SOELLE, Dorothee 1929-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born September 30, 1929, in Cologne, Germany; died of a heart attack April 27, 2003, in Goppingen, Germany. Theologian, educator, and author. Soelle was a prominent left-wing, feminist theologian known for her stand against Western capitalism and for her books that bridge the gap between Christianity and atheism. After attending universities in Cologne and Freiburg, she earned her Ph.D. from the University of Göttingen in 1954. But because of her personal politics, she had a hard time gaining a university post in West Germany, so she taught religion and German at various schools for six years and then became a research assistant at the Technical University of Aachen. In 1964, she finally was hired into the University of Cologne faculty, where she taught until 1975. During the 1970s she also taught at the University of Main. But Soelle found that her ideas were better received in the United States, so, from 1975 to 1987, she spent six months every year teaching at the liberal Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Soelle, who grew up in a middle-class family during the Nazi era, became disillusioned with the conservative mainstream values that had failed to resist Hitler and embraced Communism and the underclass instead. She became a popular lecturer and writer during the radical 1960s, railing against materialism and male-dominated churches—her influence is credited by some as making it possible for women to become bishops in Germany—and causing not a little consternation for the Lutheran church to which she belonged. Often making her voice heard on the political scene, she protested against the Vietnam war and made visits to North Vietnam and, later, Nicaragua, where she supported the Sandinistas. More recently, she protested the United States' wars against Afghanistan and Iran. Soelle's writings often focus on what she called the "theology after the death of God" and include such books as Die Wahrheit ist Konkret (1967; translated as The Truth Is Concrete in 1969), Politische Theologie: Auseinandersetzung mit Rudolph Bultmann (1971; translated as Political Theology in 1974), Die Hinreise: Zur Religiösen Erfahrung—Teste und Überlegungen (1976; translated as Death by Bread Alone in 1976), and To Work and to Love: A Theology of Creation (1984), which she cowrote with Shirley Cloyes. More recently, she completed the autobiography Against the Wind (1995) and The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance (1997). She was also the author of several collections of poetry.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Encyclopedia of World Biography, second edition, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1998.

Hastings, Adrian, editor, The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2000.

PERIODICALS

Guardian (London, England), May 10, 2003, p. 25.

Independent (London, England), May 26, 2003, p. 14.

Times (London, England), May 19, 2003.