Rhetoric Race and Religion
Rosemary Radford Ruether embodies the theological vocation well lived. Her scope is awesome, her writing compelling, her commitment to a livable planet unceasing. The impact of her work can be found in so many fields and hearts that she fairly defines the term “scholar activist,” teaching and mentoring generations of appreciative colleagues, myself included, by challenging fundamental ways of thinking.
I met Rosemary in the fall of 1972 when we accidentally sat down at the same table in the refectory of Harvard Divinity School. She was a visiting professor in Roman Catholic studies and I was a new student. Our lunch ended prematurely when Rosemary realized that the Women’s Caucus was meeting in a nearby small dining room. She picked up her tray and her briefcase that sported a “Question Authority” sticker and joined the group. I finished my lunch in solitude, not quite sure what a women’s caucus was. Thanks to Rosemary, I learned that and a lot more.
In her recent autobiography, My Quests for Hope and Meaning, Rosemary reflects on her upbringing in “matricentric enclaves.” Born in 1936 in Minnesota, she was the youngest of three daughters of a Catholic mother and an Episcopalian father. She was raised in Washington, D.C., and La Jolla, Calif. Wars and work made men scarce in her early years, and her father died when she was 12.
Her mother, an aunt and several significant women friends of her mother saw to her education, mainly in Catholic schools staffed by the Sisters of Providence from St. Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind. The nuns were strong women role models.
Her mother’s crowd of intelligent, critical-thinking women included prominent social activist Helen Marston Beardsley, who exposed Rosemary to the finer arts of protest and demonstrations against war and for civil rights.
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