Elizabeth Johnson (theologian)

Life

Johnson grew up in Brooklyn, New York, the oldest of seven children in an "Irish Catholic family." As a young adult she joined the religious order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph whose motherhouse is in Brentwood, Long Island, NY. She received a B.S. from Brentwood College in 1964 and an M.A. from Manhattan College in 1964.

In 1981, she became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in theology at the Catholic University of America (CUA). CUA is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church and is the only university in the U.S. founded and sponsored by the America's bishops. Johnson recalls that her experience there was "rich, respectful, and collegial," but was also "lacking in female presence." During her studies there in the 1970s Johnson observes, "I never had a woman professor, I never read one woman author. There were none to be had. It was a totally male education." CUA attempted to remedy this when Johnson herself was hired into a tenure-track position in Christology. She became one of the first female theologians allowed to receive a doctorate by the church authorities, as a result of the "liberalization decrees that capped the Second Vatican Council." Feminism had begun impacting the thinking and dialog of female Catholic theologians, and pioneering feminist theologians Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and Sandra M. Schneiders influenced Johnson on feminist topics, including using feminine metaphors and language for God. Inspired by their example, Johnson and other women graduate students formed a group, "Women in Theology."

She has served as head of the Catholic Theological Society of America and the American Theological Society.

While at CUA in 1980 she felt profoundly affected by events of the Salvadoran Civil War when four American women, including three nuns, working as missionaries and helping oppressed people to escape violence, were abducted and killed by a death squad. Johnson mourned the women, but she "redirected her anguish by carrying out their mission in her own field of theology."

Johnson notes that leaders of her religious community encouraged her to enter the field of theology and pushed her to continue in spite of obstacles. "When I applied for tenure at Catholic University, I received the full positive vote of the faculty. But the outcome was in doubt because some bishops were not happy with an article I had written," she says, referring to her article questioning the traditional view of Mary as "humble and obedient." Though she contemplated leaving rather than facing the "arduous process of interrogation," General Superior Sister John Raymond McGann advised her not to give up, and Johnson did receive tenure.

Johnson had taught science and religion at the elementary and high school level, then taught theology at St. Joseph's College (New York) and at CUA before moving to Fordham in 1991. At Fordham, she was named Distinguished Professor in 1997 and "Teacher of the Year" in 1998.

Views

Works

The main areas of focus for Johnson's writing are the mystery of God, Jesus Christ, Mary, saints, science and religion, human suffering, ethics, and issues related to women. In addition to her books, her works include over 100 essays in scholarly and popular journals as well as chapters in anthologies.

Her feminist theological method is a "thorough deconstruction of male images of God", a search for alternative Christian sources, and "reconstruction of the theological symbol".

One of Johnson's best-known works is She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse (1991), for which she became the fourth recipient of the University of Louisville and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary Grawemeyer Award in 1993. In it she argues that God, as a spirit, has no gender. It was the first extended attempt to integrate feminist categories such as experience and emancipation into classical Catholic theology. Library Journal notes the book is "grounded in classical Christian thought," but contemporary, and encompasses women's experience. The book covers the history of Christian language about God and argues for gender-neutral or gender balanced language in discussions of God, while reflecting an "inclusive and creative Christian spiritual doctrine."

Johnson edited The Church Women Want (2002), which received the Gender Award from the Catholic Press Association.

Her Quest for the Living God (2007) quickly became popular not only among the laity, but also has been used as a text in university courses. In his review of the book, 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." The book also found an audience among some non-Catholics, including Episcopalian Bishop Mark Sisk who gave copies to his New York clergy; he selected it as his "innovative choice" for 2009 because it included "a valuable reflection and overview of modern theological trends."

In Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love Johnson examines God's relationship with the earth's non-human inhabitants. The inspiration for the book came in 2009 from the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species; Johnson received a research grant to leave for the 2011-2012 academic year to write it. In addition to including a close reading of Darwin's work, the book reflects on the Nicene Creed which, according to Johnson, "is really a narrative of God's evolutionary relationship to the world. God makes the universe, comes into the world, goes down into death, rises again. And, with the spirit, God continues to give life to creation and ready it for the life of world to come."

Controversy surrounding USCCB critique of Quest for a Living God

In March 2011 the USCCB Committee on Doctrine issued a doctrinal evaluation of Quest for a Living God that stated that this book is predicated "at the level of method" on "a false presupposition, an error that undermines the very nature of the study and so skews many of its arguments, rendering many of its conclusions theologically unacceptable." The evaluation equates Johnson's modern theism to an Age of "Enlightenment deist notion of God that contains some elements, though now misrepresented, of a traditional Catholic understanding of God." "The false presupposition" in Quest for a Living God, according to the doctrinal evaluation, "is the conviction that all names for God are metaphors." The panentheism in Quest for a Living God "lacks any characteristic that would constitute a real difference between it and pantheism." Johnson, according to the doctrinal evaluation "employs standards from outside the faith to criticize and to revise in a radical fashion the conception of God revealed in Scripture and taught by the Magisterium." The doctrinal evaluation concluded "that the doctrine of God presented in Quest for the Living God does not accord with authentic Catholic teaching on essential points." But this doctrinal evaluation was not a formal ban.

