Friends of God and Prophets: A Feminist Theological Reading of the Communion of Saints

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 16, 1998 by Pamela Schaeffer

Recovering doctrine's 'radical equality' is Elizabeth Johnson's latest project

"From age to age you gather a people to yourself."

Those familiar words from the Sunday liturgy refer to a doctrine as mysterious and aweinspiring as it is comforting, a Christian belief as ancient as the Apostles' Creed. Yet that doctrine, known to Catholics as the "communion of saints" is one that has been little analyzed, interpreted or explained.

Sr. Elizabeth Johnson, a feminist theologian noted for breaking new scholarly ground, realized the shortage of writing on the subject when she set out to produce a sequel to her previous ground-breaking work, She Who Is (Continuum, 1992).

That book, which brought a feminist interpretation to traditional God language and doctrine, was a hard act to follow. It was widely reviewed, won several prizes and was translated into several languages, including French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Korean. It has been used in religion classes at a number of Catholic schools as well as such secular universities as Harvard and Columbia. Both sales and impact "were far beyond what I expected,' she said.

Johnson's new effort, her fourth book, the recently published Friends of God and Prophets, takes its title from these words in Wisdom 7:27:

Although she is but one, she can do all

things,

and while remaining in herself, she

renews all things;

in every generation she passes into holy

souls

and makes them friends of God, and

prophets.

The book's subtitle, placing it squarely in the tradition of Johnson's earlier work, is "A Feminist Theological Reading of the Communion of Saints."

Friends of God and Prophets, about memory, connectedness and hope, traces the symbol of the communion of saints through time -- from the Old Testament, which tells the story of God gathering a people to share in the divine holiness, through the New Testament, where Paul refers some 60 times to communities of saints, and on through history. In the early church diverse holy people are remembered and honored, but gradually a patronage system developed so that saints and their presumed power as mediators became the province of a wealthy and powerful elite.

Worthy of remembrance

By the high Middle Ages church authorities had control of the canonization process, ensuring that male celibates and the soundly orthodox would dominate the list. Married people, pioneering thinkers, artists, people on the margins of society were rarely named. Johnson calls for a recovery of the earlier community model, one that recognizes that all who live in fidelity to truth and love are worthy of remembrance as saints.

"The symbol signifies that those who seek the face of the living God today belong to a great historical company," Johnson writes, "that includes the living and the dead" and is connected with the graciousness of Holy Wisdom who renews her gift in each generation. What is needed today, according to Johnson, is a recovery of the communion of saints' radical equality and new practices to revive its power, such as litanies recited in new ways and new situations.

The focus on equality "is a whole trend in theology right now," she said. Friends of God, like She Who Is, is an effort to "validate doctrinally what is going on in feminist spirituality."

Though the topic of Johnson's latest book seems a logical extension of her experience and work to date, it was in fact an accident.

She had set out during a yearlong sabbatical beginning in September 1996 to do something different: to write a book on the theology of Mary. She had in mind a book looking at Mary as "the feminine face of God" and situating Mary within the tradition of communion of saints.

Johnson got diverted from her track, though, when her detective work on the communion of saints yielded not much. "Almost nothing," she said ruefully. Even Karl Rahner, writing before the Second Vatican Council, had remarked on the lack of work on the topic -- a surprising lack, given its wide currency.

"I had a professor once who said when you discover an absence, that's a piece of knowledge that should not be disregarded," Johnson said.

So gradually the first subject took a back seat to the new one. The book on saints "sneaked in when I wasn't lookings" she said.

Observers quickly form the impression, however, that not much sneaks up on this woman. The keen intellect and businesslike demeanor that have projected Johnson in less than two decades to the top of her profession are always apparent, though infused with warm friendliness. In an interview in her Spartan office in the basement of Collins Hall at Fordham University's Rose Hill campus, where she has taught since 1991, Johnson said she had come prepared to talk about her work and to report a new resolution "to take more time for reflection, for life." Johnson is 57.

Her career track has allowed minimal time for herself.

She was the first woman to get a PhD in theology from The Catholic University of America. That was in 1981. She taught on the school's pontifical faculty from 1981 to 1991, earning tenure and the accompanying hierarchical approvals required: the missio canonica from Cardinal James Hickey of Washington and the nihil obstat from bishops on the university's board of trustees. Her specialty at Catholic University was Christology.