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!

_____

* 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.)

Notes by a St. Louis Cardinals Baseball Fan

Partly because of the recent deaths of two of my baseball heroes and also because of the need for a change of pace from thinking about political issues, this blog post is about baseball. Specifically, it is about the St. Louis Cardinals, whose games I started listening to more than 70 years ago. 

Notes from the Late ’40s and Early ’50s

Growing up on a farm in the 1940s without television (or video games!), radio was the primary source of outside entertainment, and when I was ten or eleven years old I started listening to St. Louis Cardinals baseball games.

The Cardinals games were on KFEQ, AM 680, the St. Joseph radio station. When I first started listening, the games were narrated by an announcer reading printouts from a teletype machine. I can’t remember when live broadcasts began. But, regardless, I was a Cardinals fan from the late ’40s.

As I wrote back in June 2016, the first Cardinals game I attended was at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis on June 14, 1951. Stan Musial and Red Schoendienst, my two favorite players, both got two hits—and at the end of the game were batting .376 and .340. (Here is the box score of that game.)

Although I have no memory of taking any note of him at the time, Jackie Robinson played that day—and hit a double, ending the day with a .365 batting average. Ralph Branca, who appears several times in the movie “42,” was the starting pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers that day.

Notes from the Mid-’60s and Early ’70s

After 1963, the year when both Musial and Schoendienst played their final year with the Cardinals, my favorite players were three outstanding African Americans: Bob Gibson (1935~2020), Curt Flood (1938~97), and Lou Brock (1939~2020).

I was saddened when I heard last month that Brock had passed away on September 6, and then saddened again when I learned that Gibson had died on October 2 at the age of 84.

Gibson, Flood, and Brock played together on the Cardinals teams from 1964 to 1968, and in those five years the Cards won the National League pennant three times and the World Series in 1964 and 1967. (And Schoendienst was the manager during the years of 1965~68.)

I especially remember the World Series of 1964, for that was the first time the Cardinals had been in the Series since I first became a fan in the late ’40s. (Their previous World Series had been in 1946.)

A few years later, Gibson pitched the only no-hitter of his storied career on August 14, 1971. My family and I were then back in the States for a year, and I listened to the last part of that game driving back to my parents’ house after visiting an old high school and college friend.

Even though I was only able to hear it on the radio, still it was a thrill to listen to the final innings of that memorable game.

Notes about Flood’s Lawsuit

This article was triggered by “Why this is the year baseball should correct its mistake and put Curt Flood in the Hall of Fame,” a WaPo opinion piece by two U.S. Congressmen, James Clyburn (D-S.C.) and David Trone (D-Md.).

Curt Flood (1938~97)

Flood was traded by the Cardinals to the Philadelphia Phillies in October 1969—but he refused to go. He thought he was being treated as a well-paid slave, and that became the title of a book by Brad Snyder, A Well-Paid Slave: Curt Flood’s Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports (2006). 

In December 1969, Flood sent a scathing letter to Major League Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Demanding free agency, Flood wrote:

I do not feel that I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes. I believe that any system which produces that result violates my basic rights as a citizen and is inconsistent with the laws of the United States and of the several states.

In January 1970, Flood filed a $1 million lawsuit against Kuhn and Major League Baseball, alleging violation of federal antitrust laws.

Flood’s suit went all the way to the Supreme Court in 1972, but he lost in a 5-3 decision. Just three years later, though, free agency, such as Flood sought, was recognized by the courts.

Snyder describes in his book how and why Flood had a greater impact on baseball than any other player of our time.

I am happy to have been one of Flood’s many fans during his glory days with the Cardinals.

Reflections on Baseball, an Old Friend, and a Wonderful Aunt

In May 1951 I graduated from the 8^th grade, and my Aunt Mary Seat gave me one of the most memorable birthday presents I have ever received—a trip to St. Louis to see a Cardinals game. Aunt Mary, an ardent baseball fan herself, said I could ask a friend to go with me.

I invited Talmadge Hass, my good friend who was a year younger than I but also an enthusiastic Cardinals fan, to make that memorable trip with me. (He has long gone by his first name, Walter, but I knew him by his middle name, often shortened to Talm.)

That first major league game that Talm and I saw was on June 14, 1951. Sadly, the Cardinals lost that game to the Brooklyn Dodgers 2-1 on a 2-run home run by Gil Hodges in the 9^th inning (you can see the box score here—and note that Stan Musial and Jackie Robinson were the opposing cleanup batters).

Aunt Mary had planned to take us for a steamboat ride on the Mississippi River the next day. But Talm and I were so disappointed that the Cardinals lost we convinced her to take us to see another Cardinals game instead. That change was made, the Cardinals won, and we were happy.

Sixty-five years and four days later, last Saturday on June 18, I met Talm in St. Louis, where he has lived in the suburbs for decades, and we went together to see another Cardinals game—which they also lost by one run with the opposing team scoring two runs in the 9^th inning.

Talm even had a Cardinals shirt and cap for me to wear, as you see in this picture taken just before we left for the game:

I didn’t remember where we boarded the train for our 1951 trip to St. Louis, but Talm said we took the train from Stanberry, Mo., a town about 25 miles from our home town of Grant City—and over 300 miles from St. Louis.

The game we attended was at Sportman’s Park, which was the home for the Cardinals games from 1920 to 1966. Last week was the first time I had been in the second new stadium since then, and here is the picture I took from near where our seats were:

Aunt Mary, my father’s older sister, was born in 1907, so she would have been 44 years old in 1951. Although, like me, through the years she shifted her allegiance from the Cardinals to the Kansas City Royals, she remained a baseball fan until near the time of her death in April 2000.

Perhaps it was for a Christmas present in 1952 that Aunt Mary gave me her old typewriter after she had purchased a new one. That was a wonderful present, too, at a time when I may have been the only one in my high school who had his own typewriter.

Aunt Mary never married or had any children of her own, but through the years she made a significant impact on me and on the lives of all her nieces and nephews—especially on the lives of two of my cousins whose father died when they were fairly young.

I am grateful for the memorable trip to St. Louis in 1951, for being able to be with my old friend again this month, and especially for the memories of my wonderful Aunt Mary.