An Interview with Renate Rose

Abstract

An Interview with Renate Rose Kelsi Morrison-Atkins (bio) Describing Renate Rose in one sentence, or even a series of sentences, is no small undertaking. She is a United Church of Christ (UCC) minister and a Harvard alumna. She has lived in six countries and speaks many languages. She is a feminist interfaith peace activist and an outspoken opponent of nuclear weapons. Born in Berlin, she witnessed firsthand the horrors of Nazi Germany and has devoted her life to the project of peace and reconciliation. Yet, all of these identifiers do not begin to describe the dynamic woman who welcomed me into her home and taught me much about the important role of feminist scholars and practitioners of all religions in envisioning and enacting a world free of the “genocidal mentality” that sustains the production of nuclear weapons and other death-dealing machinery. In preparation for our interview, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza sent me Dr. Rose’s biographical essay entitled “A Faith Journey in the Shadow of Auschwitz,” which she prepared for her eightieth birthday celebration.1 In this essay, Dr. Rose gives an account of the destruction of her home in an Allied bombing, her pathbreaking journey to a doctorate in economics and political science, her work in the European Communities and at the Council of Europe, and her pastoral work in Hawaii and the Philippines. This narrative forms the basis of many of my questions and demonstrates the haunting influence of Renate’s war experiences as a child. As such, I will summarize it briefly here. Growing up next to the concentration camp of Sachsenhausen, north of Berlin, the atrocities of Auschwitz have framed Dr. Rose’s faith journey from the beginning of her life to this day. Influenced by her father, an outspoken critic of Hitler, Renate was shocked by the overwhelming silence of the church in response to the inconceivable inhumanity of genocide. She repeatedly proclaims “the personal is political!” and brings this motto to bear on her studies of [End Page 143] political science and economics as well as her work in international peace organizations. After graduating from Harvard Divinity School, her focus on peace and justice work were carried into her ordination and service for the United Church of Christ in Hawaii, her teaching of New Testament and Worship at Silliman University Divinity School and Union Theological Seminary in the Philippines, and her interfaith work in “retirement.” After her first career in postwar Europe (Brussels and Strasbourg), Re-nate moved in 1973 to the United States after her marriage to David Rose, a professor of physics and nuclear engineering at MIT and a strong voice against nuclear weapons. In 1981, the Roses moved to Hawaii because of David’s illness, where he unfortunately died shortly thereafter. In 1983, Renate was ordained and began to pastor Central Union Church in Honolulu. Time as a pastor and association minister of the UCC in the diversity of the Hawaiian culture, experiences in the Philippines teaching New Testament and feminist theology, and many interfaith retreats at Auschwitz (while translating a book from German into English about the commander of the camp) have all fostered her passion for peace and her vision of reconciliation. Auschwitz and its aftermath has remained the central impetus for her work on nuclear disarmament and peacemaking. It is this peace activism that forms the basis of Dr. Rose’s vision of a nonkyriarchal, demilitarized, and peace-filled world. Influenced by the work of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and Mary Daly, Renate asks us to consider the ways in which our images of and language about God contribute to kyriarchal oppression and the murderous technologies of militarism. Thus, on many occasions, including the 1999 Parliament of World’s Religions meeting, Renate has argued for an “economics of care,” highlighting the resources that would be available for the poor if nuclearism (the production of nuclear weapons, their maintenance, and the willingness to use them in war) were no longer supported, and has argued fervently that feminists must join in this cause and provide a model for a radically egalitarian society. Until these and other feminist insights are made known and acted upon, she concludes, “I will...