Mary Hunt, Ph.D., kicks off FutureChurch’s Pride Month series with a presentation on “Working Together: Feminist and Queer Theology in Conversation.”

Dr. Hunt’s presentation names the current lived reality for women and LGBTQ+ people in the Catholic Church, explores the histories and intersection of both feminist and queer theologies, and offers practical suggestions and principles for working together toward justice in the world and church. Dr. Hunt then engages in conversation with several participants.

Reading List

Mary E. Hunt (5.4.24) mentioned a variety of foundational historical sources in feminist, liberation, and queer theologies on which current work is built. These sources are meant to be illustrative not exhaustive.

Early feminist work:

1. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Woman’s Bible,1895
2. Valerie Saiving, “The Human Situation: A Feminine View,” The Journal of Religion, Vol. 40, No. 2, Apr., 1960, pp. 100-112, published by: The University of Chicago Press; Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1200194

Basic texts in pioneering feminist work in religion:

3. Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father, 1973
4. Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sexism and God-talk: Toward a Feminist Theology, 1983
5. Shawn Copeland, Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race and Being, 2010
6. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins, 1984
7. Katie Geneva Cannon, Black Womanist Ethics, 1988
8. Ivone Gebara, Longing for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation, 1999

Key texts for various other liberation theologies:

9. Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation, 1971
10. James Cone, Black Theology and Black Power, 1969
11. Nancy Eiesland, The Disabled God: Toward a Liberatory Theology of Disability, 1994

Roots of contemporary Queer Theology

12. John McNeill, The Church and the Homosexual, 1976
13. Kevin Gordon, Report, San Francisco Archdiocesan Commission on Social Justice’s Task Force on Gay/Lesbian Issues, 1982
14. John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century, 1981
15. Bernadette Brooten, Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism, 1996
16. Sally Miller Gearhart, The Lesbian and God-the-Father, 1973 (see LGBTQ-Religious Archives Network)
17. Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, Sensuous Spirituality: Out from Fundamentalism, 1992
18. Virginia Ramey Mollenkott and Letha Scanzoni, Is the Homosexual My Neighbor? A Positive Christian Response, 1994
19. Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, Omni-Gender: A Trans Religious Approach, 2007

Hosted by Christian Feminism Today, Diann Neu gave an introduction to her book Stirring WATERS, published in early 2020, describing its structure and the process of liturgy creation.

Premiered at the international American Academy of Religion Conference in Boston 2017 and created by Kate Common and Ashley Theuring, this documentary features 11 pioneering theologians’ stories of being some of the very first women to pursue careers in theology, including WATER’s Mary E. Hunt.

In December 2014, a group of fourteen lesbian thinkers and activists for Amplifying Marginalized Voices, a project to outline strategies for creating change in the movement toward equality for marginalized groups in religion and in the broader world. The goal of the project is to inspire action, start conversation and create safe spaces for listening, learning, collaboration and support.

Video by Kate Stoltzfus

Published on Mar 19, 2013. Drawing on her time in Argentina, Catholic theologian Mary E. Hunt explains the significance of the new pope’s background. Plus: The new pope’s baggage.

Dr. Mary E. Hunt, feminist theologian and co-director of WATER (Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual), shares two simple and concrete suggestions for what Catholics can do to address gender violence.

Feminist theologian Mary E. Hunt spoke Aug. 1, 2011, as part of the Summer Institute for Seminary Students, sponsored by the Vanderbilt University Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender and Sexuality and the Human Rights Campaign.