January 5, 2010

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."

United Church of Christ News Service