In a letter about the doctrinal evaluation, Cardinal Donald Wuerl wrote that Johnson did not request an imprimatur, "a recommended practice" in 1983 Code of Canon Law canon 827 §3 through which "clarifications concerning the text can be made prior to its publication." Father James Martin, in America, noted that the doctrinal evaluation of Quest for a Living God was detailed, and described an imprimatur as "the church's official approval of a book, granted by a bishop after a lengthy process of review by theologians." Wuerl added, in March 2011, that the Committee on Doctrine "would welcome an opportunity to discuss" Johnson's works. There was confusion about the process used in the doctrinal evaluation.

At that time, although Johnson did not request an imprimatur, she complained that the doctrinal evaluation was issued without consulting with her, and she objected that it is a "misrepresentation" which "in several key instances...radically misinterprets what I think, and what I in fact wrote." After the Committee on Doctrine reviewed Johnson's rebuttal, it issued a response in October 2011 which reaffirmed its doctrinal evaluation and reiterated that it is "an assessment of the words of the book" and not a judgment of Johnson's "personal intention."

The timing, tone, and substance of the doctrinal evaluation impacted not only Johnson but, according to the National Catholic Reporter, "At the heart of the severe condemnation of Quest for the Living God... is an unresolved theological conflict that revealed a rift between mainstream Catholic theologians and U.S. bishops.... Seldom has the theologian/bishop rift been on display so publically [sic] as it has been in the criticisms and defenses involved in the episcopal Quest for the Living God assessment." Johnson had been viewed as a leader of feminist scholars who dissect how cultural biases among biblical writers may have affected women's approved roles in Christian religious tradition. Catholic theologians have engaged in such issues as standard academic subjects, understanding ancient texts in their historic and cultural contexts. But the doctrinal evaluation of Quest for a Living God signaled a chill on this line of inquiry. The New York Times noted: "Many on the left and the right agree on one point: The bishops, who have already shut off discussion about ordaining women, are signaling that other long-debated questions about gender in the church – the choice of pronouns in prayers, the study of the male and female aspects of God – are substantially off-limits as well." In particular, the bishops had protested Johnson's discussion of female images for God without giving what they viewed as sufficient attention to the primacy of masculine imagery for God.

In June 2011, Johnson sent a rebuttal of the doctrinal evaluation to the USCCB Committee on Doctrine.

In October 2011, several Catholic theologians expressed annoyance about the doctrinal evaluation because it was issued three years after the book was published and because it appeared to violate the bishops' own guidelines. Those guidelines, which had been embraced and promoted in an effort to soothe the simmering conflicts between the Catholic hierarchy and theologians, called for discussion and engagement with theologians rather than public pronouncements. Some theologians were also concerned that an antagonistic approach had been taken by the Rev. Thomas Weinandy, executive secretary of the committee and a conservative theologian subsequently appointed by Pope Francis to the International Theological Commission which assists the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. According to Susan Ross, the president of the 1,400-member Catholic Theological Society of America, Weinandy's tenure with the bishops' conference was "antagonistic" and the committee's approach on doctrine while he was there "adversarial." In a speech delivered in May 2011, Weinandy called theologians a "curse and affliction upon the church if their work is not grounded in church teaching and an active faith life, and ends up promoting doctrinal and moral error."

Several theologians, including Fordham President Joseph M. McShane and Boston College theologian Stephen J. Pope, rallied around Johnson, and Terrence W. Tilley, chair of Fordham's theology department and on the board of the Catholic Theological Society of America." The bishops, according to Tilley, have "reject[ed] 50 years of contemporary theology." Johnson, Tilley said, "has been attempting to push Catholic thinking along new paths. And the bishops have now made it clear – this is something they stand against."

The Committee on Doctrine reviewed Johnson's rebuttal and issued a response in October 2011 which reaffirmed its doctrinal evaluation.

In October 2011, Wuerl announced that he had, in 2011, offered to meet Johnson but she did not respond to his invitations. According to correspondence provided by Johnson herself, Wuerl's claim was proven to be a lie.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, who has a close relationship with Francis and is "known in media circles as 'the pope's theologian'," noted during a speech at Fordham University in 2014 that he highly esteemed the writings of Johnson, joking that he was also considered "suspect" at the Vatican.

In 2014, the LCWR presented its Outstanding Leadership Award to Johnson. Johnson maintained her opinions, that it appeared to her that the members of the USCCB had never read her book, and that "no one, not myself or the theological community, the media, or the general public knows what doctrinal issue is at stake."

Publications

Honorary degrees