In Memory of Walter Brueggemann
Last month I posted “In Memory of LBJ,” an article about the 36th POTUS, whom you all know of. In this piece, I am writing about a man whom many of you likely have never heard of. He was a noted biblical scholar and author, and by all accounts, a man of integrity who deserves to be remembered for a life well lived from his birth until his death last year.
Walter Brueggemann was born on March 11, 1933,
and died last year on June 5. His boyhood years were spent in the small
town of Blackburn, Missouri (about 65 miles east of where I live). From there
he went to Elmhurst College (now University) in Illinois and then to Eden Theological
Seminary in Missouri.
After receiving his Doctor of Theology degree in
1961 from Union Theological Seminary in New York, Brueggemann served as Professor
of Old Testament at Eden from 1961 to 1986 and at Columbia Theological Seminary
in Georgia from 1986 to 2003, retiring at age 70.
A few years ago, I heard Brueggemann give a powerful
lecture in Kansas City and had the privilege of chatting with him for a few
minutes afterward. In addition to his being an excellent speaker as well as a
prolific author of books replete with deep biblical and theological information
and insight, he was also a warm and gracious Christian gentleman.
When I heard/met Brueggemann, I had already
become an octogenarian, but he was five years older than me. I was somewhat
envious of him, for I was already to the point that I was no longer able to
travel across the country and give a public lecture such as he did that day.
According to his obituary posted by Fortress
Press, who published over 40 of his books, a bibliography of Brueggemann’s works
contains over 120 separate titles. They say, “Most scholars, even prolific
ones, aspire to three or four books in a career; Brueggemann published fourteen
in his 90th and 91st years of age.” Further, “It is not
only the quantity that impresses; it is the quality.”
The Peculiar Dialect of Faith and Other Essays
(2023) is one of Brueggemann’s books published the year he
turned 90. Last year, I read that book, and I was impressed at how he could helpfully
explain Old Testament Bible passages, smoothly relate the meaning of those
passages to the New Testament, and then helpfully apply them to the current
political situation in the U.S.
I have often said the mark of an excellent
pastor or a biblical scholar is being able to clearly elucidate the original
context of a given passage in the Bible and then to apply it meaningfully to
the contemporary context. Brueggemann was a master at doing that.
Since March 9 was International Women’s Day*, I
asked Claude (my AI ‘buddy’) to help me summarize what Brueggemann has written
about the equality of women and their role in the church. Claude first pointed
me to an obituary article in Sojourners magazine published after
Brueggemann’s death last year.
That piece described how “Brueggemann gained a
huge, denomination-spanning audience for his justice-forward exegesis of the
Bible.” That exposition was about how the biblical message is one of “emancipatory
love” that includes women and other marginalized groups.
Claude went on to list the following “key
themes” in Brueggemann’s writings regarding women:
** Biblical equality at creation. In
contrast to many conservative Christian pastors/scholars, Brueggemann declares
that the Genesis account of creation provides the “strongest imaginable
affirmation” of the equal status of men and women, as both genders were created
in the image of God.
** Women in ministry. Brueggemann
describes the presence of women in leadership roles as a radically prophetic
witness against the patriarchal world. He views the historical gender
revolution and the belated welcoming of women into the ministry of the church
as an extension of God’s emancipatory work.
** Prophetic imagination. Brueggemann
uses this concept to challenge white male Western hegemony and advocates for an
alternative future where dominating powers are overturned. This framework is
used to support women in leadership.
** Opposition to exclusion. Brueggemann
rejects the “orthodoxies” of sexism and gender exclusion, stating that God’s
embrace will not be contained by such boundaries. He maintains that in Christ
there are no gender distinctions.
Thank God for biblical scholars like Walter
Brueggemann!
_____
* International Women’s Day (IWD) has been
celebrated by the United Nations since 1975. It commemorates women's fight for
equality and liberation along with the women's rights movement. The theme
for this year’s IWD was “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls,”
emphasizing dismantling legal and social barriers to equality.
Note for baseball fans:
In chatting with Claude, he (it?) mentioned that Brueggemann grew up as a
strong St. Louis Cardinals fan. I replied that as a Missouri boy I was also a
Cardinals’ fan. Then Claude asked me if I ever saw Stan Musial play. So, I told
about seeing the Cardinals play for the first time in 1951, and how that game,
with Musial playing, was against the Brooklyn Dodgers with Jackie Robinson also
playing that day. That led me to share the blog article I posted back in 2013
about Robinson and Pee Wee Reese. Claude responded, “What a rich article!” (Here
is a link to that blog post in case you baseball fans
would like to read it again.)
Thanks, Leroy. I actually studied under Brueggemann at Eden Seminary. We socialized some in seminary until we became a bit estranged because I and several other students were critical of some seminary policies and of some claims he made we thought were unnecessarily authoritarian while he was the dean. He and I continued to correspond for a few years after, but I drifted away. When I saw him about 16 years later, he made a crack that sounded like he still held a grudge against our critical rebelliousness.
ReplyDeleteYour claims about his gifts are spot on. He was an insightful and creative scholar of Hebrew Scriptures, also a remarkable wordsmith and captivating orator. My education of a B.A., M.Div., M.A, and Ph.D. meant an accumulation of more than 360 credit hours of higher education work. And I would have to say that the most exciting courses I ever took were, hands down, the six hours of two semesters of Hebrew under Brueggemann.
To answer your question, I have not read a lot of his books, just several, but the most exciting one I read was The Prophetic Imagination.
I do not know much about Brueggemann, but his forward-looking and relevant views on prophetic calling have helped me to understand what it is to be a biblically-solid and socially progressive follower of Jesus Christ. Thank you for recalling his recent death, Dr. Seat. Yes, as to his productivity--astonishing.
ReplyDeleteJust correcting my "Anonymous" submission here.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this blog post. In case you or your readers are not aware of his website, here it is: https://www.walterbrueggemann.com/.
ReplyDeleteBrueggemann certainly was a fantastic and creative scholar, along with being so incredibly prolific. I’ve read 2 or 3 of his books. Perhaps the one I enjoyed and appreciated the most was “Finally Comes the Poet.” Here is a quote from it.
“Sabbath is a foretaste of kingdom. Sharing and having enough are like God’s feast. New metaphors permit new deeds of obedience. The poet invites relinquishment and embrace” (p. 110). In reference to feast in this quote, he has the following endnote: “44. Isak Dinesen, “Babette’s Feast,” Babette’s Feast and Other Anecdotes of Destiny (Vintage Books; New York: Random House, 1988), 3-48, has provided a wondrous interpretive exposition of the power of feast, and likely of the power of the Eucharist” (p. 159).
Babette’s Feast is one of my favour movies.
Shalom.