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Dorothee Soelle: In Memoriam _____________________________________________

A nn-Mar ie Har v e y
Abstract: Dorothee Soelle grew up under Hitlers state terror and later lived in a climate of remilitarisation and consumerism. Through an increasing rejection of social coercion, violence and dehumanising social structures, her earlier systematic theology embraced a narrative, praxisorientated methodology that sought to make present fragments of Gods gospel of love and justice in the midst of oppression and brokenness. In the light of her theological reflection on experiences in Vietnam, Europe, the U.S.A., and Latin America she attracted a wide international audience. For theologians in Australasia Soelles legacy continues to hold open the question , if oppression is the primary sin, of how theological endeavour can advance interdependence and wholeness in life?

I DEDICATE THIS ESSAY TO THE MEMORY OF DOROTHEE SOELLE (19292003), who was one of the subjects of my doctoral thesis. In the summer of 1995, I met with Dorothee at her home in Hamburg. In her garden we discussed, among other questions, the mystical life and hope. A friendship sprang up between us that continued through intermittent correspondence. I also met her daughter, who is a doctor in Bolivia. A few months ago I was saddened to hear of her recent death. I felt that with her passing a gap opened in the field of theology that awaits other voices of political conscience. This brief reflection highlights aspects of Soelles early conceptual, and later, contextual theology, which her readers came to appreciate in the ever-changing, ever-new task of interpreting what it means to be Christian in the world today. A few hours prior to her sudden death in Germany in April 2003, Soelle and her husband Fulbert Steffensky were engaged in teaching and leading a seminar entitled God and Happiness. Days later, church leaders attending Lutheran memorial services throughout Germany publicly acknowledged that Soelles teaching is now a significant part of the fabric of German Protestantism. In the period following Soelles death, Manfred Kock, the Head of the German Lutheran Church, commented that her teaching is no longer a marginal stance, but rather it is a significant part of our Church preserving it from pious exclusiveness. And in the view of Conrad Raiser, Secretary General of the W.C.C., Soelle was genuinely and deeply rooted in the spiritual tradition of the Christian Church and intensely engaged in the struggle for justice. In addition, Bishop Maria Jepsen of Hamburg

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claimed that Dorothee Soelle was and remains the political conscience of Protestantism.1 This essay briefly touches on points of Soelles commitment to the fullness of life in a wounded world, socio-political forms of theology, and the mystico-prophetic life. As a practical theologian and teacher Soelle developed a distinct approach to the task of communicating Gods gospel. By the mid-1970s, she argued against forms of deductive theology that excluded the language of narrative and daily life. Instead, she fashioned for herself an inductive theology, which she claimed was emancipative because it revealed the truth of the human situation and demanded theological reflection and renewed praxis. Throughout the late twentieth, century Soelle remained in tune with historical and contextual forces at work in Protestant Germany and Europe, and later in Vietnam, U.S.A., and Latin America. Her critical analysis was informed by European philosophy as well as German, feminist, and liberation theologians concerned with Christian life in the First and Third World. The scope of her reflection has much to contribute to our regional discourse. Teacher and Theologian Dorothee Nipperday was born in Cologne, Germany, in 1929, as the fifth child of a professional family, who though nominally Lutheran were more influenced by philosophy that critiqued religion, especially Kant. World War II interrupted her high school education and revealed the painful truth of what the yellow star of David and Auschwitz had come to mean for Germans, Jews and the West.2 In 1947, during her last year at high school, Soelle began an early phase of hermeneutical thought when she encountered Maria Veit, a teacher who challenged her youthful notions that Christians were backward and obtuse. In her memoir she comments that Veit, a former doctoral student of Rudolph Bultmann, was an exacting and demanding teacher who gave the young Dorothee a taste for the intellectual rigour Veit herself had experienced with Bultmann. Veit introduced Soelle to the gospels, the thought of Paul, Luther, Bultmann, and in extra-

1. See Bishop Maria Jepsen, Thanksgiving Service for the life of Dorothee Soelle, St Catharines Church, Hamburg (5 May 2003). See reference to an earlier University Worship Service prepared and presented by Soelle et al. for women, at St Catharines Church, Hamburg, December 9, 1979, entitled Adam and Eve: A Liturgical Fantasia in Dorothee Soelle, The Strength of the Weak: Toward a Christian Feminist Identity (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1984) 118-31. 2. See Dorothee Soelle, Against the Wind: Memoir of a Radical Christian (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1999) 1-17. Originally published as Gegenwind: Erinnerungen, (Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, 1995).

