The Holocaust and Christian Theologies of Sin and Forgiveness: Imperative Need for Christians to Listen to Jews

Elizabeth Johnson, The Quest for the Living God (London: Bloomsbury, 2007)

Ruth Krall's recent sounding of various ecclesial responses to the sexual abuse of minors and how they raise profound questions about theologies of sin and forgiveness has made me think about the valuable contribution of Jewish thinkers to Christian theological reflection about these matters. Ruth's essay includes a paragraph surveying some Jewish thinkers on the topic of sin and forgiveness.

Wave of Queer Bashing in U.S. Catholicism and Cheap-Grace Christianity: Further Reflections on What's Going on with Viganò's Cabal

Shared by Chiara Giaccardi on Twitter

The letter written by Fordham theologians Patrick Hornbeck and Bryan Massingale to their colleagues — I posted about it yesterday evening — states, 

"What Proceeded from There Encapsulated the Vast Reasons Why Women Abandon Organized Religion": Kaya Oakes on What Happened When She Tweeted, "God's Not a Dude"

Kaya Oakes, The Nones Are Alright: A New Generation of Believers, Seekers, and Those in Between ( Maryknoll, NY: Orbis 2015): 

The Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Elizabeth Johnson on Sources of the "Revolution" in the Theology of God Today

On this day celebrating the legacy of Dr. King, I'm thinking, too, of the opening paragraph of Elizabeth Johnson's book Quest for the Living God (NY: Continuum, 2008), which the U.S. Catholic bishops condemned several years ago. I did a series of postings reporting about my own reading of the book in 2012 — here, here, and here. And in this posting pointing to the work of Terry Weldon at his Queering the Church site, and also of Teresa Forcades, I summarized the opening paragraph of Elizabeth Johnson's book.

Sister Elizabeth Johnson to LCWR: "The Submerged Female Half of the Church, Indeed of the Human Race, Is Rising"

Sister Elizabeth Johnson, as she accepted the the top award of the Leadership Conference of Religious Women last week: 

Rebecca Solnit on Struggle to Name the Significance of Isla Vista Shootings as "Watershed Moment in the History of Feminism"

In yesterday's New York Times, Charles Blow continues the post-Isla Vista drumbeat of insistence that men, all men, need to face the fact that we're at the root of the problem of "female objectification and discrimination and violence against women." Contra those who want to minimize said problem, Blow writes flatly:

Vatican Orthodoxy Watchdog, Cardinal Müller, Delivers New Slap to American Nuns

Also in the news right now, hot off the Vatican's presses (so to speak): the latest slap-down administered to U.S. nuns by the head of the Vatican orthodoxy watchdog office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller. The Vatican has just posted the text of remarks Müller made at the end of April to the leadership team of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. In a word (or two), Müller is Not Pleased with how LCWR is handling its current situation of receivership, about which I have blogged here, which requires it to consult with its Vatican-appointed overseer, Archbishop Sartain, for any important steps it chooses to take.

Sister Elizabeth Johnson Talks About Her Vocation As a Theologian: "There Were These Men and They Had All the Power"

At BuzzFeed, a marvelous article by Jamie Manson surveying the theological career of Sister Elizabeth Johnson, whose book Quest for the Living God was condemned by the U.S. Catholic bishops in March 2011--though they never met with Johnson to discuss the book before they chose to condemn it, and didn't even inform her that they were deliberating about the book and intending to condemn it. 

Matthew Fox, Letters to Pope Francis: On Homosexuality

I've begun reading Matthew Fox's recent book Letters to Pope Francis, and thought it might be helpful to readers if I posted excerpts (and perhaps some commentary) from the book--as I have done previously for Elizabeth Johnson's Quest for the Living God and Margaret Farley's Just Love. 

The Vatican Hurls Down Answers, Catholic Women Keep Asking Questions: Give Me the Questions

The Vatican can tell powerful Catholic women theologians and spiritual thinkers (e.g., Margaret Farley and Elizabeth Johnson)* to shut up, listen, and obey. But you can't stop powerful Catholic women theologians and spiritual thinkers from asking important unsettling questions:

The Vatican Attacks, the Vatican Protects: Catholics in Lonely Exile Seek Advent Hope

This is what our Catholic church has chosen to become under its current leadership:

Margaret Farley's Just Love: Theological Reflections

A month ago, when I told readers I had begun Elizabeth Johnson's book Quest for the Living God, was finding it very rewarding to read, and might share some impressions of it on this blog, I also noted that I intended to follow up by reading the other book by a U.S. nun that the U.S. Catholic bishops have condemned of late, Margaret Farley's Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics (NY: Continuum, 2006).  I've just now begun Margaret Farley's book, and as with Elizabeth Johnson's, am finding it powerful.  I haven't read much of it yet.  I ordered the book through my local library's ILL service, and it has just arrived.

A Reader Writes: "Strange Omission in a Book That Celebrates the Diversity of God's Many Manifestations Among the Marginalized and Oppressed"

In response to my concluding posting about Elizabeth Johnson's Quest for the Living God, Jayden Cameron left a valuable comment, noting that he, too, has wondered about the dearth of voices in "official" Catholic theology articulating the faith experiences of LGBT persons.  Jayden is perturbed that Johnson mentions gay folks at only a single point in her book.

Elizabeth Johnson's Quest for the Living God: Concluding Theological Reflections (2)

Continued from yesterday's posting--again a transcript from a journal entry I've written as Steve and I travel, after I finished Elizabeth Johnson's Quest for the Living God: 

Elizabeth Johnson's Quest for the Living God: Concluding Theological Reflections

We're still traveling, and blogging remains difficult.  I thought, however, that I might share today some reflections I've jotted down in my journal as we travel. These are about Elizabeth Johnson's book Quest for the Living God. To be more precise, they're about reminders and insights provoked for me as I reconnect to the American Catholic theological academy by reading this book. These insights are not about Elizabeth Johnson personally, and not even about her book: they're about the Catholic theological academy in which her work is situated and whom it primarily addresses.

More on Remembering: Metz and the Suffering of Ancestors

To complement what I posted earlier today in remembrance of my mother's death, another passage from Elizabeth Johnson's Search for the Living God (NY: Continuum, 2008)--(I warned you I'd probably be quoting this book incessantly in coming days, no?).  Here, Johnson is summarizing a central point of Johann Baptist Metz's theology of dangerous memory: 

In Remembrance: The Anniversary of a Mother's Death

Today's the 11th anniversary of my mother's death.  She died four days after 9/11 in 2001.  

From the Blogs: The Grace of Queer Theory and Queer Theology

Sr. Teresa Forcades, OSB

At his Queering the Church blog, Terry Weldon presents excerpts from an interview at Iglesia Descalza with Catalan Benedictine sister Teresa Forcades, who observes,

Elizabeth Johnson (and Karl Rahner) on the Value of Atheism for Christians

Last December, I posted here a few remarks about the death of Christopher Hitchens in which I stated, 

Reading Theology and Retaining Sanity: A Report on Elizabeth Johnson's Quest for the Living God

More in the trying-to-retain-sanity vein about which I blogged yesterday--trying to retain scraps of sanity as the political balderdash and religious drivel pour out in the weeks ahead of the 2012 elections in the U.S.: