Walter Brueggemann: A Voice That Shaped Biblical Scholarship

    Walter Brueggemann, a renowned Old Testament scholar whose prophetic voice influenced generations of biblical scholars and ministers worldwide, died peacefully on June 5, 2025, at the age of 92. Throughout his distinguished career, Brueggemann challenged conventional approaches to biblical interpretation, bringing fresh insights to the Hebrew prophetic tradition and its relevance for contemporary faith communities.

    As the author of more than 100 books and numerous scholarly articles, Brueggemann’s scholarship bridged the gap between rigorous academic study and pastoral application. His work consistently emphasized the social and political dimensions of biblical texts, particularly in the prophetic literature, encouraging readers to see Scripture as a living voice that speaks to issues of justice, power, and societal transformation.

    He is survived by his wife, Tia, his sons, James and John, and their families. The scholarly world has lost a voice whose influence will continue through the many students, pastors, and scholars he inspired throughout his long and productive career.

    Requiescat in Pace.

    A Personal Reflection

    Several years ago, I had the privilege of interviewing Brueggemann in preparation for writing his biographical entry, which was published in 2010 in The Encyclopedia of Christian Literature (see below). During our conversation, it became clear how deeply he had been influenced by Norman Gottwald’s groundbreaking work The Tribes of Yahweh.

    This connection held special meaning for me, as Gottwald had been my Old Testament professor at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. I vividly remember spending an entire semester in one of Gottwald’s classes reading and discussing an early version of The Tribes of Yahweh. The intellectual rigor and social consciousness that characterized Gottwald’s approach clearly resonated with Brueggemann’s own scholarly trajectory. Later, I invited Gottwald to serve as reader for my PhD dissertation, “The Problem of Social Oppression in the Eighth Century Prophets,” which was supervised by Joseph Callaway, the archaeologist who spent many years excavating the biblical site of Ai.

    Throughout my career as both professor and minister, few works have influenced me as profoundly as Brueggemann’s The Prophetic Imagination, first published in 1978. This thought-provoking work explores how prophetic voices challenge societal norms and envision alternative realities. I regularly assigned this book in my classes, and it never failed to provoke meaningful discussion.

    I remember one student who was so challenged by the book’s message that she came to my office seeking further conversation about its implications. When she learned that I had met Brueggemann and written about his work, she asked for his contact information. To my surprise, she called him directly, and the two engaged in a lengthy phone conversation about the book’s message—a testament to Brueggemann’s accessibility and pastoral heart.

    Just days before his death, I reached out to Brueggemann, hoping he might endorse my forthcoming book, Ancient Israel’s Women of Faith: A Survey of the Heroines of the Old Testament, scheduled for publication in August. With characteristic honesty and humility, he declined, explaining that he felt “too old and feeble” to take on such a commitment.

    Though Brueggemann is no longer with us, his voice and legacy will endure through his extensive body of work, which consistently embodied what he described in the subtitle of his masterwork, Theology of the Old Testament: “Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy.” These three words capture the essence of his approach to biblical scholarship—engaging Scripture as living testimony, wrestling honestly with its complexities and contradictions, and advocating for its transformative vision in our contemporary world.

    A Biography of Walter Brueggemann

    WALTER BRUEGGEMANN (1933-2025). Walter Brueggemann, the son of a German evangelical pastor, was born in Tilden, Nebraska, in 1933. He graduated from Elmhurst College in 1955 with a degree in sociology and from Eden Theological Seminary in 1958, majoring in Old Testament. He received his Th.D. in Old Testament from Union Theological Seminary in 1961 and his Ph.D. in education from St. Louis University in 1974. Brueggemann has two sons, James and John. He is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ.

    Brueggemann taught Old Testament at Eden Theological Seminary from 1961 to 1986 and at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, from 1986 until his retirement in 2003. From 1992 to 2003 he served as the William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament at Columbia.

    In addition to his duties as a teacher, Brueggemann has contributed widely to the academic community. He has served as the editor for the Overtures to Biblical Theology series published by Fortress Press. He also served on the editorial council for the Journal of Biblical Literature, Interpretation, and Theology Today, as associate editor for the Journal of Preachers, and contributing editor for Sojourners and Christian Century.

    Brueggemann has received many honors and awards. He has received honorary doctorates from several academic institutions, served as the president of the Society of Biblical Literature in 1990, was elected as an honorary member of the British Society for Old Testament Studies, and received the Academy of Parish Clergy Award Book of the Year for his book Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997).

