SOTSSociety for Old Testament Study
Portrait of Professor William P. Brown
Brownb@ctsnet.eductsnet.edu

Honorary Member

Professor William P. Brown

William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia

Professor Brown studied under Carol Newsom, John Hayes, and Martin Buss at Emory University. His dissertation was Structure, Role, and Ideology in the Hebrew and Greek Texts of Genesis 1:1 – 2:3, published in the SBL Dissertation Series (1993). Since then, he has written widely on the intersecting issues of creation theology, ecology, science, and justice from various biblical perspectives. For example, as a member of the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton (www.ctinquiry.org) he has worked collaboratively with scientists, philosophers, and ethicists exploring the ‘societal implications of astrobiology’. He is still working on his OTL Psalms Commentary, hoping to submit the manuscript in 2026.

Select publications

  • Brown, W. Seeing the Psalms: A Theology of Metaphor (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002).
  • Brown, W. The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).
  • Brown, W. Wisdom’s Wonder: Character, Creation, and Crisis in the Bible’s Wisdom Literature (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014).
  • Brown, W. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014).
  • Brown, W. A Handbook to Old Testament Exegesis (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2017).
  • Brown, W. Deep Calls to Deep: The Psalms in Dialogue amid Disruption (Nashville: Abingdon, 2021).
  • Brown, W., Sacred Tension: Embracing Dissonance and Dialogue in the Old Testament (Upper Room: Nashville TN, 2025).