Fredrick Carlson Holmgren

Background

Fredrick Holmgren was born on April 1, 1926, in Cadillac, Michigan. He is the son of Charles Olaf and Freda Natalia Holmgren.

Education

Fredrick Holmgren studied at Calvin College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1949. Also, he graduated from the Union Theological Seminary. There Holmgren received a Bachelor of Divinity with magna cum laude in 1955, Master of Studies with summa cum laude in 1957, and a Doctor of Theology in 1963.

Career

An ordained Covenant pastor Fredrick Holmgren serves as a professor of Biblical literature at North Park Theological Seminary since 1960. Moreover, he is an editor of 28 volumes of International Theological Commentary from 1982 and a contributor of articles to professional journals, including the Journal of Ecumenical Studies and Currents in Theology and Mission.

Fredrick Holmgren's writings pay close attention to Biblical scripture as they seek to reinterpret the relationship between Christianity and Judaism. His interest in Judaism began during studies at North Park Theological Seminary and was further developed at Union Theological Seminary under the guidance of such well-known figures as James Muilenburg, Fredrick Grant, and William Davies.

A significant event that greatly influenced Fredrick Holmgren's life occurred while he was marching with the thousands accompanying civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. At the front of the march, together with King, was the great Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel. Holmgren was so impressed by Heschel's presence in this march that he began reading all of Heschel's writings.

Fredrick Holmgren's influence on Holmgren may be seen in almost all of Holmgren's works. The God Who Cares: A Christian Looks at Judaism, which was particularly inspired by the writings of Heschel, is aimed at general readers. The work seeks to refute Christian stereotypes about Jews that persisted for centuries and caused religious intolerance and persecution.

Fredrick Holmgren's another book, The Old Testament and the Significance of Jesus: Embracing Change - Maintaining Christian Identity: The Emerging Center in Biblical Scholarship, intends an audience of serious students and teachers who want to reexamine specific Christian readings of the Old Testament. The book uses texts from both the Old and New Testaments to explain the historical relationship between early Christians and Jews.

Achievements

• Fredrick Holmgren is best known as a writer and educator. He teaches for more than fifty years. Additionally, Holmgren received a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship in 1960 and became a Deutscher Akademischer Austausch scholar in 1991.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Old Testament and the Significance of Jesus

    (Warning the church against either caricaturing the Old Te...)

    1999
  • Preaching Biblical Texts

    (This excellent collection of expositions of texts from th...)

    1995
  • Israel Alive Again

    (Israel Alive Again is intended for the layperson, student...)

    1987
  • With Wings as Eagles 1974
  • The God Who Cares 1979

Views

Fredrick Holmgren is particularly interested in bringing about change in understanding Jewish tradition to a Christian readership, general and scholarly, to facilitate dialogue between two closely-related faiths.

Membership

• 

  Society of Biblical Literature , United States

• Chicago Society of Biblical Literature , United States

Interests

• German language, literature, and culture; traveling to Europe

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

Connections

Fredrick Holmgren married Betty Jean Margaret Carlson on June 12, 1948. they have two children, Mark and Margaret.

Father:

Charles Olaf Holmgren

Mother:

Freda Natalia Holmgren

Freda Natalia Holmgren's maiden name was Teelander.

Wife:

Betty Jean Margaret Carlson

Daughter:

Margaret Holmgren

Son:

Mark Holmgren

colleague:

James Muilenburg

James Muilenburg was a davenport professor of Hebrew Exegesis and Cognate Languages at Union Theological Seminary. He was one of the 32 scholars who worked on the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, published in 1952.

colleague:

Frederick Clifton Grant

Frederick Grant was Edwin Robinson Professor Emeritus of Biblical Theology at Union Theological Seminary, New York, and President of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Evanston Ill.

colleague:

William David Davies

William Davies served as a Professor at Duke University Divinity School from 1950 to 1955 and was George Washington Ivey Professor of Advanced Studies and Research in Christian Origins from 1966 to 1981.