The Death of a Prophet, Albert Nolan, OP

Yesterday South African Dominican Albert Nolan died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 86.  Who was Albert Nolan? 

Albert Nolan was a theologian and activist for social justice during the horrific apartheid times of South Africa.  He had to go underground to escape the notorious South African Security police because he had worked with college students and black youth supporting them as a chaplain as they came into their power to rise up against the cruel and unjust regime.

Rabbi Heschel defines a prophet as “one who interferes.”  Albert Nolan was a prophet for his interference with satanic apartheid. 

In 2003 he was awarded the ‘Order of Luthuli in Silver’ by then President Thabo Mbeki for his “life-long dedication to the struggle for democracy, human rights and justice and for challenging the religious  ‘dogma’ especially the theological justification for apartheid.”   It is said that he “inspired a generation of Christian activists and theologians.”

His excellent book on Jesus before Christianity brought forward a liberation theology that he called “prophetic theology” and it is one of my favorite books on Jesus.  We used it as a primary textbook for many years at our Institute of Culture and Creation Spirituality. 

In addition to appreciating his work on Jesus, the pre-Constantinian and pre-Nicene creed Jesus—the pre-empire Jesus therefore, I had an important encounter with my Dominican brother Albert Nolan when he visited Oakland, California just as the time that I was expelled from the Order and was meditating on whether to join the Episcopalian church. 

He and I sat down over tea in an Oakland café and here is how I tell the story in my autobiography:

When I was dismissed from the Dominican order I felt that three options presented themselves to me:  1) Hide under a rock (the Vatican’s choice) 2) Do what Fr. Leonard Boff did: seek laicization 3) Make a lateral move to another tradition in the Christian church.

For me, and my culture, I felt the third option to be the most creative choice.  I consulted only one Roman Catholic clergy person on making the decision, and he was a liberation theologian and elder Dominican, Fr. Albert Nolan of South Africa.  He had been elected head of the Dominican order several years earlier but had turned the job down—the first time in its 750 year history that anyone had!—which says something of the wisdom of the man.  [This was during the reign of Cardinal Ratzinger and the return of the inquisition.)  

To be continued

Adapted from Matthew Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Post-denominational Priest, pp. 275f.

See: https://www.news24.com/news24/obituaries/obituary-albert-nolan-priest-activist-author-and-renowned-theologian-20221018

To reada transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.

Banner Image: Views from above Cape Town, South Africa. Photo by Sharaan Muruvan on Unsplash.

Queries for Contemplation

Does the title of Albert Nolan’s book, Jesus before Christianity, excite you as it does me because it takes us back before Christianity took over an empire and back to Jesus’ Jewish roots and thereby confronts anti-semitism and imperial ambitions at the same time?

Recommended Reading

Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest (Revised/Updated Edition)

Matthew Fox’s stirring autobiography, Confessions, reveals his personal, intellectual, and spiritual journey from altar boy, to Dominican priest, to his eventual break with the Vatican. Five new chapters in this revised and updated edition bring added perspective in light of the author’s continued journey, and his reflections on the current changes taking place in church, society and the environment.
“The unfolding story of this irrepressible spiritual revolutionary enlivens the mind and emboldens the heart — must reading for anyone interested in courage, creativity, and the future of religion.”
—Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self