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curricular classes presented a radical Christianity informed by the critique of Heidegger, Sartre, Bonhoeffer, Marcuse and Freud.3 Throughout the following decade Soelle oscillated between scepticism and nihilism formed during a childhood lived in wartime Germany, and on the other hand a fascination with religion. From 19491951, she studied philosophy and ancient languages at the Universities of Cologne and Freiburg. In her final year, she studied Protestant Theology in Gttingen and for her Dissertation wrote a literary criticism entitled Investigations into the structures of the night vigil of Bonaventure. Soelles change of direction from nihilism to a serious study of religion and Protestant theology occurred when German theologians were engaged in demythologising history and the history of Jesus. Her teachers were Ernst Ksemann and Friedrich Gogarten. Ksemanns influence is reflected in Soelles understanding of Pauls idea that we cannot be neutral in the world when our whole selves are engaged in belongingness and participation. It is also seen in her appropriation of Pauls thought, that physical nature is our condition in the world, wherein individuals are caught in contentious and conflictual forces. Ksemanns study of the early Church and his corpus promotes a nonhierarchical understanding of office and the witness of mutual relationships within the Christian community. These themes are also present in Soelles thought.4 In 1954, Dorothee married Dietrich Soelle. During the next six years while teaching religion and German in Cologne, she began a period of freelance writing for theological journals. Her theology portrayed a conceptual slant influenced by Bultmann (with whom she corresponded), Barth and the German critical theorists of the Frankfurt school, whose insights ignited her search for practical and political forms of Christianity. By the 1960s, Protestant theology in Germany existed largely in a climate of traditional theism. At that time, Soelle published her first major work, Christ the Representative: An Essay after the Death of God.5
3. Soelle, Against the Wind, 18-19. See M. Veit, Woven leben wir Linken?, Junge Kirche, Zeitschrift Europischer Christen, Jan. 1988. 4. See Soelles reference to Ksemanns studies on Paul in her Thinking about God: An Introduction to Theology (London: SCM Press, 1990) 199 at nn. 7 and 8. Originally published as Gott Denken: Einfhrung in die Theologie (Stuttgart: Kreuz, 1990). See Ksemanns On Pauls Anthropology, in Perspectives on Paul (London: SCM Press, 1971); and Commentary on Romans (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980). 5. Dorothee Soelle, Christ the Representative: An Essay in Theology after the Death of God (London: SCM Press, 1967). Originally published as Stellvertretung: Ein Kapitel Theologie nach dem Tode Gottes from the series: Gtersloher Taschenausgaben, (Gtersloh: Mohn, 1965). When Stellvertretung was translated into English, the inclusion of the metaphor Representative in its title was significant. The Christocentric emphasis reflected the shift that Soelle underwent due to the influence of D. Bonhoeffer ( Letters and Papers from Prison (London, SCM Press, 1953). With this publication Soelle emerged as one of the most

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While her writing was informed by philosophers such as Hegel, her intention was to make theology conversational and accessible to the wider public by limiting the use of technical or academic language. In the midst of disbelief and rapid social change in the sixties, her thesis was constructed around the proposition that only those who have learnt who Christ is, know and can say who they are. Questions that underpinned Christ the Representative6 characterised her struggle for a credible Christian identity after theism, and after the so-called death of God. 7 During this period, a growing indifference among Germans towards Christian belief caused her to ask, What does Christ mean for human life? In the late sixties Soelle undertook a period of teaching philosophy and German Studies; she also presented a series of radio talks later published as The Truth is Concrete. 8 With the publication of her second book Beyond Mere Obedience, intended for readers who had grown up in Nazi Germany, she exposed the oppressive aspects of obedience.9 Her argument followed the initiatives of the Frankfurt School and its critique
creative theologians in Germany. Problems with the English translation were caused by variations in the spelling of her name. Secondly, the subtitle death of God led to controversy, especially when non-European reviewers interpreted the book from the American understanding of the death of God movement. Soelles argument was not that God was dead, but that theism, the belief that God intervenes supernaturally in the world, was dead. During her early period the death of God label was hard to shake off, particularly in Britain and the United States. 6. Recognition of Soelles attempt to communicate the mystery of Jesus Christ through the category of Representative gradually gained recognition. J. A. T. Robinsons comments introduced her to international scholars. See The Human Face of God (London: SCM Press, 1972.). He stated that if Jesus is to be the Christ he must point beyond himself, be the clue to the nature of man and God, and be the representative figure standing for all mankind and for God (p. 67). Robinson announced that (t)he significance of this last, very pregnant category, has been brilliantly worked out by Soelle, which has a rare freshness in this field, and he added it is a category which has the advantage of being as nearly grounded in history as we are likely to find (p. 191). Soelles idea of the term representative follows Bonhoeffer: see Christ the Representative (p. 93 n. 2.). Bonhoeffer later broadened his use of the words representative, represent and representation with deputy, to translate Stellvertretung. See D. Bonhoeffer, Ethics (London: Collins, 1955) 224-7. 7. In Christ the Representative Soelle acknowledges commentaries offered during the period of the so-called death of God: G. W. F. Hegel, Smtliche Werke vol. 1 (1974) 344. In Chapter 20, The Death of God and the Provisionality of Christ, she refers to two phrases God is dead, and The death of God, that grew out of the Enlightenments critique of religion. Both terms relate to Friedrich Nietzsches famous parable, Die frhliche Wissenschaft (The Joyful Wisdom). Soelle commented that for atheists the death of God was an obvious fact. Nietzsches response to the death of God was to ask: How am I to live as an atheist? During this period Soelle followed Kierkegaard, who in the socalled absence of God asked: How can I become a Christian??. 8. See Dorothee Soelle, The Truth is Concrete (London: Burns & Oates, 1969). Originally published as Die Wahrheit ist Konkret (Freiburg i. Breisgau: Walter, 1967). 9. See Dorothee Soelle, Preface to Beyond Mere Obedience: Reflections on a Christian Ethic for the Future (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1970), pp. xi-xxi. Reprinted and titled Creative Disobedience (Cleveland: Pilgrim, 1995). Originally published in German as Phantasie und Gehorsam: berlegungen zu einer knftigen christlichen Ethik (Stuttgart: Kreuz, 1968).

