Dorothee Soelle: Justice Theologian Par Excellence

Dorothee Soelle: Justice Theologian Par Excellence Introductory Remarks Today is the last Sunday of the Easter Season, and I’ll be concluding my series “Extraordinary Persons of Faith”. A few Sundays ago we began by visiting Germany during the 1930s and 1940s and reflected on the life and work of the Lutheran pastor and theological ethicist, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. We discovered his fierce opposition to Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party, for which he was eventually executed and martyred. The 2nd person we considered was Katharine Hayhoe, the young Canadian atmospheric scientist whose scientific knowledge and evangelical Christian faith have had the consequences of her becoming one of the world’s leading voices in advocating wholesale societal change because of the current climate crisis. Third, we discussed Elaine Pagels, a brilliant American theologian whose scholarly work on the Gospel of John and the recently discovered non-canonical gospels known as the Nag Hammadi Gnostic documents was revolutionary, especially because this brilliant and courageous scholar dared to go public telling the world that these sacred texts portrayed women in the early church as having been held in high esteem, that they were equal to men, and held high positions and responsible church offices. Equally important, as the consequence of her six-year old son dying from a rare lung disease, and her husband falling to his death while mountain climbing in Colorado about a year later, Elaine Pagels wrote the book “Why Religion?”. This amazing volume explains how, in spite of these terrible personal tragedies, she found solace and comfort in Christianity’s ancient and sacred texts. Her book “Why Religion?” remains a Christian classic to this very day. Last Sunday, San Salvador’s Archbishop Oscar Romero was fourth “Extraordinary Person of Faith” we considered. If you have had an opportunity to check out my message for last Sunday’s worship time, you’ll recall that Oscar Romero used his high church position and his radio 1