Dorothee Sölle (1929–2003) joins the chorus of theologians–including Jürgen Moltmann, T.F. Torrance, and many others–who have criticized the individualistic reduction of Christianity to "a personal relationship with Jesus". In her book Thinking About God: An Introduction to Theology, Sölle keenly perceived that capitalism in America has caused everything to be commoditized and individually marketed to consumers, including the preaching of the gospel in individualistic terms.

"One of the catastrophic consequences of capitalism is what it does to rich people at the heart of this economic system by reducing humanity to the individual. One can see how American commercialism presents all items as being 'quite personal to you', even if millions of them exist. Your initials must be on your T-shirt, on your ball-point pen, on your bag–and on your Jesus. He too is quite personal to you. The spirit of commerical culture is also alive in this religion: for fundamentalism, which is massively effective, Jesus is 'my quite personal Saviour', and really no more can be said than that. The confession of 'Jesus Christ--my personal savior' brings no hope to those whom our system condemns to die of famine. It is a pious statement which is quite indifferent to the poor and completely lacking in hope for all of us. In the light of this individualistic reduction we must put the question of christology ecumenically and ask about Jesus Christ 'for us today' in the age and place in which we live." [1]

Sölle argues that this capitalistic 'Jesus as my personal savior' has been catastrophic because she says "I do not think that individualism as a horizon is sufficient to express the significance of Jesus Christ. . . . My questions to this kind of piety relate to the way in which my personal tie to Christ is bound up with my economic, political and sexual life." [2] Sölle provides a personal example to explain. Sölle lived through Nazi Germany, as a young German child, and she has experienced horrors that were outside her personal control during World War II, and therefore a gospel that was personally between her and Jesus alone could not help her with terrible experiences she encountered in the world outside that personal relationship, and this continued even after the war was over, because she felt ostracized in other countries she visited simply for being a German Christian that lived in Nazi Germany as a youth:

"What has been done to other people in the name of Jesus Christ by my [German] people [during WWII] also affects the way in which I am a Christian. It is clear that Auschwitz would not have been possible without Christianity. Christian anti-Judaism and modern antisemitism are a part of my heritage. In this responsibility for what I have inherited and for what I am handing on I understand my life. The acceptance of Jesus binds me to others, and the 'for me' becomes 'for us'." [3]

Sölle argues that Christianity made Auschwitz possible, but this is a reference to the German Christians who believed in a Nazi Jesus that was personally removed from his Jewish context. As soon as Jesus was viewed as an individual that may be personally encountered, then it was possible to ignore the fact that Jesus was a Jewish person from Nazareth, and antisemitism quickly followed.

Sources:

1. Dorothee Sölle, Thinking About God: An Introduction to Theology. trans. John Bowden. (Bloomsbury T&T Clark: 1997). pp. 103.

2. Sölle. Ibid.

3. Sölle. Ibid.

4. Header contains an image of Correggio (Antonio Allegri) (source: wikipedia).