The Work
Mary Daly is one of the leading feminist theologians and philosophers of the twentieth century and her book, Beyond God the Father is a seminal text for our thinking about theology and gender. Daly was the first woman invited to speak at Harvard Memorial Church. She famously closed her sermon by inviting the women and men to leave the service with her, before it had ended, as a symbolic protest about the inevitably patriarchal nature of theology. The walk out embodied her belief that theology and the Church were trapped in a dominant male ideology and women, to be themselves, needed to leave and (re)discover God for themselves. Her work laid the foundations for feminist theology, both for those who followed her lead and left the Church and for those who stayed in, seeking to challenge its patriarchy and reform its theology.
Speaker
Dr. Clare Herbert is an Anglican priest, educator and theologian, currently a Research Fellow in Practical Theology at St Augustine's College of Theology and a member of the Portsmouth Cathedral congregation. She is a former Rector of St Anne’s Soho, National Coordinator of inclusive Church, and Lecturer in Inclusive Theology at St Martin-in-the-Fields. She holds a DProf in Practical Theology and has served on General Synod. Her first book, “Towards a Theology of Same–Sex Marriage”, was published by Jessica Kingsley in December 2020. It was described by John Pritchard in the Church Times as “a compassionate study, but purposeful in its intent and wide-ranging in its implications. If the language of queer theology is new and faintly disturbing, this might be of genuine value to the individual reader and to the wider Church, because something needs to disturb the stale air of contemporary debate if the process of Living in Love and Faith is to be productive. This wise and courageous book opens another window and lets in some welcome fresh air”.
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