to go around the wall.
Individuals and communities on the educational, theological and spiritual journey need to face the wall,
go through the pain of the wall, and thence towards its other ever-surprising side.
We tap, we listen.

Brueggemann’s Three Movements as a Cycle of Theological Reflection
The aim of this penultimate section is to convey Brueggemann’s three movements and intervening
‘seasons’ as a pedagogical cycle, principally as a tool for theological reflection, but also to allow
individuals and communities to locate their specific predicaments along the spectrum of the
movements or, in common parlance, along the trajectory of the spiritual journey. As Brueggemann,
Kinast, Killen and de Beer, Cameron et al, and others have shown, such a cycle of theological reflection
can be applied to any arena or activity of life including – work, pastoral care, lectio divina, walking the
labyrinth, ministry, or social engagement.

(1) FROM
Secure
Orientation
FROM:
* 'business as usual' and prescience of chaos
and 'the pit'
* nurtured by psalms of secure orientation
* calculative living dominated by logos
* comfort zone of habitus, world & God well
settled
* speech dulled, mundane and prosaic
* kataphatic security, controlled language
* low risk, vulnerability & clichéd Gospel
In-between
movement from
Secure Orientation to
Disturbing
Disorientation
(2) THROUGH
Disturbing
Disorientation
THROUGH:
* God as dangerous and on the loose, the person or community is
lost in the wilderness, in exile and disarray
* Chutzpah as boldness towards God
* Nurtured by psalms of disorientation
* Thanatonic world, denial of death, culture of death
* Apophatic darkness & insecurity, exile, speechlessness
* God interrupts our lives as Other, overwhelmed
* Dominated by imperial powers, Jonah experience, trapped
* Silence, rage, despair, depression, 'blurred encounters'
* Journey as pilgrim, alien, foreigner, refugee, etc
In-between
movement from
Disturbing
Disorientation to
Surprising
Reorientation
(3) TOWARDS
Surprising
Reorientation
TOWARDS:
* surprised by new creation, new gift &
coherence from God
* departure from 'the pit', raised up on
'eagles' wings' to a new way of living
* turns of surprise, joy, grace, mercy
* nurtured by psalms of surprising
reorientation
* our lives become more generous,
forgiving, friendly - we risk reconciliation
* closeness to God's presence
* awareness that God is continually 'making
all things new'
Figure 2 – Brueggemann’s three primary movements and two in-between seasons expressed as a
flow chart of theological reflection
PREPARATORY CONTEXT = reflect more
deeply on the nature of education,
worldview, R.E., spirituality, theology,
transformative pedagogical and discourse;
then reflect on each of the following
components in turn as a spiral continuum,
in the context of their own lives…

