In Memory of Walter Brueggemann

Last month I posted “In Memory of LBJ,” an article about the 36^th 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 90^th and 91^st 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!

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* 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.)

In Appreciation of Walter Brueggemann

The most quoted contemporary Old Testament scholar is, arguably, Walter Brueggemann, and I am happy to be writing, finally, an article about this superlative scholar and articulate author, who celebrated his 85^th birthday this past Sunday.

A Bit about Brueggemann

Born in Nebraska on March 11, 1933, Walter Brueggemann (WB) graduated from Eden Theological Seminary in Missouri—as did Reinhold Niebuhr before him. Then WB earned doctorates from both Union Theological Seminary and Saint Louis University. He was ordained in the United Church of Christ.

After 25 years as a professor at Eden, in 1986 WB moved to Columbia Theological Seminary in Georgia where he served as a professor until his retirement in 2003—but he has continued to write and to speak profusely.

WB has authored some 60 books, including commentaries on several Old Testament books. His slim book Interrupting Silence: God’s Command to Speak Out was published in February, and his newest book A Gospel of Hope will be released the end of this month.

In addition to his steady stream of books, WB is already scheduled to be a “keynote presenter” at the American Baptist Home Mission Societies’ triennial meeting in Philadelphia this November—and he has at least nine scheduled speaking engagements between now and then, some for two or three days.

(I am looking forward to hearing him speak at Asbury UMC in Prairie Village, Kan., on April 6.)

A Bit about a Brueggemann Book

One of WB’s best-known books is The Prophetic Imagination. He wrote the preface to that book’s first edition during Lent in 1978; I recently read the second edition that was published in 2001.

In the preface of the latter, WB mentions that for him Abraham Heschel is “definingly important” (p. xv). But unlike Rabbi Heschel, the author of The Prophets whom I wrote about (here) in December, as a Christian scholar WB sees Jesus as “the fulfillment and quintessence of the prophetic tradition” (p. 102).

The purpose of WB’s The Prophetic Imagination is not just to help his readers understand the past. It is even more to help them see what prophetic ministry means in the present. Thus, he asserts,

The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us (p. 3).

The first chapter is mostly about the “alternative consciousness” that was fostered by Moses. That is contrasted in the second chapter with the “royal consciousness” of King Solomon. The latter largely became the “dominant consciousness”—and the target of the Old Testament prophets.

WB contends that “Solomon was able to counter completely the counterculture of Moses.” He did this partly by countering “the economics of equality with the economics of affluence” and “the politics of justice with the politics of oppression” (p. 31).

The royal consciousness—then or now—doesn’t talk about anything new, so there is no hope for the future other than as an extension of the present, which is the continuation of the past. In contrast, WB emphasizes the “hope-filled language of prophecy” (p. 67). 

A Bit about BHO and DJT

As I was reading WB’s book, it seemed quite clear to me that the “Make America Great Again” slogan is an expression of the royal consciousness (emphasis on past glory and recovery of that past), which the prophets (including Jesus) opposed.

On the other hand, Obama emphasized newness and the “audacity of hope.” Although harshly criticized by the far right (because of his talk about “fundamental transformation”), at least to some extent BHO seems to have exhibited the prophetic imagination that still is so badly needed in the world today.