Toward a Counter-History of Christianity: Theologies and Critical Analytics from Rosemary Radford Ruether

Abstract

The intellectual contributions of feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether remain urgent, including for scholars outside of the immediate field of theology. This exposition unfolds in two parts. First, I argue that Ruether’s considerable corpus of published works provides a model through which theological categories can be honed as theoretical analytics for historical critique, especially for thinking about colonialism and empire. There is essential work that theology and theologians can do in interrogating the past, especially the Catholic past and its imbrication with extractive global political economies. Theology, in its finest form, is fundamentally a critical and analytical project, as Ruether demonstrates. The second part refers to Ruether’s expansive articulation of sacrament and sacramentality, a lens through which scholars of religion can better approximate and interpret the religious experience and practice of women, and Catholic laywomen in particular. I apply these analytics to consider the history of Catholicism in Mexico.