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Two Reformers: Martin Luther and Mary Daly as Political Theologicans?
Abstract
The dialectical relationship between religious and political extremism is one
of the most powerful forces in the history of the Christian tradition. Two
specific moments have seen a combination of the political and the religious in
ways that completely transformed the religion, and the contexts in which it
grew and transformed: the sixteenth-century Protestant reformation and the
twentieth-century women’s movement in the United States were simultaneously
products and producers of political theology. A focused study of these
eras leads to a proposal about two of the leading figures in the movements:
Martin Luther and Mary Daly are political theologians. This label allows a
comparative study of the two that leads to significant conclusions for scholars
of either era, and of either theologian. We find in this unlikely comparison
two reformations that shape part of the tradition that they challenge.
of the most powerful forces in the history of the Christian tradition. Two
specific moments have seen a combination of the political and the religious in
ways that completely transformed the religion, and the contexts in which it
grew and transformed: the sixteenth-century Protestant reformation and the
twentieth-century women’s movement in the United States were simultaneously
products and producers of political theology. A focused study of these
eras leads to a proposal about two of the leading figures in the movements:
Martin Luther and Mary Daly are political theologians. This label allows a
comparative study of the two that leads to significant conclusions for scholars
of either era, and of either theologian. We find in this unlikely comparison
two reformations that shape part of the tradition that they challenge.