Walter Brueggemann had a huge impact on both the seminary and the pulpit in the USA and beyond. He died on June 5 at his home in Michigan. He was 92.
He is survived by his wife, Tia, his sons, James and John, and their families.
Brueggemann’s teaching career spanned two institutions: Eden Theological Seminary, Missouri (1961–1986) and Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia (1986–2003). After his retirement he became the William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at Columbia.
Brueggemann described himself as a workaholic, which is perhaps reflected in his writing more than 100 books and numerous articles. He suggested that he worked so hard to overcome a sense of inferiority due to his German immigrant background. Brueggemann’s father was a pastor and set the tone for Walter’s life and career by giving him the confirmation verse: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps.119:105).
Brueggemann’s writings including fine commentaries on many Old Testament books, three substantial collections of his sermons, and major works of Old Testament theology.
For many years he was heavily involved in academic administration, but he had a “secret office” to which he would retreat to write each day. He said that sometimes he would begin writing before he took his coat off!
In an interview with Image Journal after his retirement, Brueggemann spoke about the writing process: “My spiritual life in some ways is at the tip of my pen. My writing leads my thinking and my praying, so I don’t separate my sense of study and prayer.”
Brueggemann was an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ (which had reformed roots but had drifting theologically, rather like the URC in the UK).
Brueggemann was in great demand as a preacher; his towering presence in the pulpit was like an Old Testament prophet. His sermons tended to be based on the readings from the Lectionary, which he approached with the rare skill of being able to coherently weave aspects of all four readings into the sermon.
Brueggemann was not a card-carrying evangelical, yet his spirituality was shaped by his German pietistic roots. Brueggemann describes his stance to Scripture as post-critical, which meant that he had moved beyond the limits of the historical critical method to engage with the “strange world” of Scripture in creative ways. It is perhaps ironic that at times evangelicals have found his approach to Scripture refreshing in its openness, clarity of observation and penetrating application (these applications often spoke truth to power as he spoke about the insidious presence of “empire”). Brueggemann was skilled at making connections between the Biblical text and contemporary culture.
He was a masterful interpreter of the Psalms, particularly the laments. Using the insights of Paul Ricoeur, Brueggemann analysed laments in a three-fold grid of orientation, disorientation and reorientation.
Brueggemann spoke of exercising a faithful imagination. As a reader of Scripture, he did not impose pre-conceived ideas on a text, but allowed it to speak freely.
In the world of hermeneutics and homiletics Brueggemann has made a unique and stimulating contribution to the cause of Christ.
