Gustavo Gutierrez and the Problem of Human Suffering
Dates/Times: October 7 (1-6pm) and October 8 (9am-5pm)
Location: Online
Instructor: Kelly Brown Douglas
Registration Deadline – Friday, September 24
How do you speak of the justice of God amidst unjust human suffering and oppression? This core dilemma in the book of Job is also the central theme of liberation theology. Gustavo Gutierrez, the pioneer of Latin American liberation theology, writes that “the innocence that Job vigorously claims for himself helps [us] to understand the innocence of an oppressed and believing people amid the situation of suffering and death that has been forced upon it.” Through careful examination of Gutierrez’s “On Job: God-Talk the Suffering of the Innocent”, this course examines how Latin American liberation theology responds to the predicament of speaking of a just God in the face of human suffering with special attention to the practice of ministry in an unjust world.
About Kelly Brown Douglas
The Very Reverend Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas was named Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Theology at Union in September 2017. She was named the Bill and Judith Moyers Chair in Theology in November 2019. She also serves as the Canon Theologian at the Washington National Cathedral and Theologian in Residence at Trinity Church Wall Street.
Dean Douglas’ academic work has focused on womanist theology, Black theology, sexuality and the Black church, and racial and social justice. Prior to EDS at Union, she served as Professor of Religion at Goucher College where she held the Susan D. Morgan Professorship of Religion and is now Professor Emeritus. Before Goucher, she was Associate Professor of Theology at Howard University School of Divinity (1987-2001) and Assistant Professor of Religion at Edward Waters College (1986-1987). Read more.