    Among the more than thirty distinguished lectureships in which he participated are the Beecher Lectures at Yale Divinity School, the Cole Lectures at Vanderbilt Divinity School, the James Reid Lectures at Westminster College, Cambridge, United Kingdom, and the Stone Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary.

    Brueggemann’s academic career has been influenced by the work of James Muilenburg, his teacher at Union Seminary. Muilenburg’s presidential address, “Form Criticism and Beyond,” delivered in 1968 at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, served as a watershed event in biblical studies. In his address, Muilenburg called for a different way of studying the biblical text, emphasizing the use of rhetorical criticism. Muilenburg said that scholars should look on the literary qualities of the text and study the writer’s style in order to gain a better appreciation and deeper understanding of the text.

    Brueggemann expresses his appreciation for Muilenburg’s work in his book Theology of the Old Testament, in which he emphasizes the need to read the text closely in order to ascertain the “artistic intentionality of the text” (55). In addition, Brueggemann discusses the work of Muilenburg in his article “James Muilenburg as Theologian,” Union Seminary Quarterly Review 50 (1997): 71–82. Brueggemann has also been attracted to the sociological approach of Norman Gottwald, whose magnus opus, The Tribes of Yahweh, challenged the traditional view for the origins of Israel. According to Gottwald, the origin of Israel was the result of a peasant revolt that gave rise to a social movement that produced ancient Israel (Theology of the Old Testament, 49–53).

    Through his teaching, lecturing, and writing, Brueggemann has made an attempt at integrating academic studies with the life of the church and the work of the ministry. As a result, he has produced works on religious education, preaching, prayer, missions, evangelism, discipleship, worship, and urban renewal. As an exegete, Brueggemann has written commentaries on a number of books of the Bible: Genesis (Interpretation. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982), “Exodus” (The New Interpreter’s Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), Deuteronomy (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2002), 1 and 2 Samuel (Interpretation. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1990), 1 and 2 Kings (Smyth and Helwys Bible Commentary. Macon GA: Smyth and Helwys, 2000), Isaiah 1–39 and Isaiah 40–66 (Westminster Bible Companion. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), To Pluck Up, to Tear Down: A Commentary on Jeremiah 1–25 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1988), To Build and to Plant: A Commentary on Jeremiah 26–52 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1991), and The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1984). As a theologian he wrote The Land (Overture to Biblical Theology; Philadelphia: The Fortress Press, 1977), in which he traces the concept of the land throughout the Bible; Old Testament Theology: Essays on Structure, Themes, and Text, ed. Patrick D. Miller (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992), a collection of essays in which Brueggemann deals with theological method; and Theology f the Old Testament, in which he uses the imagery of a courtroom to evaluate Israel’s claims about God.

    Brueggemann is a prolific writer. He has written more than sixty books and hundreds of articles, many of which have been collected and reprinted in book form. His works cover the major areas of Old Testament studies. A collection of essays, God in the Fray: A Tribute to Walter Brueggemann, ed. Tod Linafelt and Timothy K. Beal (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1988) was published to honor Brueggemann on his sixty-fifth birthday. In this book, Clayton H. Hulet has compiled a partial bibliography, covering Brueggemann’s works from his doctoral dissertation in 1961 to articles and books published through 1997.

    Another collection of essays dedicated to Brueggemann is Shaking Heaven and Earth: Essays in Honor of Walter Brueggemann and Charles B. Cousar, ed. C. Y. Yoder (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005). Among his major works are The Prophetic Imagination (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1978; rev. ed. 2001); Hopeful Imagination: Prophetic Voices in Exile (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986); and An Introduction to the Old Testament: The Canon and Christian Imagination (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003).

    Since Hulet’s bibliography was compiled, Brueggemann has published several other books, including The Word Militant: Preaching a Decentering Word (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007), Mandate to Difference: An Invitation to the Contemporary Church (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007), The Theology of the Book of Jeremiah (Old Testament Theology; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), Like Fire in the Bones: Listening for the Prophetic Word in Jeremiah (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2006), The Word That Describes the World: The Bible and Discipleship (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2006), Solomon: Israel’s Ironic Icon of Human Achievement (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2005), Worship in Ancient Israel: An Essential Guide (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2005), The Book That Breathes New Life: Scriptural Authority and Biblical Theology, ed. by Patrick Miller (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004), and Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 2002).

    Bibliography

    Parrish, V. S. “Brueggemann, Walter.” Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters, ed. Donald K. McKim (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2007), 242–247.
    CLAUDE F. MARIOTTINI

    NOTE: Read my obituary on Norman Gottwald in my post Professor Norman Gottwald.

    Claude Mariottini
    Emeritus Professor of Old Testament
    Northern Baptist Seminary

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