Catholic theology without reference to Christ. No wonder the Queen of the Sciences now struggles to find a voice in the "concert of sciences".

"It's always about entering a process of change."

In an interview, Marianne Heimbach-Steins looks back on more than 30 years of social ethics.

Prof. Dr. Marianne Heimbach-Steins is dedicated to pressing issues in church and society, particularly advocating for disadvantaged people. She has headed the Institute for Christian Social Sciences (ICS) at the University of Münster since 2009 and is now retiring. On Friday, July 11, Marianne Heimbach-Steins will give her farewell lecture at 11 a.m. in the Audimax at Johannisstraße 12-20. In an interview with our faculty, she talks about her successful and fulfilling life as a scholar.

Catholic Theological Faculty: "Shifting Boundaries and New Perspectives": Why did you choose this title for your farewell lecture? How central are these concepts to your work?

Marianne Heimbach-Steins: From my experience as a social ethicist, I associate various aspects with boundaries and boundary shifts. One boundary shift in the discipline is related to the fact that, for the first time in my generation, women were able to work as researchers in social ethics. This changed the culture of the discipline and brought questions of gender order onto the agenda. An even more comprehensive boundary shift is related to the fact that the "social question" must now be addressed as a global socio-ecological issue. Borders are also a topic of social ethics that understands itself as political ethics – for example, in light of the challenges of international migration and flight. All of these aspects have shaped my research and publications and have also formed the focus of my teaching.

What prompted your interest in social ethics?

In retrospect, I would actually say it was a stroke of luck that, shortly before completing my doctorate, I was given the opportunity to take on a position as an assistant at the Institute for Christian Social Sciences here in Münster. This opened up a perspective that I hadn't previously considered as a career path for myself – an academic career in theology seemed highly unlikely for a woman at the time. It was at this point that I began to develop a profile as a social ethicist by studying diverse aspects of social and global justice and exploring the theological demands of social ethics.

What do you remember most after three decades?

My first years as a professor in Bamberg were shaped by the socio-political situation after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The unification of the two German states presented the entire society with immense socioeconomic and sociocultural challenges. During this phase, the churches initiated a consultation process to which all social groups and interest groups were invited. We social ethicists were heavily involved. This consultation process formed the basis for the development of the churches' joint social statement, "For a Future in Solidarity and Justice," which was published in February 1997 and subsequently triggered new discussions and processes of mutual understanding. I found this period, during which there was a diverse and highly constructive dialogue about how we want to live together as a society, to be very fruitful.

Among the many groundbreaking experiences, I would also like to highlight my appointment to Münster in 2009. This was a significant turning point, roughly halfway through my tenure as a professor. Being able to take on the leadership of the ICS and responsibility for the "Yearbook for Christian Social Sciences" opened up new opportunities for me to work in social ethics, gain visibility with our research projects, help shape the development of the discipline, and influence the field of civil society and political practice. I am very grateful for this.

For Prof. Dr. Marianne Heimbach-Steins, social ethics is an exciting and challenging field of work that theology cannot do without if it wants to decipher the signs of the times.

Why is it important that theology also engage with social ethics?

In the expansive landscape of theology, social ethics is a kind of borderland, with passages and connections between theology, philosophy, the social sciences, and socio-political practice. This makes it an incredibly exciting and challenging field of work and a fertile terrain that theology cannot do without if it wants to decipher the signs of the times. At the same time, social ethics, with its vast theological hinterland, acquires a special profile: It participates in the fascinatingly diverse scholarly reflection on the meaning and significance of the Christian narrative of God, the message of creation, liberation, and the promise of a life in abundance. The theological dimension opens up sources of hope that can be ethically translated into both interpretive proposals and the critique of concrete conditions of injustice. I see this as an opportunity to meet the immense challenges of the present without falling into cynicism, but also without becoming elevated to an idealism that hovers above the suffering and violence experienced by actual people.

You have been researching, among other things, "borders, flight, and migration" for 30 years. To what extent is this also relevant to theology?

