Catholicism: End or Beginning?
Will be published approx. on 15. January 2026
Book
Hardback
368 pages
978-1-009-18063-4 (ISBN)
Description
Publication in 1968 of The Church and the Second Sex turned Mary Daly into a leading - arguably the first - Catholic feminist theologian. She then, in 1972, preached an incendiary sermon at Harvard Memorial Church, 'left behind centuries of darkness,' as she put it, and walked out of patriarchal religion. Daly next established herself, with Beyond God the Father (1973), as a post-Christian feminist philosopher. In between these trailblazing writings, she began to draft another book entitled Catholicism: End or Beginning? In the moment that she abandoned the text, she also seemingly renounced the institutional Roman Catholic Church. This volume comprises that lost, unfinished manuscript - remarkably rediscovered - augmented by complementary chapters from six preeminent feminist writers. Though partial, it completes the corpus of an iconic figure in radical liberationist and Catholic thought, delving deep into the mind of a woman who dared to leap into uncharted territories of faith and philosophical imagination.
Reviews / Votes
'Mary Daly's unfinished Catholicism: End or Beginning? represents a brilliant example of a brilliant woman thinking, and indeed writing, out loud, as her explorations - and especially her burgeoning sense of the fundamental misogyny running through the institutions of Protestantism and Catholicism - led her to make an inevitable and inexorable break with those traditions that had no respect for what Luce Irigaray would call a dialectic between the sexes. It is an extraordinarily valuable record of a pioneering woman's struggle toward intellectual, theological, and personal integrity.' Mary Teresa Condren, Centre for Gender and Women's Studies, Trinity College, University of Dublin 'What a remarkable find! So here we see Mary Daly's struggle with traditional male theology come to a head. Perhaps encountering Paul Tillich was the last straw. She walks away and chooses another path that takes her Beyond God the Father. And onward she clears the path for the rest of us, for which we are most grateful.' Marie M. Fortune, Founder of FaithTrust Institute 'This is an astonishing find: an early 'lost' text of Daly's that fills an intellectual gap in her oeuvre. Students of Daly will appreciate her teaching voice in this text and see not only a foreshadowing of her later work in the existentialist content of the extant chapters but also clarity of their importance and helpful contextualization by preeminent Daly scholars. This volume constitutes a vital contribution to scholarship on one of the least cited but most influential intellectual luminaries of the last century.' Laurel C. Schneider, Research Professor, School of Theology, Boston University 'Mary Daly fans will be delighted to encounter this newly discovered manuscript, written by Daly in the formative period between The Church and the Second Sex and Beyond God the Father. Its surprising contents are well-contextualized by six very helpful contributions by leading feminist thinkers. The book makes clear the ideas that Daly rejected but also those that continued to shape her even as she led her famous walkout from Memorial Church.' Judith Plaskow, Manhattan CollegeMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 223 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
586 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-009-18063-4 (9781009180634)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
In its obituary, the Guardian newspaper called Mary Daly (1928-2010) 'one of the key feminist writers of the twentieth century.' Challenging patriarchy in religion, society, and culture, Daly was a coruscating critic of the ways in which patriarchal institutions operate and discriminate. The Church and the Second Sex (1968), her best-known book, was an attempt to work within a Christian framework. Later works, such as Pure Lust (1984) and Outercourse (1992), emerged from a post-Christian mindset. Written after The Church and the Second Sex and before the influential Beyond God the Father (1973), Catholicism: End or Beginning? explores a renewed and revitalized ecclesiology that transcends the perceived dichotomy between 'Catholic substance' and the 'Protestant principle.' For Daly, resolving this polarity - by reclaiming a new freedom of spirit and intellectual power - would allow theologians to answer the central question: 'Has Catholicism reached its end, or is there hope for a genuine new beginning?'
Content
Introduction Meg Stapleton Smith; Part I. Catholicism: End or Beginning? Mary Daly; Part II. Engagements and Reflections: 1. The Many Minds of Mary Daly Mary E. Hunt; 2. Reformist Catholicism: The Road Not Taken for Mary Daly Lisa Sowle Cahill; 3. Feminist Intrigues at the Limits of Schizoid Theology Siobhan Garrigan; 4. Abstraction, Mysticism, and Revolution: From Catholicism: End or Beginning? to Beyond God the Father and Pure Lust Jennifer Rycenga; 5. Catholicism: End or Beginning? An Open-ended Journey Toward a Theology of Difference Zahra Moballegh; 6. A More Dalyan Christianity Xochitl Alvizo.