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of the authoritarian personality. This text was the beginning of a lifelong critique of ideology, especially of authoritarian forms of religion. On the other hand, it also signalled Soelles sustained engagement with the Jewish prophets, the historical Jesus, early Buddhists, and the mystics of most religions who she believed sought religious expression that is not repressive, that (s)prings from the inner spirit. There is one creative power in God as well as in people.10 What concerned Soelle about German life was a blind obedience whereby people surrendered their reason and conscience presupposing that a duality exists, one in which there is an authoritative speaker and a subservient listener. Her investigations attempted firstly to identify those factors in the historical context which enabled obedience to God to become obedience to a ruthless national ruler; secondly, to show how Jesus revelation of righteousness had been distorted so that the oppression of others could be justified; and, thirdly, to lament the fact that although women are Christians, the patriarchal interpretation of gender caused the subjugation of women into powerless obedience to men. In an attempt to bring christology and social history together through a radical criticism of the concept of Christian obedience, Soelle argued that at any given moment we do not know exactly who God is and what God wills.11 In looking beyond duty as the basis for relationship with God, she affirmed the belief that the mystery of Christ is found in ones engagement with the praxis of faith in social history. FULLNESS OF L IFE IN A WOUNDED W ORLD Wherever people were bombarded with images of a wounded world, Soelle asked: Where do we find Gods abundant and extravagant fullness of life? Her reflections found that Gods gospel is identified in the tension between suffering and liberating salvation, so that little by little within a wounded world, Gods saving word makes present a sense of abundance and healing (Isa 58:8). For Soelle, people of comfortable means should not hold themselves in reserve, but share bread with the hungry and conversation with the depressed, and be fully aware of societys injustice, oppression, and destructiveness of life. To those

10. Beyond Mere Obedience, p. xii. Sources that inform Soelles argument include R. Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament, vol. 1 (New York: Schribner, 1951), and Jesus and the World (New York: Schribner, 1958); F. K. Schumann, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart , 3rd edn. ( Tbingen: Mohr, 1955); F. Gogarten, Jesus Christus Wende der Welt: Grundfragen zur Christologie (Tbingen: Mohr, 1966); E. Fromm, Psychoanalysis and Religion (New Haven: Yale, 1950); and R. Hss, Kommandant in Auschwitz: Autobiographische Aufzeichnungen (Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch, 1963). 11. Soelle, Beyond Mere Obedience, 10.

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who live this way she believed that, Your abundance will grow with your extravagance.12 Soelle identified that something of God in human consciousness and imagination which express in creative initiatives aspects of Gods longing for human fulfilment. She argued that by employing imagination people capture a new understanding of Gods promises and commitment to creation.13 Her search for fullness of life in a wounded world was influenced by those afraid to change their pattern of thinking, especially those who prefer a form of Christian orthodoxy that holds God and the good news of Jesus at a distance, in an unchanging relationship that rejects reform. For Soelle, ossified Catholic and Protestant traditions inhibit conscience so that under the tyranny of established norms the sensitivity of conscience wilts. In her view, Christians are called to a radical theological critique of theological meanings, sociological realities, and political consequences.14 It was no longer possible to describe the human relationship to God with formal concepts limited to the performance of duties. If men and women are to speak seriously about God, then their discourse must be set in the historical and interpretative framework of daily living, where who God is is not known beforehand. For this theologian, the process of making decisions on the way to discovering Gods will also protects autonomy. Such expressions of religion establish human freedom and allow for evolutionary change, so that a person restored to freedom willingly accepts responsibility for the world and seeks to transform it. What the gospel describes as the liberating proclamation of Jesus, she termed humanitarian religion. By the mid-sixties Soelles personal life changed due to divorce and the new situation of being responsible for three children. This difficult and painful experience prepared her for engagement with American feminist thought, and later the German Frauenbefreiung movement that began in the 1970s. Subsequently, she married Fulbert Steffensky, a former Benedictine priest. At the time of her second marriage she retained the name Soelle, as both nationally and internationally she had already established a committed readership with Christ the Representative and Beyond Mere Obedience.

12. See Dorothee Soelle, The Window of Vulnerability: A Political Spirituality (Minneapolis: Fortress,1990) 20. 13. Soelle, Beyond Mere Obedience, 64. The idea of imagination is used along with phantasy of faith. For Soelle, (p)hantasy is the gewusst wie, the know how of love. It never retires before it has achieved some new insights... It is ceaselessly at work improving the welfare of others. 14. Soelle, Beyond Mere Obedience, 9.

