Suzanne de Dietrich

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Suzanne de Dietrich (born January 29, 1891 in Bad Niederbronn , Alsace-Lorraine , † January 24, 1981 in Strasbourg ) was a Protestant theologian of Alsatian origin who was involved in the ecumenical movement .

Life

Suzanne de Dietrich was born on January 29, 1891 as the daughter of the industrialist Charles de Dietrich and his wife Anne van Turcke in Niederbronn-les-Bains. She had a congenital disability that made it difficult for her to walk. Her mother died in 1900 and her father died six years later. Suzanne de Dietrich was taught by a French teacher and attended grammar school in Lausanne from 1907 to 1909 .

After graduating from high school , Suzanne de Dietrich studied engineering in Lausanne and graduated in 1913 with a degree in engineering . During her student days, she was involved in the Association chrétienne d'étudiants (ACE) and promoted reading the Bible by introducing joint Bible studies. In February 1914 she took part in the Congress of the French Federation of ACE, of which Charles Grauss was Secretary General .

In 1916 she also became an active member of the "Volontaires du Christ" movement led by Charles Grauss, which mainly included students of theology . From 1914 to 1935, Suzanne de Dietrich took on the office of secretary in Geneva in the Fédération Universelle des Associations Chrétiennes d'Étudiants (FUACE), the general umbrella organization of Christian student associations. In 1929 she was appointed Vice President of FUACE. At the same time she discovered the work of Karl Barth , which became known in France through the pastor Pierre Maury and the magazine Foi et Vie .

In September 1939, Suzanne de Dietrich helped set up the Cimade ( Comité inter-mouvements auprès des évacués ) together with Madeleine Barot . The first task of the Cimade was to provide material and spiritual support to the people displaced from Alsace-Lorraine by the invasion of German troops .

On September 16 and 17, 1941, she was present at the meeting in Pomeyrol called by Willem Adolf Visser 't Hooft and Madeleine Barot, at which the Thèses de Pomeyrol were drawn up, which formed a spiritual guide against the National Socialist racial ideology. The Pomeyrol theses were based on the Barmen Theological Declaration . During the war, Suzanne de Dietrich also wrote her book Le dessein de Dieu (What God Has To Do With Us) , which was published in 1945 and translated into 13 languages.

After the war she was mainly active in the ecumenical movement . She helped create the Bossey Ecumenical Institute near Geneva. She worked there until 1954. She then moved to Paris and had been on the board of Cimade since 1958 . At the same time she continued her Bible studies and made several lecture tours in Europe and North America .

In 1979 she moved into the deaconess house in Strasbourg, where she lived until her death on January 24, 1981.

Works

  • C'était l'heure de l'offrande: Notes en marge de l'Évangile , Éditions du Semeur, 1935.
  • Le Dessein de Dieu: Itinéraire biblique , Delachaux & Niestlé, Paris, 1948. Dernière réédition: Éditions du Cerf, 1992.
  • Les Lettres Johanniques , Labor et Fides, 1964.
  • Le renouveau biblique, here et aujourd'hui . Tome 1: Qu'est-ce que la Bible ?; Tome 2: Comment lire la Bible? , Collection Foi vivante, Delachaux & Niestlé, 1969.

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Dietrich, Suzanne de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French theologian
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Niederbronn-les-Bains
DATE OF DEATH January 24, 1981
Place of death Strasbourg