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Dear Union Community, Friends, and Supporters,

With deep sorrow and profound gratitude, the Union Theological Seminary community mourns the passing of Dr. Phyllis Trible, at age 92. She was a Presbyterian, beloved teacher, groundbreaking scholar, and towering moral voice whose work forever changed how we read Scripture and how we hear the voices within it.

Dr. Trible, a Unitas Distinguished Alumna 2009, was Baldwin Professor Emerita of Sacred Literature.  She taught Old Testament at Union from 1979 to 1998. Afterwards she was Professor of Biblical Literature at Wake Forest University Divinity School from 1998 to 2002, when she was named University Professor at Wake Forest University; she remained University Professor until 2012.  More recently she was Visiting Professor at Union during Fall Semester 2015.  Her papers constitute the inaugural collection of the Archives of Women in Theological Scholarship in Burke Library. She also served as president of the Society of Biblical Literature (1994).

Dr. Trible's scholarship reshaped biblical studies, insisting that the academy and the church confront both the beauty and the brutality of our sacred texts.

Photo Credit: National Women's History Museum

Through groundbreaking works—including God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality and Texts of Terror—she taught generations to read with literary rigor, ethical clarity, and courageous empathy. Her method of close rhetorical reading opened space for women and other marginalized people long silenced by interpretive traditions, and her teaching formed scholars, pastors, and activists who carry her insights into pulpits, classrooms, and movements for justice around the world.

At Union, Dr. Trible served with distinction, mentoring students and colleagues with keen intellect and gentle resolve. She modeled scholarship as a vocation of care—demanding excellence not as an end in itself, but as a way of honoring the lives and stories entrusted to us in Scripture. Many in our community will remember her precise questions, her elegant prose, and her unwavering commitment to truth-telling. Even more will remember her kindness.

Dr. Trible's legacy is visible in Union's enduring commitments: to rigorous intellectual inquiry, to feminism, and to reading the Bible against the grain of oppression. We give thanks for the innumerable ways her life broke open our scholarly imaginations and deepened our faith.

On behalf of our Board of Trustees, faculty, students, staff, and alumni, I extend heartfelt condolences to Dr. Trible's family, friends, scholarly colleagues, countless former students, and generations of pastors. We will share information about memorial arrangements with the community as it becomes available. In the coming days, we invite remembrances from those whose lives were shaped by her teaching and writing; may the chorus of your stories testify to the breadth of her gift.

May her memory be a blessing, and may her fierce tenderness continue to guide our reading, our teaching, and our work for a more just world.

With abiding respect and deep sorrow,

Rev. Dr. Serene Jones
President and Johnston Family Professor for Religion & Democracy
Union Theological Seminary

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