Posted on 06/10/2025 6:40:18 PM PDT by Morgana
THE American Old Testament scholar Professor Walter Brueggemann has died, aged 92.
A statement on his website said that he “passed away peacefully” on Thursday. He is survived by his wife, Tia, his sons, James and John, and their families.
Professor Brueggemann wrote more than 100 books, which include The Prophetic Imagination (1978), Message of the Psalms (1985), and Theology of the Old Testament (1997). His more recent books include A Wilderness Zone (Books, 8 April 2022), Interrupting Silence (Books, 22 June 2018), and God, Neighbour, Empire (Books, 15 September 2017).
Born in Tilden, Nebraska, in 1933, Professor Brueggemann, who was ordained in the United Church of Christ, spoke often of the influence of his father, a German Evangelical pastor.
At the time of his death, Professor Brueggemann was William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary, in Atlanta, Georgia, where he had served on the faculty from 1986 to 2003.
The President of Columbia, the Revd Dr Victor Aloyo, Jr, paid tribute in a letter published on the seminary’s website. Professor Brueggemann, he wrote, “has had a distinguished career as a prominent biblical interpreter, recognized for his contributions to rhetorical criticism of biblical texts”.
His current successor in the same chair, Professor Bill Brown, said that Professor Brueggemann had “single-handedly redefined biblical scholarship for the good of the Church and world. . . Countless students and pastors have been transformed by Walter’s teaching and writing. . . We are all in Walter’s debt for his prophetic imagination, creative words, profound wisdom, prolific energy, and sheer grace.”
The publishing director of Hymns Ancient & Modern, David Shervington, said: “Walter Brueggemann was a towering voice in biblical scholarship whose prophetic imagination and theological depth shaped generations of readers. It was an honour to publish several of his books under our SCM Press imprint, and to witness, even in a small way, the impact of his voice on the Church and the world.”
This story is making it's way through all the Christian news sites.
Brueggemann is one of the most respected Biblical scholars of our times. Some good Christians might find his work and theology too liberal, others ight find him too literal. Nonetheless, his work on texts is top notch.
I personally found him challenging to my faith in a positive way. I’m better for having read some of his stuff.
A liberal institution as far back as the early 1960s. Reformed seminary was founded in 1966 in Mississippi to give conservative southern Presbyterians a place to study.
I’ve never heard of him until now but all the stories I read, well everyone had nothing but good to say about him.
I figured as usual someone here must have heard of him and figured he was a good bible scholar.
I had a class with him in 1979, but I don’t remember much about it. I didn’t know him well, but he seemed like a decent-enough fellow. He was the son of a German Evangelical and Reformed pastor and was himself a minister in the United Church of Christ, so he would have been from the liberal side.
After a long time of not reading theology, and spinning my wheels spiritually on what I already “knew”, I have devoted some of my summer off from school to reading some serious theological works from different perspectives. I haven’t followed his work since my class, but I found several of his books and will have a look at them when I finish my current pile. The themes of those books are in line with the themes of my other reading.
One personal remembrance: we were at a retreat together at a UCC camp somewhere in Missouri having a pork chop dinner and I noticed he put a big dollop of apple butter on his bread, which seemed like a real simple, homey, midwestern German thing to do. I miss those midwestern Germans that I grew up with in Missouri and southwestern Illinois.
I was touched by his passing just as I have been touched by the recent passings of a number of people from that time in my life.
RIP, Walt.
Good story. Thanks.
I wonder whether he influenced Jeremiah Wright, also a midwestern UCC churchman.
Don’t know. Wright attended a United Methodist seminary. The UCC, like most of the mainline Protestant denominations, has some pockets of more traditional Christianity, especially in the rural areas, even though they are rapidly shrinking. I have some family in the UCC, the UMC, and the Evangelical Lutheran Churches, and their congregations seem solid. I don’t know how they stay with the denominations, though.
I grew up UCC, parents driven out by social consciousness and lack of submission to scriptural authority. Recently found my 7th grade Confirmation book, in which I would write something in the car on the way to the class. In answer to the question, how do you go to heave? Mine was “live a good life.” the very thing scripture teaches we are unable to do.
Yep. I happened to find an old Evangelical and Reformed hymnal and service book from the 1940s and was astounded at how “orthodox” it was. A lot has changed, and not for the better.
“heaven” more appropriate to question about heaving would be “where” do you go to heave?
Yes the pastor who married my parents in the late 40’s presented a salvation gospel into the 60’s, and was beside himself in his dotage at the apostasy.
“he put a big dollop of apple butter on his bread, which seemed like a real simple, homey, midwestern German thing to do”
I thought everyone did that!
Wonderful story.
Bkmk
It’s funny how we remember things.
I read on Saturday that he had died. When I went out to dinner I ordered pork chops. Unfortunately, the diner didn’t have apple butter.
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