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POLITICAL THEOLOGY By the early seventies Soelle was engaged in a critique of Bultmanns thought in her text Political Theology: A Discussion with Rudolph Bultmann. 15 Bultmanns aim of interpreting the Bible for a scientific age interested Soelle, who was herself seeking connections between thinking and believing, criticism and piety, reason and Christianity. Her approach was situated within the historical criticism of the Enlightenment and from within Bultmanns existential philosophy and his dialectical theology. She argued that Bultmanns historical-critical method leads to political theology not to kerygmatic neo-orthodoxy, because it listened to questions from the present situation and analysed them for answers.16 In her view, although Bultmann argued that Jesus offers humanity the possibilities of freedom and true security in Gods kingdom, his existentialist interpretation ignored the corporate and social character of human destiny outlined in the New Testament. Soelle was convinced that twentieth-century theology should look further than denominational differences and be attentive to the social, political and economic concerns of all humanity.17 During this period, she moved from Bultmanns theology towards forms of critical theology that examine the existing socio-political order via what she termed the politicisation of Christian conscience. It was not just the meaning of God that held her interest, but rather what the social and political consequences would be of speaking of God, or remaining silent, in a particular situation. With the publication of Political Theology Soelle became one of the few theologians who struggled with the provocative task of critical theology in a creative way.18 By linking the problem of revelation to ideology criticism as a tool of self-criticism within theology, this theologian offered a means of detaching the gospel from ideologies. In charting her journey from traditional theism via the death of God to the God of the oppressed, Soelle drew on Marx, Hegel, the social criticism of the Frankfurt School, and the social sciences. She was at one with Ernst Blochs belief in an eschatological vision of the future.19 Blochs philosophy inspired much of the theology of hope movement in Europe in the 1960s. He viewed the future as decisive, and gave prime
15. Dorothee Soelle, Political Theology: Discussion with Rudolf Bultmann (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1974). Originally published in German as Politische Theologie: Auseinandersetzung mit Rudolf Bultmann (Stuttgart: Kreuz, 1971). Later, she described this effort as a tentative first step towards the new paradigm of liberation theology which at that time in Europe was called political theology. 16. Soelle, Political Theology, p. xiii. 17. Soelle, Political Theology, p. xiv. 18. Soelle, Political Theology, pp. vii-xx. See J. Shelleys introduction. 19. See Ernst Bloch, The Principle of Hope (Oxford: Blackwell, 1988). Originally published as Das Prinzip Hoffnung, 2 vols (Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp, 1969).

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place to praxis over reflection and theory, believing that it would narrow the gap between justice and injustice, freedom and oppression. In Soelles quest for an authentic life for all, the central question was the connection between theology and change in social conditions where criticism of negative ideology remains a necessary corrective in theological expression. Her intention was to free the substance of the gospel from the masks of illusion and systematic distortion.20 Apart from Moltmann and Pannenberg, Soelle found little support among Protestant theologians in her quest for a new dialogue partner, i.e., men and women who suffer.21 Her cause was affirmed by the Catholic theologian J.-B. Metz, who revived the term political theology and reintroduced it into Germany. He contended that the fundamental hermeneutic problem of systematic theology is the relation between theory and praxis, between understanding faith and social praxis.22 Soelle looked beyond theoretical analysis of texts towards the inductive process of group reflections that emerged with the Political Evensong in Cologne, which were fuelled by the belief that the gospel is an instruction for contemplation and action. These practical reflections were centred on scripture and psalmody. Decades later Soelle still viewed the theological task as a detailed examination of the way the good news raises the consciousness of believers. It encourages a critical analysis of the political, social, and economic structures that leave the hungry to starve, while the rich get richer and the poor lose what they have. Through the Evensong gatherings Soelle advanced the Christian call to proclaim the gospel in faith communities and in the wider ecumene . For this theologian, being sent as Gods witness in the late twentieth century required an active political response: What can we do?23

20. Soelle, Political Theology, 63. Nearly thirty years later Soelle commented that I would no longer define my theological position as political theology. Time has revealed that the term was coined by Carl Schmitt, the Nazi philosopher who justified conditions existing at that time. Schmitt uncritically linked political theology to Nazi leadership. This insidious move gave credibility to a distorted use of religious symbols. In hindsight, Soelle believes political theology lacked clarity even though Metz informed by Rahner, Moltmann following Bloch, and Soelle in conversation with Bultmann, individually and collectively attempted to give new meaning to the term (Against the Wind, 98). 21. Soelle, Political Theology, 75. For Soelle only Catholic discussion wrestled seriously with political theology, not only its critics (Hans Maier, Karl Lehmann) but also its proponents (J.-B. Metz, F. Bckle, W. Oelmller, K. Rahner), all of whom published essays in H. Peukert (ed.), Diskussion zur politischen Theologie: mit einer Bibliographie zum Thema (Mainz: Matthias-Grnewald, 1969). 22. See J.-B. Metz, Theology of the World (New York: Herder & Herder,1969) 112. 23. Soelle, Political Theology, p. viii.