Migration is a human issue. People have always been on the move, often in search of adequate living conditions or fleeing violence, threats, and persecution. The Bible and the religious traditions of Christianity are also full of this. Today, our societies are largely shaped by migration. The topic is fraught with conflict; it challenges us to recognize, beyond all diversity and strangeness, that there is something common to all people, something that grants them a moral right to existence and belonging. At the same time, our world is set up in such a way that migration literally encounters borders, and the decision about who is allowed to be where is not made by the migrants, but by the destination societies. This gives rise to complex legal, political, and ethical questions. This must be addressed by a theology that is committed to recognizing the human dignity of all and that seeks to perceive social processes and conflicts from the perspective of and alongside those whose dignity and rights are threatened.

Thirty years ago, women in theology were isolated cases and exotic; my generation of theologians had no female role models.  Prof. Dr. Marianne Heimbach-Steins

Another of your major research areas is "Gender and Justice." Why is this important to you as a scholar?

Since my doctoral thesis, I have been interested in how women's voices can be heard in theology. To this day, we are faced with gender-asymmetrical structures of participation in academia, the church, and society as a whole – and this gives rise to problems of justice in many fields. These could be gender-related deficits in educational participation and healthcare in countries of the Global South, or social and family policy issues regarding the division of labour and responsibilities between the sexes in our society, or the still precarious recognition of equal human rights for women and girls, as well as for people with diverse gender identities. I consider it an urgent task to give such topics space and a voice in social ethics and theology as a whole – all the more so given the increasing ideological headwinds in political and religious contexts.

In 1996, you received an appointment at the University of Bamberg, becoming the first full female Professor of theology in Bavaria. How did you experience your work in a male-clerical sphere?

Thirty years ago, women in theology were isolated cases and exotic; my generation of theologians had no female role models. A certain paternalism prevailed in the mostly all-male and clerical professorships. Today, women shape the theological landscape of faculties and institutes and are clearly present as researchers and teachers. However, we are far from gender parity. In appointments and opportunities for participation, experiences of discrimination on the grounds of gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation continue to this day.

You are considered a combative theologian and also take a stand on right-wing populism and sexual violence in the Church. How important are a culture of debate and debate for your work as a scholar?

For me, not shying away from debate is a matter of intellectual honesty and fairness. In academic exchange, I have repeatedly experienced, very positively, that respectfully conducted, open debate can lead to the further development of controversial positions and also of standards in the field as a whole.

At the interface between academic theology and the Church's teaching authority, we have fought bitter conflicts, and there I have often greatly missed a culture of fair debate. A formative experience was the memorandum "Church 2011: A Necessary Awakening," which we published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on February 4, 2011, with the signatures of initially 144, and later well over 300 colleagues. It was our reaction to the extremely hesitant handling of the German bishops' handling of the practices of sexualized violence by clergy made public in 2010, and of the systematic protection of perpetrators by church officials. Official church reactions to our intervention were almost exclusively disciplinary in nature – even threatening to revoke her teaching license. There was no discussion of the matter.

My goal is never simply to engage in debate, but rather to identify experiences of injustice and engage in a debate about its causes. Ultimately, it's always about defending people's claims to recognition in their diversity with arguments, uncovering and rejecting tendencies toward discrimination and exclusion, as well as attacks on the dignity of certain groups of people, and initiating a process of change.

This Friday, you will give your farewell lecture in Münster. After 29 years as a professor: What are your hopes for Catholic theology?

Catholic theology will shrink in terms of its institutional resources in the foreseeable future, but it must remain a audible voice in the concert of sciences, occupying its place in the university creatively and energetically – ideally in ecumenical and inter-religious cooperation. 

The Campus of Theology and Religious Studies in Münster will create excellent conditions for this. I hope that our theologies will confidently contribute their content-related and methodological potential, their diverse perspectives on religious sources and traditions, on history and society, and the institutions that influence human life and ecology – in a dialogue among the sciences, close to the diversity of human experiences, in cooperation with civil society and religious actors, with a sense of history and a critical eye for power. They are an important voice in the academic system, in religious contexts, and in the social and political sphere.

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