Conclusions and Future Directions
‘Her awareness of God advanced from an opaque narcissistic reverence for her own powers, through a
shattering of her false self-image, into the inner sense of new life, and finally into a transparent personal
relationship to God that freed her to embrace the world’
(Loder, 1981, p. 208)
The final section of this paper posits a range of conclusions and future directions relevant to the various
topics addressed throughout. Only major conclusions are noted here.
First, it is crucial to understand and co-relate the key terms discussed in this paper, not only to define
them more accurately, but to understand them in cross-disciplinary relationship to each other (e.g.
education, R.E., spirituality, theology, worldview, discourse, pedagogical cycle). Second, there is an
abiding need to foster a deep appreciation of Brueggemann’s three movements not only in the
disciplines mentioned above, but in relation to the life of individuals and communities, and in other
disciplines not explored in this paper – history of religions, ethics and morality, philosophy, theology of
mission, to name but a few.
Third, it is crucial not only to apply Brueggemann’s three movements to the human journey, but also to
appreciate the ‘in between’ seasons as various individuals and communities transition between secure
orientation and disturbing disorientation, and between disturbing disorientation and surprising
reorientation. Fourth, a deeper understanding of each of the above implies the need to study and
reflect more extensively on theology, the Psalter, and the Scriptures in general. As St Jerome
maintained, ‘Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ’. In the same manner, ignorance of the
Psalter and the Bible as a whole is ignorance of the human condition and the classical movements of the
spiritual life, and of biblical literacy and theological reflection in general.
Fifth, it is critical to cultivate more profound reflection on the scriptural background and links with life
experience for both ‘the pit’ and ‘eagles’ wings’. Ancient biblical writers were convinced that these were
the extremes of the human condition, and that meditation on these experiences allowed wisdom to be
gained and humanity to flourish. Likewise, and sixth, it is vital to reflect on and discuss the oft-neglected
middle movement of disturbing disorientation, given that humanity subsists in a ‘thanatonic age’
(Sandywell, 2011, p. 5) and is often preoccupied with both ‘the denial of death’ (Becker, 1997; Yalom,
2009) and ‘the culture of death’ (John Paul II, 1995, nn. 12, 21, 28, 50, 64).
Seventh, it is essential to consider and discuss key philosophical and theological issues raised
throughout this paper, such as God as interruptive presence, neglect of new poetic language and
imagination, the nature of ‘blurred encounters’, and the challenge for all people to engage in profound
subversion of the dominant culture (challenging the dominant consciousness with an alternative
consciousness based on prophetic imagination). Eighth, and finally, it is absolutely imperative to assist
individuals and communities in their transitions across the three movements, not least of all to convince
them that they are not abandoned in a prose-flattened world of chaos, but also to shift them from
prosaic order to poetic hope, from logos to mythos, and to persuade them that indeed hope emerges
‘especially and peculiarly among the ones who suffer’ (Brueggemann, 1987, pp. 72, 84). Such are the
foundations for allowing them to move from false security through disturbing disorientation and
towards surprising new life. The cycle of theological reflection based on Brueggemann’s three
movements is one vehicle for assisting these transitions.

In the final analysis, it would seem that one of the most important tasks for any type of journey,
whether educational, theological or spiritual, is to reflect on and respond to where the
person/community is situated ‘on the road’. For example: Where are they in relation to secure
orientation, disturbing disorientation, and surprising reorientation? Or, to use another metaphor, where
are they on the journey spectrum between the responses of Abraham/Sarah and Nicodemus?
Brueggemann proposes some parameters for this reflection:
The matter is in dispute among us. But if we think that a journey in God’s love and mercy away
from the world we know and love and control – the world that Abraham left and that Nicodemus
could not leave – then it may be that our departure concerns the world of privilege, entitlement,
power, and wealth that we simply take for granted in our conventional Euro-Caucasian closeness.
And if we ponder our destination, perhaps it is to be to the neighbourhood of shalom, the
neighbourhood of shared resources, of inclusive politics, of random acts of hospitality and
intentional acts of justice, of fearless neighbourliness that is not propelled by greed or anxiety or
excessive self-preoccupation…Thus we are situated, I would suggest, for our… journey between
the willingness of [Abram and Sarai] and the stubborn refusal of Nicodemus, and we are left to
decide to stay or to go, for participation or for dropping out, eventually for life or for death
(2012a, pp. 148-149).
__________________
+ I express thanks for these insights on theology and theological reflection from my colleagues Terry Lovat, Dan
Fleming, and Noel Connelly, The Broken Bay Institute, Pennant Hills, NSW.
* I am grateful to Dr. Alec Nelson for drawing my attention to this Kellerman quote and source.
Dr. Peter Mudge is Lecturer in Religious Education and Spirituality at The Broken Bay Institute, Diocese of Broken Bay,
and Conjoint Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Science, The University of Newcastle, both in NSW, Australia. His
areas of interest and research include – religious education, spirituality, sacred space, connected knowing,
transformative pedagogies, Studies of Religion, philosophy in the classroom, and the role of the arts and spirituality in
religious education. He has received formal training in drawing and painting which he pursues in his art studio. Some of
his copyright free images can be located at: www.flickr.com/photos/ceoreals/sets
His contact email is: pmudge@bbi.catholic.edu.au

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