Dave Andrews The role of the Auditor is ‘to study a script for a play, audit the performance of the script (and) ensure the intended meaning of the script is accurately communicated. They are the ones who step in to the middle of a theatrical production and say “This is not what the author […]

Tim Catchim says that two sets of communication continuums – from ‘criticise’ to  ‘energise’ in ‘tones’ and from ‘verbalise’ to ‘visualise’ in ‘tactics’ – give rise to four types of prophetic roles – 1 the ‘Auditor’, 2 the ‘Awakener’, 3 the ‘Protestor’ and 4 the ‘Performer’. [1] The Auditor  The role of the Auditor is […]

Tim Catchim, co-author of The Permanent Revolution and The Permanent Revolution Playbook, suggests that any particular prophetic engagement involves a combination of a specific cluster of prophetic ‘tones’ and ‘tactics’. [1] Catchim says prophets tend to communicate about the ‘space’ that exists between God’s will and ours, in ‘tones’, on one end of the continuum, […]

Brian McLaren once said ‘It’s natural to think of Dave as a prophet: his fiery passion, his concern for justice, the way his life speaks more eloquently than his words. But Dave is also a teacher, drawing from classic theologians from Christian history, along with some of the most seminal theologians of today, making them […]

Breuggemann authored a number of widely read books, the most influential of which was his classic called The Prophetic Imagination first published in 1978. Breuggeman asserts Moses embodied the psychodynamics that characterise the psyche of all prophets even to this day – both ‘grieving’ and ‘imagining’. Breuggemann reminds us that, in speaking out in sympathy […]

Gordon Preece, Director of Ethos and the University of Divinity Centre for Research in Religion and Social Policy, once dedicated a whole edition of Zadok Perspectives to the ‘Tale Of Two Prophets’ in Australia. One was Tim Costello, Chief Advocate of World Vision Australia, whom he described as an ‘Isaiah’ figure, adept in ‘speaking truth […]

  As I’ve said, my understanding of the role of a prophet has been shaped by the insights of two theologians, Abraham Heschel, and Walter Breuggemann. Walter Breuggemann is considered to be one of the most influential American Protestant Theologians and Biblical Scholars of the last several decade. He is an important figure in the […]

Jesus played the role of a truly revolutionary compassionate prophet. From the moment he was conceived, his mother Mary knew Jesus would be a revolutionary figure: a king who would not only overthrow other kings, but also the very idea of ‘kingship’ itself; an extraordinary man who would stand, with radical empathy, against relentless cruelty, […]

My understanding of the role of a prophet has been shaped by the insights of two wonderful theologians, Abraham Heschel, and Walter Breuggemann. Abraham Heschel was a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians of the twentieth century. Heschel was not only a professor of Jewish Mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, he […]

In the scriptures it was the prophets who spoke of what it would be like for us to begin again, ‘to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God’ (Micah 6.8) We know we may be able to begin again, but even at our best, what we can accomplish is only partial and temporary. […]

Justice is not a mass-produced, consumer product; it is a craft product, produced by the masses. Justice is not something, like a nice car, that we can acquire already made; it is, like a good friendship, something that we can only have if we make it ourselves. We don’t get it by taking what we […]

Justice has no separate meaning apart from the meaning love imparts to it. Justice is the concrete manifestation of love as policy in our political economy. Love is the ideal. Justice is our attempt to realise that ideal in our community. At best, our realization approximates our ideal. At worst, it parodies our ideal. The […]