Honoring Rosemary Radford Ruether: Feminism Was Her Liberation

Abstract

Feminist liberation theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether was a prophetic and progressive voice for women in the Roman Catholic Church. Although feminism was only one aspect of her scholarship, it resulted in her theological contributions being dismissed in the Church. Rosemary’s challenges in the Church were primarily her biological sex and her feminist perspective. This clashed with male clericalism, and the patriarchal hierarchy of the Church. Rosemary was also highly critical of the First Vatican Council’s declaration about papal infallibility. In the twenty-first century, Rosemary Radford Ruether should be recognized as a Doctor in the Church for her groundbreaking scholarship, which reclaims women’s theological perspectives as a starting point for doing theology, and for her renewed vision of a more “authentic Catholicism.”