The Provocation: Practicing Prophetic Imagination

You’re invited to a day of walking, reflecting, and imagining what’s possible.

We’ll gather in Cincinnati to honor Walter Brueggemann—not just with words, but by living into the kind of disruptive hope he spent a lifetime teaching.

We’ll start at Clifton United Methodist Church. From there, you’ll head out on a self-guided Walkabout through the Clifton neighborhood. Walter’s voice will guide the journey, provoking reflection and reconnecting you with the central ideas in The Prophetic Imagination.

After the Walkabout, we’ll come back together for a Talkabout—an open, facilitated conversation in small and large groups. Expect a mix of storytelling, honest grappling, and shared insight. We’ll conclude with a participatory ritual of remembrance. It won’t be a formal service or static tribute. It’ll be a living act of community—music, reflection, and creative expression that puts Walter’s legacy into motion, together.

At the heart of it all is this guiding quote:

“The prophets dared us to reenact their poetry in our community. They do not give us explanations; they give us provocations. They disrupt despair and denial by insisting there is an alternative world being spoken into being.”

— Walter Brueggemann

This day is an invitation to dare, to imagine, and to embody that alternative world.