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SOELLE S EVENSONG THEOLOGY24 Between 1968 and 1972, Soelle led the innovative prayer and social justice movement known as Political Evensong. 25 It developed from a friendship-based association of Lutheran and Catholic participants, theologians, and foreigners, who met monthly to engage in dialectical theology. The whole process centred on experience, faith, and a praxisinforming critique intent on ethics and socio-political praxis. Informed by Hegelians of the Reformation tradition, Soelle and the Evensong group critiqued the Church and society by combining Judeo-Christian mystical strands with prophetic action. These initiatives were a form of practical theology that gave primacy to love and justice as the criteria for specific forms of praxis; it was a process that remained open to constructive argumentation and consensus decision-making. The worship services offered a new structure for bringing faith and praxis together. Soelle and the organising group set the agenda of the services, which focused on particular themes or problems of immediate political or social concern. First, the group considered information from a detailed description and analysis of current political events in both Germany and beyond. For example, the burning questions of the day were the American involvement in Vietnam, the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia and economic discrimination in West Germany. Secondly, the group experienced meditation. Political situations were confronted with the biblical texts in Scripture reading, a brief address, and meditative prayer.26 Thirdly, the group engaged in a community discussion that called for some form of corrective action. What can we do? For Soelle, the three components of information, meditation and discussion established a format for a mixed community of people who were drawn together by the ecumenical aims and political objectives of the Evensong gatherings. To a certain extent attempts by Soelle and the
24. In 1968, during the Katholikentag in Essen, Soelles prayer group was asked to hold a liturgy at 11 p.m. From then on the group assumed the name Political Evensong. 25. D. Soelle and F. Steffensky (eds.), Politische Nachtgebet in Kln, vols I & II (Stuttgart and Mainz: Kreuz and Grnewald, 1971). The two volumes of worship services that grew out of the Political Evensong meetings contained a brief introduction to the group, a statement of objectives, a large collection of worship services and some examples of public responses to the services. Neither volume has been translated into English. Both volumes and the original German edition of Political Theology were published in 1971. 26. The activities of Political Evensong reflect something of the Jeunesse Ouvrire Chrtienne, begun by Joseph Cardijn (1882-1967) in Belgium, which became established in other countries, including New Zealand and Australia (Young Christian Workers). Catholic Action was a form of lay apostolate established and controlled by the hierarchy, yet the JOC attempted to reform the social conditions of young workers by enabling them to see, judge and act, i.e., to transform their work situation according to the mind of Christ in the light of the gospels. Clergy participated in Political Evensong, but the organisation, reflection and activities were ecumenically based and non-clerical.

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group to open the gospel to ordinary people attracted intense suspicion from the official Churches and elicited more denunciation than praise from the West German public. In 1969, Cardinal Frings refused permission for the Political Evensong to be held in the Catholic Church in Cologne. Frings actions pointed to a gap that was emerging between the rhetoric of renewal encouraged by the Second Vatican Council, and growing ecclesial constraints to limit the implementation of the Councils spirit. Despite these difficulties the groups influence spread so that similar groups sprang up in at least twelve cities in Germany, France and Switzerland.27 The publicity given to the Evensong gatherings by the media in Cologne attracted increasing numbers of people to the monthly meetings. It was the novelty of a service conducted by lay people that drew the press and television to the gatherings.28 After the initial greeting by the local clergy, any distinction between clergy and laity dissolved into a mutual quest for truth. A shared leadership allowed large numbers of participants to express their theological and political positions on the basis of the information and worship. For Soelle, group discussion enabled participants to analyse social and cultural situations and to point out possible activities that would bring about change. The greatest risk surrounding the worship service was that the whole endeavour would become a charitable agency, simply dispensing financial handouts. At that time, such experiences accelerated a shift in consciousness towards a new understanding that the truth of the gospel belongs to all the people of God. Insights from the Evensong activities convinced Soelle that German Protestantism needed to step beyond its confessional limitations, and along with the churches of the ecumene purify itself. Within different European communities she initiated interactive processes that popularised scriptural reflection and renewed theoretical and practical life that in part fulfilled the demand for an ecclesia semper purificanda.29
27. Soelle, Political Theology, p. vii. 28. In 1968, both the Klner Stadt-Anzeiger and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung carried accounts of the October meeting. The following year the Klnische Rundshau (January 1969) in its review argued in favour of the worship of the Evensong: Ein Gottesdienst mit Hand und Fuss; die Andacht war eine Rckkehr zu lutherischer Derbheit. In April 1969, Die Stern commented that the Evensong meetings were important because, like the original Christian communities, they were the result of the cooperation and participation of the laity. Other publications noted that the service scarcely spoke directly of God. See Against the Wind, 38-39; and also the original German text, Gegenwind, 72-74. 29. See Soelles quest for (a)n institution that passes on language, sacred texts, images and signs, rituals and sacraments. In my view, it is a postmodern mistake to think that without traditions we are freer. What is new in our situation is that traditions can no longer be forced upon anyone. The fact that authoritarian religion is dying before our eyes does not say anything about other, quite different forms and possibilities of religion and Church. Perhaps the Church is not so much the crumbling edifice we see but more a tent for the wandering people of God (Against the Wind, 91).

