Biblical Scholar Walter Brueggemann to Receive Niebuhr Medal

Submitted by Elmhurst College.

Elmhurst College will award its highest honor, the Niebuhr Medal, to The Reverend Walter Brueggemann (Class of 1955), widely known as the foremost Christian scholar of the Hebrew Bible.

Rev. Brueggemann will be the first Elmhurst College alumnus ever to receive the Niebuhr Medal, established in 1995 to recognize extraordinary service to humanity. The Niebuhr Medal reflects the values of esteemed Elmhurst graduates Reinhold and H. Richard Niebuhr, two of the 20th century’s most influential theologians.

Elmhurst College will host two public events to mark the occasion. On Friday, October 23, he and Elmhurst College Chaplain H. Scott Matheney will discuss the legacy of the Niebuhrs—in particular, their impact on Brueggemann’s life and work, and on the life of the College—during “Reflections with the Chaplain.” The event will begin at 4:00 p.m. in the Prospect Room of the Frick Center (elmhurst.edu/campusmap). It is free and open to the public.

On Sunday, October 25, Rev. Brueggemann will preach at both the 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. services at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago (126 E. Chestnut St.).

Walter Brueggemann is a widely published author—no scripture scholar in America sells more books or informs more sermons than Brueggemann. A United Church of Christ minister, he is professor emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia.

Brueggemann’s most devoted readers are not his fellow academics but his fellow ministers. His work occupies a place of prominence in the libraries of pastors because it renders the otherwise remote and inaccessible world of the Old Testament timely and pertinent.

The Niebuhr Medal first was awarded on April 2, 1995, to Nobel laureate and political activist Elie Wiesel. The medal also has been given to Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, archbishop of Chicago; Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund; Lech Walesa, the first democratically elected president of Poland; Millard and Linda Fuller, co-founders of Habitat for Humanity International; historian and author Arthur Schlesinger; and Gustavo Gutiérrez, the Peruvian theologian regarded as the father of Liberation Theology.