Marianne Katoppo: A Poet of God amidst the World of the Others

Does mysticism still have a place in our daily life? Henrietta M. Katoppo in Raumanen (1975) At the previous chapter, we drew a new portrait of theologian as the poet of God. This chapter introduces Marianne Katoppo, an Indonesian literary writer and theologian, as a living portrait of a theologian as the poet of God. Katoppo envisions theology as poetry of God. She gives breath to my understanding of narrative theology that is still in embryonic form. Her theological reflection starts from the margin, even outside the societal stage, where the Others live and defend their sacred lives from the danger of premature deaths. She speaks on behalf on rural perempuan, raped laborers, prostitutes, handicapped children, and other oppressed perempuan and fight with them against the historical Anti-God. She chooses to use literary language to speak about the Others who pose existential and theological problems. She contrasts herself with bourgeois theologians who write beautifully worded abstract concepts. She reads the Scripture to re-imagine Indonesian women as liberated human beings, and the feminine face of God.