Rosemary Radford Reuther?
No, Dr. Elizabeth A. Johnson, C.S.J., Distinguished Professor of Theology at Fordham University, Bronx, N.Y. She was described in the following manner.
Johnson, who is a systematic theologian, is considered by many to be America’s pre-eminent feminist theologian. She is the former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, the oldest and largest association of theologians in the world. She serves on the editorial boards of Theological Studies, Horizons, Journal of the College Theology Society and Theoforum. She also has been a theologian on the national Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue, a consultant to the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Women in Church and Society, a theologian on the Vatican-sponsored dialogue between science and religion and the study of Christ and the world religions, and a core committee member of the Common Ground Initiative founded by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernadin of Chicago.
A Brooklyn native, she joined the Congregation of St. Joseph, Brentwood, N.Y., after graduating from high school. She earned a master’s degree in theology from Manhattan College, New York City, and a doctorate in theology in 1981 from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
A prolific writer, Johnson is the author of a number of acclaimed books and papers. Her most recent publications include The Church Women Want: Catholic Women in Dialogue (NY: Crossroad, 2002); She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse (NY: Crossroad, 1992), With a New Introduction to the 10th Anniversary Edition, 2002; Friends of God and Prophets: A Feminist Theological Reading of the Communion of Saints (New York: Continuum / London: SCM Press / Ottawa: Novalis Press. 1998); and "Losing and Finding Creation in Christian Tradition," in Christianity and Ecology, ed. D. Hessel and R. R. Ruether (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000).
When she was introduced during the award portion of the commencement, I coughed "Heretic!," and my uncle John, who was sitting next to me (and a lapsed Catholic himself), chuckled.