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In Soelles assessment the laity ought to be recognised as legitimate seekers of truth and freedom. Such a status links the Christian community to the modern concept of the autonomous right of people to determine how to promote a living faith in democratic states. However, the hierarchy were not prepared for a pro-active laity, nor were they well versed in democratic processes. The Evensong gatherings eventually led to confrontation with Lutheran and Catholic authorities because the radical initiative of dialogue among the laity shifted from abstract theology towards the concrete reality of peoples lives and the renewal of theory and praxis.30 In the midst of the struggle surrounding the political prayer movement Soelle acknowledged Bonhoeffers insight that active discipleship comes at a cost. Bonhoeffers life and work expressed solidarity with the German people in their struggle against Hitler. He offered a model of Christian discipleship and community, which brought together contemplation and a way of life expressed in solidarity with the disadvantaged. Such obedience to God created a radically new form of existence. It expressed a faith that participated in the life of Jesus, the man for others. Soelle echoed Bonhoeffers thought that when Christian faith lacked this kind of integrity and solidarity it was cheap grace. Following the demise of the Political Evensong, Soelle published Suffering. 31 Two years later the translated edition brought her international recognition. Questions examined in this text arose from investigations first mooted with the Evensong group, from the anti-war stance taken by German students in 1972, but most significantly from her experiences as a non-Government delegate in war-torn Vietnam. Such encounters led her to search for what Kant called the good life, and to investigate situations where people cried no to disordered human existence and human suffering. In this respect her thought reflected Theodor Adornos negative dialectics.32 Within a few years, political theology was supplanted by forms of theology that argued for collaboration with Gods work of liberation. Yet, in Soelles hermeneutical development, political theology remained a fundamental factor. Nevertheless, her thought was increasingly influenced by the liberation theology of Miranda, Moltmann, and Metz.
30. In 1971, Soelle responded to the new theology in Protestantism that grew out of the insights of Bultmann and Bonhoeffer with her own challenge to privatised bourgeois liberalism in Political Theology and Politische Nachtgebet in Kln. (Three decades later, and beyond the dawn of a new millennium, one must ask how well such a challenge has been addressed in this region of the world.) 31. Dorothee Soelle, Suffering (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1975). Originally published as Leiden (an Ergnzungsband in the series Themen der Theologie) (Stuttgart: Kreuz, 1973). 32. See T. Adorno, Negative Dialectics (London: Routledge & Keegan Paul, 1973) 146-8. Adorno promoted a post-Auschwitz education to ensure that Auschwitz never happens again.

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This new theology searched for a Christianity that empowered and set people free, while ensuring that the necessities of life were equally distributed. It also struggled for suitable language with which to reappropriate the Christian message in ways that allowed prayer and action to focus on reconciliation rather than power.33 For Soelle, the gospel of Jesus Christ was central because it invites a personal relationship with Christ and a personal commitment to those in need, not a pre-occupation with orthodoxy. With two collections of poetry, Revolutionary Patience, and Of War and Love, 34 Soelle attempted to make sense of brutality and oppression through a concrete praxis and hope fashioned in the light of the gospel and Christian solidarity. Her thought reflected the growing need to listen and respond to the suppressed voices in the existential situation of the 1980s. (These insights remain pertinent for the present, wounded, globalised world of the twenty-first century.) She also critiqued the failure of German Protestantism to attend to peace-making. These texts exposed an ideology of security in the early eighties, whereby NATO leaders were allowed to override the democratic process by not informing the people of West Germany that the superpowers were proceeding with a nuclear arms build-up in the guise of defencepreparedness. For Soelle, being a Christian in the context of militarism meant more than humming apolitical carols. Instead she argued in favour of civil disobedience and a call to resistance through which Christian imagination learns to resist the media, who play along with the state machinery and shape public consciousness on how peace can or cannot be made.35 In her view, this type of critical action grew out of a shared vision informed by mystical prayer. THE MYSTICO-PROPHETIC LIFE Over the following decades Soelle argued that mystical inwardness must mature into objective outwardness. Mystics highlight what is

33. The liberation theology that emerged between Medellin and Puebla is more explicit than most European theologies. This form of theology combines the political and the mystical dimensions of Christian faith and praxis. 34. See Dorothee Soelle, Revolutionary Patience (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1977). Originally published as Meditationen & Gebrauchstexte (Berlin: Wolfgang Fietkau, 1969). Also published as Die revolutionre Geduld: Gedichten (Berlin: Wolfgang Fietkau, 1974). See also Dorothee Soelle, Of War and Love (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1983). Originally published as Im Hause des Menschenfressers: Texte zum Frieden (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1981). 35. For over 25 years, Soelle employed the concept of resistance in her theological reflections. In her view the Bible not only summons believers to do Gods will in a world of injustice, but it is also an implicit call to martyrdom: They who want to save their life shall lose it, means to take the risk of resistance in full awareness.... Becoming a Christian, growing into Christ seem possible only as one grows into a movement of resistance. ( Against the Wind, 99).

