"The Rainbow of Justice: Illuminating The Character and Manifestations of God's Justice"
“I have set my rainbow in the clouds and it will be the sign between me and the earth.” (Genesis 9:13) In this inaugural lecture, former professor of theological ethics and now award-‐winning quilter, Karen Lebacqz, draws on her passionate commitment to justice in a playful exploration of the ways in which the colors of the rainbow illustrate something important for the character and manifestation of God’s justice: the passion of red, the tenacity of orange, the warmth of yellow, the nurturance of green, the breadth of blue, the indelible nature of indigo, and the majesty of purple. Contending that theological justice is broader, deeper, and more demanding than philosophical justice, Lebacqz allows this belief to take shape as she connects theological justice to the seven traditional colors of the rainbow.
The Rev., Dr. Karen Lebacqz is professor emerita of the Pacific School of Religion, having taught there for more than thirty years, as well as former core doctoral faculty of the Graduate Theological Union. During her lengthy career, Karen’s life-‐long commitment to issues of social justice has taken shape in three primary areas of writing and teaching: professional ethics, bioethics (especially questions around genetics and the Human Genome Project), and ethical theory (particularly justice and questions of method in ethics). Her publications include more than six books, among them Justice in An Unjust World, Sex in the Parish, and Ethics and Spiritual Care co-‐authored with a former PSR colleague, Joseph D. Driskill. Her dozens of essays in bioethics, feminist ethics, and sexual ethics have been published in scientific journals, church magazines, and international contexts.