Vítor Westhelle is what one could call a vivacious mélange in the theological world. Professor of Systematic Theology at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, over the years his voice has shaped the works of many a theologian. He is a gifted teacher with the soul of a poet adept at playing different keys of the theological ivories. Westhelle advocates the inclusion of all peoples challenging the church to be a communicative reality that embraces oneness and difference. While immersed in the traditions of the church his theologizing is one that allows the cries of the poor to interrupt traditioned listening so that God’s voice might be heard again.
Westhelle is an internationally sought-out speaker and a well known writer with over 150 scholarly publications. He has served on various committees and consultations of the Lutheran World Federation and currently serves on the editorial board of eight different journals spanning three continents. In a vocational journey spanning four continents and serving in several faculties of theology for the last quarter of a century, he is trying, in his words, “to learn not to be everywhere, but bring to where I am every place there is in me.”
Westhelle’s classrooms are interactive forums where students begin to understand crucial issues and learn ways of addressing them. They say, “He instills in us the longing to live and let live the immensity of God’s creation; he teaches us how to conduct the practice of theology with an energy that is permeated with both mind and heart as embodied humans!”
