Author Mary Daly has died in Massachusetts. Daly, the feminist and Catholic theologian, taught at Boston College for 33 years.
Daly, in an interview, describing her life's work:
... in fact, when I do speak of spirit and matter, I often hyphenate it: "spirit-matter," for the reason that I don't like to dichotomize. I think matter is extremely alive and spiritual in the deepest sense. And so "spiritual" usually just doesn't do because it seems to carry with it that baggage of dichotomizing. So whenever possible I use the word "elemental." By "elemental" I mean a lot of things; the four elements: earth, air, fire, water—but also the ether. And in ancient Greek philosophy the primal sounds of the alphabet were called elemental, and angels were elementals. And the universe, the earth, stars, other planets and the suns were also called elements, or "stoicheia." It's something vast. My work follows in that tradition of bonding—recognizing and realizing, meaning also actualizing, our connection with the universe. So, the word I commonly use for the ultimate reality—I won't say "God," that's dead—is "the universe.I'll say "spirit," but meaning a principle of life within all being, including rocks. And I have used capital "B," Be-ing, to represent the verb God.
Her books include The Church and the Second Sex; Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism; Pure Lust: Elemental Feminist Philosophy; Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation; and Amazon Grace: Re-Calling the Courage to Sin Big, among others.
That last book of hers chronicles Daly's entanglement with Boston College, when she retired/was forced out of her tenured position in 1999 after her decision to separate female and male students in her women's studies courses at the Jesuit school. In fact, after Daly published her first book in 1968 (The Church and the Second Sex), she was fired from Boston College for her critique of the Catholic Church-- but support by the then all-male student body got her re-instated.
I will say this: Daly's transphobia is abhorrent to me. In what is perhaps her most famous book (Gyn/Ecology), she called transsexual people "Frankensteinian" -- a view, based on old-fashioned gender essentialism, that she upheld throughout her life. As well, she had a habit of not engaging with those who critiqued her in serious and honest ways. Audre Lorde's famous "An Open Letter to Mary Daly," which was published four months after Daly declined to respond to it and is included in Sister Outsider, says it all.
Without in any way excusing such unfortunate thinking, I feel that Daly has nonetheless made monumental contributions to feminist and religious philosophy, broadening both spheres. She inspired, catalyzed, provoked, and empowered. For that, I am grateful to her legacy.
UPDATE: Sady has a beautiful and powerful reflection on Mary Daly over at Feministe: "Acts of Contrition: Feminism, Privilege, and the Legacy of Mary Daly."
Image Credit: The Boston Globe
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