WALTER MICHEL
by Ben McDonald Coltvet

Walter Michel is a passionate scholar, an exuberant learner and dedicated teacher. When not immersed in the world of books and ideas, he is an avid kayaker and film lover.

Serving on the faculty of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago as professor of Old Testament since 1972, Michel will retire at the end of this academic year.

Born the son of an Austrian lay preacher and teacher, Michel spent his formative years in Yugoslavia, Poland, Germany and Austria. Thirteen years old when World War II ended, for Michel, "It's very important that I am a survivor of World War II…I became a refugee twice during the war, so the mere fact that I survived is a miracle."

It was during those war-torn years of life in occupied Yugoslavia, that Michel encountered a paradox that he calls "the kernel of my whole spiritual life." He had to decide between two radically different ideologies— "Heil, Hitler!" and "Jesus is my Lord." Since then, Michel has pursued truth relentlessly. "I do what I do because I want freedom from spiritual imprisonment. I have to know what this business is all about, and so I study."

Michel came to the United States in 1959, was ordained into the United Lutheran Church in America (1961), and married Gundega Reinfelds (1964), a Latvian chemist and fellow refugee. The Michels have two children, Selga and Dainis.

In 1970, Michel earned a doctorate in Hebrew and Semitic studies—a field he is clearly passionate about. "Once you have a degree in Hebrew and Semitic studies, you have the rock-bottom, important foundation to do anything in Biblical studies and theology," he comments. "I have devoted my life to Biblical studies because every day I am nourished and spiritually uplifted. For instance, even though I have studied the Psalms for 40 years, I still find new wrinkles in the text and it's like fireworks."

Michel counts three major emphases in his spiritual and intellectual life: 1. studying and guiding others in the study of the Old Testament, 2. learning Biblical Hebrew as deeply as possible and 3. being aware, particularly of past Christian anti-Semitism, and expressing Christian faith in a manner which is not anti-Jewish.

As a Hebrew teacher, Michel delights in unfolding the Biblical texts with his students. "When I teach Hebrew, I tell the students right off the bat, 'You're going to learn Hebrew, but you're going to learn much, much more. I'm going to show you the spiritual juice in the text.'" He continues, "I teach Hebrew to get the Biblical mentality—the 'Jesus mentality’—and then it's easy for students to apply it in their own life and in the life of their parishioners."

Michel's abiding passion with learning and teaching about Christianity's history of anti-Semitism stems from his identification as an Austrian Lutheran. Aware of the impact that Christian individuals and institutions had on Jews in Europe, he explains, "The consequences of the Christian teaching of contempt for the Jews and Judaism is now well known to us: expulsions, forced conversions, pogroms and, finally, the Shoah/Holocaust." Michel has made it a point in his classes and public lectures to speak out about this aspect of Christianity.

Believing that the church must continue to operate under Jesus' commission to "go and make disciples," Michel does not interpret this as a call to convert Jews to Christianity, but as a call to live in the same spirit as Jesus. "To make disciples means, as Jesus said, ‘to live in the same spirit that I have…I have exemplified for you what it might mean to live out of the Holy Spirit—now go, do the same thing.’ I believe this very, very much," Michel exclaims.

Adding that the question facing today's churches and church leaders is: "To whom might you be called to be a good neighbor?" Michel says, "Take the Good Samaritan story—the point is so simple. The question is: ‘Who is my neighbor?’ The good teacher turns it around to say, ‘Can't you figure out to whom you might be called to be a good neighbor?’ That's easy. Everybody can answer that question. I try to live this way day in and day out."

Michel's major publication is "Job in the Light of Northwest Semitic, Volume I" (1987). This 436-page book includes a translation of the first 14 books of Job. As colleague F.C. Fensham writes in his review, "In this book we have a major contribution. We can heartily recommend this book for further study and we are looking forward to the publication of Volume II."

After his retirement this June, Michel plans to write three or four more books. First, he will finish the second and third volumes of his study on Job, including a section on the complete grammar of the book of Job. Then he intends to write a book for general readers called "Job—Challenger of God."

Never one to be bored, Michel also plans to actively pursue his hobbies: "reading, reading, reading and kayaking!