wfn.org | UCC - Mary Daly Post Christian Radical Feminist Dies at 81

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> United Church of Christ sources

Mary Daly, a self-described post-Christian, radical feminist
theologian known for pioneering women's studies and persistently
challenging administrators at Boston College, died Jan. 3 at age 81.
The cause of death was not released, although Daly had been in poor
health the past two years, according to Mary E. Hunt, director of the
Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual in the Journal of
Feminist Studies of Religion.

"Her contributions to feminist theology, philosophy, and theory were
many, unique, and if I may say so, world-changing," Hunt said in a
statement. "She created intellectual space; she set the bar high. Even
those who disagreed with her are in debt for the challenges she offered."

Daly's impact on the UCC has been significant since her work emerged
during the 1970s, when many who eventually became active feminists
were in seminary and entering ministry, says the Rev. Loey Powell,
Minister and Team Leader of the UCC's Justice and Witness Ministries
in Cleveland. "The inclusive language resolution that was adopted at
the General Synod, which eventually led to the New Century Hymnal, was
only one outgrowth from her insights."

Among Daly's other major contributions, says Powell, was her influence
on the push to address pastoral misconduct of a sexual nature, ending
the discrimination of women clergy and leaders in all UCC settings,
and addressing violence against women in a systemic way.

Daly taught theology and feminist ethics at Boston College for 33
years, according to National Catholic Reporter. She was briefly fired
from the Jesuit-run institution in 1968 after the publication of her
book The Church and the Second Sex, reported NCR, an independent
weekly newspaper. She was rehired after students protested her dismissal.

For years, Daly insisted that only females be admitted to her feminist
studies classes, though she offered tutoring to male students outside
classes. When Boston College insisted that she admit two males to
comply with federal non-discrimination laws in 1999, Daly resigned.

She published several works exploring the limits of patriarchal
institutions and gender-based religious language. Daly once wrote that
the "revelation" that religions are sects built and ruled by and for
men "continues to work subliminally, inspiring my humor and stoking
the fires of my fury not merely against the Catholic church and all
other religions...but against everything that dulls and diminishes women."