One of the persons most responsible for the deformation of modern (at least post-1960s) theology has died, according to the National Catholic Reporter:

Mary Daly, radical feminist theologian and a mother of modern feminist theology, died Jan. 3 at the age of 81. She was one of the most influential voices of the radical feminist movement through the later 20th century.

Daly taught courses in theology, feminist ethics and patriarchy at Boston College for 33 years. Her first book, “The Church and the Second Sex,” published in 1968, got her fired, briefly, from her teaching position there, but as a result of support from the (then all-male) student body and the general public, she was ultimately granted tenure.

After “The Church and the Second Sex,” she said she moved from “Christian reformist” to “radical, post-Christian” feminist.

Studying archetypal forms and prepatriarchal religion convinced Daly that church doctrine consisted of a series of significant “reversals.” She explained these to NCR writer Jeanette Batz in 1996:

  • the Trinity, from the triple goddess once celebrated worldwide;
  • the virgin birth, from the parthenogenesis that once begat divine daughters;
  • Adam giving birth to Eve.

Women operating on patriarchy’s boundaries, she once wrote, can spiral into freedom by renaming and reclaiming an ancient woman-centered reality that was stolen and eradicated by patriarchy.

I think that probably says just about all that needs to be said.

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