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missing or absent from this world, such as the need to be loved or the desire for relationships that promise to transcend lifeless ways of living. When Soelle addressed the inner movement of mystical experience in The Inward Road, one route that opened the way to God for her was that lived by the medieval German mystics. 36 They employed a three-step method of learning to give oneself to God: an initial experience, I yield myself up; a response to the present moment, I leave myself in Gods care; and the free action of departing from self, I leave my self behind. Learning to yield up the self that permeates thirteenth-century mysticism is still relevant provided that it is adapted to local situations. 37 Yet she observed that people seldom take the step of leaving the self. The step of abandoning false egos requires the believer to leave the self, to put away depression, to make the self empty, open, and ready, for only if we are empty, the mystics tell us, can God fill us.38 In a world which insists that the inner life of the mystic does not exist, Soelle turned to the biblical model of mystical inwardness and renewed engagement with the world portrayed in the experience and actions of the Jewish prophet Elijah. She re-appraised Elijahs inner journey from the time the angel awoke him. The symbol of sleep is interpreted as a moment when Elijah experienced a change of consciousness. His journey became a time of inaction, aloneness and silence, which plunged him into a journey that seemed to cover a lifetime, and effected in the prophet a shift from ego to self. Elijah veiled his face with his mantle. This action contrasted with the unveiling of Gods self to the veiled ego of Elijah, the mystical way through which he reached the farthest point of his self-journey. The nub of Soelles argument was that as a result of Elijahs mystical experience in the cave, the prophet in him knew that only in turning from the face of God to the face of the world with a renewed com36. See Dorothee Soelle, The Inward Road and The Way Back: Texts and Reflections on Religious Experience (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1978) 81. Also published as Death by Bread Alone: Texts and Reflections on Religious Experience (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978). Originally published as Die Hinreise: Zur Religisen Erfahrung: Texte und berlegungen (Stuttgart: Kreuz, 1975). Here reference is made to the writings of the German mystics: Heinrich Seuse in J. Quint (ed.), Deutsche Mystische Schriften; Meister Eckhart in J. Quint (ed.), Meister Eckhart, Deutsche Predigten und Traktate (Munich: Hanser, 1969); and W. Oehl (ed.), Deutsche Mystikerbriefe des Mittelalters 1100-1500 (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1972). 37. German mystics of the Middle Ages were fascinated with an inward journey, but it was assumed that they were given no instructions for the return journey and the life that is supposed to be new or recreated. Soelle believed that this interpretation is deceptive. In practice, medieval mystics were active leaders who founded schools and were engaged in Church and court politics, often being punished for their activities, such as presenting their theology in the local language rather than in scholastic Latin (The Inward Road, 88). See The Strength of the Weak, 104. See also Deutsche Mystikerbriefe des Mittelalters 1100-1500. 38. See Soelle, The Strength of the Weak, 105.

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mitment to relieve its pain would God continue to touch the heart of this mystic-called-to-be-prophet. Soelle embraced the belief that mysticism is a method of self-emptying, in which the open hands of the mystic at prayer become the clenched fist of political engagement. Thus, contemplation and action constituted a unity, in which there was no room for any dualism between mysticism as love of God and prophetic engagement as love of neighbour.39 Her proposal for a Christian ethic of solidarity with all life develops from mysticism.40 In 1974, Beverly Harrison, a lecturer in ethics and feminism at Union Theological Seminary, New York, read Soelles books and campaigned to engage her on the teaching staff.41 Between 1975-1987, Soelle held the position of visiting Professor of Systematic Theology at UTS. The majority of her students were mature people with varied backgrounds; they introduced her to what were entirely different traditions of AfricanAmericans, Asians, and Australians. This was a period of radical change in which Soelle consolidated a contextual and narrative form of theology that addressed the issues of suffering, peace and war, Christian feminism 42 and liberation theology.43 Prior to her move to New York, Soelle was engaged by the German Green Partys attempt to structure a holistic understanding of work, as she too was investigating what work does to the worker when the cycle of tasks excludes the worker from the overall vision of the enterprise. 44 She based her analysis on Hegelian and Marxist understanding that the alienation of human beings from themselves is an historical fact, not an
39. Soelle, The Inward Road, 89. 40. Soelle resisted a tendency in Christian thought to view the vita contemplativa as of greater intellectual value, the spiritual and saintly above the praxis of the vita activa . Her point is neither to practice an introverted mysticism nor to engage in an extroverted critique of the age alone, but to find ones vita mixta between contemplation and activity as a mutuality of receiving and giving. See The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2001) 201. Originally published as Mystik und Widerstand: Du stilles Geschrei (Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, 1999). 41. Soelle was grateful to Beverly Harrison for having introduced her to the American feminist movement: It is no exaggeration to speak of her as a mother of feminist theology. Tirelessly she supports, counsels, and stimulates women in theology, organizes meetings and conferences. She critiques sexism in all shapes or forms and went after every personal and institutional manifestation of the exclusion of women (Against the Wind, 65). See E. Moltmann-Wendels comment that in the early 1970s the UTS bookstore was a treasure house of theological literature on womens literature, of a kind that was still completely strange in Germany: Autobiography (London: SCM Press, 1997) p. xiii. 42. At UTS and in New York, Soelle encountered numerous feminist thinkers and theologians, including Letty Russell, Phyllis Trible, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Carter Heyward and Dorothy Day. 43. See Dorothee Soelle, Choosing Life (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1981). Originally published as Whlt das Leben (Stuttgart and Berlin: Kreuz, 1980); and The Strength of the Weak, 1984. 44. The Green Partys utopian dreams were similar to the pre-scientific German socialists desire to improve the quality of human work. Earlier, Marx, Fournier, Proudhon, and Weitling had also envisioned an equitable division of labour and fulfilment in work.

