Robert R. Wilson

Hoober Professor of Religious Studies, Professor of Old Testament, Yale Divinity School

Robert Wilson, A.B. Transylvania University, B.D. Yale University Divinity School, Ph.D. Yale University, faculty member at Yale since 1972: Your work is the foundation of modern biblical studies, compelling us to read Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel for what they tell us about the sociology of ancient Israel. The genealogies are passages of the Bible that readers often skip, but you saw in those lengthy lists anthropological information requisite to understanding Israelite history. Whereas scholars previously saw the Hebrew Bible as a work of literature, history, doctrine, or theology, you helped us see it as a work of and for the social sciences. With your landmark book Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel, you provided a model for the application of modern comparative methods to the study of religion and society in ancient Israel that generations will cite. Whether thinking about the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart or Israel’s judicial system in the preexilic period, whether thinking about the problem of false prophecy or the meaning of creation imagery, your scholarship is unafraid to ask new questions and answer with new tools.

You are never just about yourself. You also served your intellectual and curricular communities, providing—as former president Richard Levin observed—“wise, principled, and practical” counsel on institutional matters big and small. You are a veritable encyclopedia on the history of biblical scholarship, authoring overviews of scholarly trends with generosity, ease, and an enthusiasm for the newest research. You served on the Council of the Society of Biblical Literature, and as associate dean of academic affairs in the Divinity School. As chair of the Department of Religious Studies, you argued that the department embrace new methodologies and new subject areas, and as a director of graduate studies you were an abiding supporter of individual students as they struggled through their dissertations. You moved with grace between a Christian divinity school and the secular study of religion, attracting in both contexts students who recorded the memorable one-liners from your lectures on apocalypticism, Old Testament interpretation, and the Ancient Near East. Among the loudest compliments in your student evaluations are remarks upon, and proofs of, your deadpan wit.

A lifelong music lover and an orchestral-level master of the timpani, you bring to every situation deep kindness and demonstrated even-handed reason in difficult matters. As you settle down to a harmonious retirement, we hope you have many happy adventures and good summer days at Tanglewood ahead.