Who knew?

When I started this blog, I knew I would have times when I would avoid writing because I didn't have Something to Say.  I just didn't realize that one of those times would come so soon.  I guess that's part of becoming a writer - overcoming the need to say something important instead of just seeing the significance of saying something at all.  At least I have that good old list of my 15 most influential writers to keep the words flowing!

Number Two on the list is Elizabeth Johnson, someone who I'm sure is less familiar to the general public than Barbara Kingsolver.  Johnson is a Catholic feminist theologian, and her book She Who Is has been one of the most important books I've read and re-read over the last six or seven years.  She has a way of talking about the Christian tradition that makes things I've heard before seem new and invigorating.  Her feminism is bold and powerful without being alienating.  Maybe most importantly for me, her use of the feminine concept of wisdom, or sophia, as a way of understanding the Trinity is brilliant and life-giving for my own understanding of what it means to believe in a God whose people have a complicated and often unsavory history. 

When I started my education in biblical studies, philosophy and theology, I never expected that I would end up a more passionate and committed feminist than anything else - scholar, philosopher,  or theologian.  I was not kind to the first feminist theologians I encountered, maybe because they confronted what I thought I knew about being a Christian, maybe because they hit home a bit too closely.  But Elizabeth Johnson was different.  Her love for the Christian tradition is evident, and her feminist systematic theology grows out of that love, much like the way a gardener often prunes certain plants in a way that seems harsh but is motivated by knowledge and experience and hope that such pruning will be good for the plant, the garden, and the gardener.  Johnson showed me that being a loving voice of dissent is possible, and even beautiful.