Introduction to the Issue

Abstract

At the end of one of her finest essays, "Theological Reflection in the Struggle for Liberation," Beverly Wildung Harrison writes that as we try to construct our theologies of liberation, we must "together remember, name, and celebrate the presence and power that sustains our struggle."' This special issue of the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion is a naming and celebration of a very special power in many of our lives-Beverly herself, a woman who has been and continues to be teacher, mentor, and sister/friend to so many women and men. To offer an introduction to this issue that does due honor to a truly wise and wonderful woman-a woman who has shaped my own life-is a chal lenge. For to write about Beverly is to write about the past, present, and future of feminist religious ethics, because she is a source/mother to the discipline as she has been a founder/mother to this journal and to institu tions, such as the Women's Theological Center in Boston, where the work of feminist religious ethics is carried out. Beverly herself would say, I think, that she is most honored by the work included in this special issue, the essays that both carry on and expand the ethical commitments central to her life. The voices here, speaking about topics ranging from Immanuel Kant to racial difference, from Catholic economic teachings to female orgasm, all acknowledge Beverly's deep influence as colleague and teacher. In a recent essay reviewing the "projects, problems, prospects" of philo sophical feminist ethics, Alison Jaggar outlines a series of tasks crucial to feminist work.2 She remarks that there are two parallel strands of feminist ethical work, consisting of attention to contemporary ethical issues and criti cism of traditional ethical theory. Within the first strand, feminists have both reconsidered "standard" ethical issues, such as the economy, in light of women's experiences and brought into the scope of moral reflection issues