Book review
Elizabeth A. Johnson is a Catholic feminist theologian. She is a Distinguished Professor Emerita of Theology at Fordham University, New York, and a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph. The National Catholic Reporter has called Johnson "one of the country's most prominent and respected theologians”.
Joseph Cunneen in American Catholic said: "This is one of the most important and provocative books on theology to have appeared in the U.S. since Vatican II.” This 2007 book caused a great deal of controversy about three years after publication. The controversy is extensively covered in Johnson’s profile on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Johnson_(theologian)
Essentially, the US Catholic Bishops took exception to some of her theological statements and deemed them theologically unacceptable. She stared them down and the controversy ultimately died. There is no suggestion that the Vatican got involved.
In “Quest”, Johnson takes us on a journey around the world as she unpacks theology from different cultures and traditions. The book contains chapters on:
Liberation theology from South America
Feminist theology from the USA and Europe
African-American theology rooted in the US slave trade
Hispanic/Latino theology from Mexico and the southern United States, and
Creation theology from the global awakening to the fragility of the planet
She then deals with inter-faith dialogue and its benefits, including the suggestion that the Great Spirit has possibly acted deliberately through different traditions and cultures. She finishes with an extensive examination of contemporary approaches to Trinitarian theology.
Unfortunately, her book did not comment on the ideas in O’Murchu's “Quantum Theology”. It would have been good to get her assessment of O’Murchu’s contribution.
Perhaps the last words of this review should belong to Johnson herself. In a slap in the face to the patriarchal, European-centric Catholic Church, Johnson writes:
“The fact that voices from around the world, including many from the periphery of established centres of power, are contributing to the idea of God indicates the end of the Constantinian era and the dawning of a truly global Christianity. No longer simply concentrated in Europe, which for centuries has been the mother continent of Christianity, theology now emerges from multiple geographic and existential centres of life and thought. The universality of the church is served precisely by these centres’ fidelity to the quest for the living God in their own particular circumstances.”
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