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inherent characteristic of human nature.45 From the late 1980s she was visiting Professor at universities in Europe, and in North and South America. With a grant from the Goethe Institute in the nineties, Soelle was able to travel throughout Latin America gathering stories of discrimination and exploitation which demanded theologies that liberate from all forms of violence, especially those affecting womens sexuality, children and traditional cultures.46 Like others, Soelle discovered that five hundred years after the Spanish Conquista another form of misery is being produced by present-day conquerors who threaten human dignity through a one-world, globalised culture that is uninterested in the causes of human suffering or the rights of alternative societies. On her pilgrimage amongst indigenous communities she encountered people who still proudly wear traditional clothing, and who, despite poverty, laugh as they continue to struggle and pray. While acknowledging that such resistance is cause for celebration, she warned against romanticising theologies of liberation. Soelle also published an introduction to theology, a response to sceptics, a personal memoir, and in 2001 an extensive reflection on mysticism and resistance. 47 In a world dominated by militarism, exploitation, and oppression, her essays discussed not only the political aspect of spirituality, but they also offered a challenging spirituality of sharing that embraces the conciliar process of peace, justice and the integrity of creation.48
45. See D. Soelle and S. A. Cloyes, To Work and To Love: A Theology of Creation (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984). Originally published as Lieben und Arbeiten: Eine Theologie der Schpfung (Stuttgart: Kreuz, 1983). 46. Dorothee Soelle, Celebrating Resistance: The Way of the Cross in Latin America (London: Mowbray, 1993) p. x. Also published as essays between 1986-1991, and as The Stations of the Cross: A Latin American Pilgrimage (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1993). Originally published as Gott im Mll: Eine andere Entdeckung Lateinamerikas (Munich: Deutscher, 1992). While few theologians are concerned with the rights of children and their right to speak in the Church, Soelle highlighted the struggle for life of Latin American children in Among the Street Children (1993) 13-15; Grandpa eats Grapes (1993) 16-17; On the Swings of La Paz (1993) 108. In the vignette Sacred Space (1993) 78, she was delighted to find children who articulated new expressions of faith in a post-ecumenical Third World. 47. See Dorothee Soelle, Thinking About God; and Theology for Skeptics: Reflections on God (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1995). Originally published as Es muss doch mehr als alles geben: Nachdenken ber Gott (Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, 1992); Against the Wind; and The Silent Cry. For Soelle, the term the silent cry derives from a series of metaphors in an anonymous letter from the late Middle Ages. The author, a pastor, addresses God in the language of the medieval German mystics who sought new names for God beyond traditional metaphorical terms of Father, King, Most High. Soelle argued that as a name for God the silent cry is not tainted with connotations of domination or command, and that as a gender-free image it alerts people to the unheard voice of God in the world (The Silent Cry, 6). 48. See The Window of Vulnerability ; Celebrating Resistance; and On Earth as in Heaven: A Liberation Spirituality of Sharing (adapted from essays written between 1986-1991; Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox, 1993.)

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CONCLUSION The legacy of Dorothee Soelle echoes in her Evensong theology as a praxis of gospel living discovered through questions raised from what is heard, seen and felt in life. It grows out of human narrative that makes social victims visible. Within a praxis that is attentive to the human condition, Soelle engaged in a second step, analysis, which asks who is excluded from the social and economic situation. A third step brings into play a liberating spirituality formed from personal experience and prayer, which becomes self-critical through knowledge of other faiths and cultures. Finally, in a renewed praxis, the poor, suffering and marginalised are the teachers. What they say and do humanises us. Soelle kept alive Bonhoeffers prophetic belief that a time will come when people will speak Gods word and change the world. Her theology recognised hope in Gods historical future; it struggled to be self-critical, was committed, broke open the meaning of the Gospel, initiated Christian action, and expressed a preferential option for life. She struggled for a Church that is hungry for the reign of God, one that offers an alternative vision for a world divided by race, sex and power. Such a Church confronts situations that are harmful to the hearts, minds and bodies of women, children and men, and it offers fragments of change and healing. Dorothee Soelles life and work is a theology that invites us to look at the Church and the world through Gods eyes, to listen and hear with Gods ears, to name oppression in all its forms;49 to set free the revelatory power of experience, the gift of bodiliness, and the uniqueness of individuals and critical Christian communities. Soelles legacy promises to empower the political conscience of all, who amidst dehumanising forces that undermine Gods vision for creation make present fragments of heaven in this unique geo-political region of earth.

49. Martin Buber, Ecstatic Confessions (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985) 63.