Words from Rosemary Ruether, 1936-2022

Rosemary Radford Ruether, ecofeminist Catholic theologian, died on May 21, 2022. She was coauthor with Gene of From Machismo to Mutuality, published in 1976. She was 85.

Two points Ruether made had a particularly profound impact.  The first is her discussion of the proscription of idolatry.  This proscription precludes any representation of the divine – pictorial or verbal – no images of God as the old man with the white beard and no verbal depictions of God as male or as Father.  What a profound and liberating recognition that was.

The other was Ruether’s critique of Christianity’s reliance on the divine as parental.  This model, she claimed, depicts God as a “neurotic parent who doesn’t want us to grow up,” in which the gravest sin against God is to become morally autonomous and responsible, creating “spiritual infantilism as a virtue.”  Her discussion of God as parent would always facilitate discussions with students about their issues with imaging God as a parent, when their experiences with their own parents were negative, dominating, or abusive.

Ruether’s thoughts on our ephemeral existence seem an appropriate benediction on her extraordinary life and work: “Then, like bread tossed on the water, we can be confident that our creative work will be nourishing to the community of life, even as we relinquish our small self back into the great Self. Our final gesture, as we surrender ourself in the Matrix of life, then can become a prayer of ultimate trust: ‘Mother, into your hands I commend my spirit. Use me as you will in your infinite creativity’.” – Beth Bartlett