Marcella Althaus-Reid, RIP

This just in from Mary Hunt at WATER. I had no idea Marcella was ill. I did not know her well, only met her once at an academic conference. She was still young. A great loss to the theological world.

IN MEMORY OF HER-- Marcella Althaus-Reid

Theology lost an original voice last Friday, February 20, 2009, when Professor Marcella Althaus-Reid died at Marie Curie Hospice in Edinburgh, Scotland. WATER offers sympathy to her husband, family members, and friends. Those who appreciate creative, bold theology are in her debt.

Marcella was Argentine by birth with a deep commitment to liberation theology. She studied at ISEDET, the Protestant theological faculty in Buenos Aires, and received her doctorate at the University of St. Andrews. She insisted that issues of body and sexuality need to be interwoven with other liberation concerns. Feminist and queer commitments informed her unique and important work.

She held the Chair of Contextual Theology in the School of Divinity, at the University of Edinburgh. See http://www.div.ed.ac.uk/marcellamari for a biographical sketch and bibliography. She was the author of the widely acclaimed Indecent Theology, among many other books.

Marcella Althaus-Reid’s work will echo for generations to come.