Customer Reviews

Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation

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It's amazing to me just how many readers don't get Mary Daly! That someone compared her to Hustler Magazine is too funny! Oh, I bet Professor Daly would love that! For those of you who didn't know, Daly has several doctorates (in philosophy and theology) from Fribourg University in Switzerland; she has published many phenomenal, intellectually stimulating, truly groundbreaking books; she's an amazing linguist with a dictionary of terms all her own; and she was a tenured professor at Boston College for many years. That the average reader from Philly hasn't a clue what she's saying is hardly surprising. Daly is a philosopher, a theologian, a scholar, writing for an intellectual feminist audience. Her ideas are not more of the usual male-defined babble, (which is why some readers may get "kicked out of school" for citing her as a reference) but rather radical, eye-opening, amazing challenges to the status quo. Of course, she's not for everyone (truly their loss). However, I've found her philosophy and her books to be quite enlightening, and I am most grateful for and encouraged by all that I have learned from her. Yes, Mary Daly is out of this world! (And with the Bush Administration at the helm, that's probably about the best place to be!)

Some rebellious soul at my extremely fundamentalist college's library managed to procure a copy of this book when it first came out (1979 or 1980, I believe), and when I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. After I'd finished it, I began a little civil disobedience - putting up signs in the commissary to the effect that God was a sexist, the Rapture was a myth, etc. When the administration got wind of it, they called me into the Dean's office and I proudly told them I had come to realize Christianity was a sexist myth used mainly to keep women in their place. I (naively) showed him the book that had brought about this realization, Mary Daly's "Beyond God the Father," and the poor guy almost had a heart attack right there in the office. The end result was, I was "allowed" to stay (though I was forbidden to post any more subversive signs) and the library was warned not to purchase any more books by that author. Fortunately, they ignored that directive, and I ignored mine, and as a result, had a much more exciting time in college than I'd ever dreamed. What a great book!

This book, along with many of the attempts to disuade seekers from using traditional language when referring to God, is very useful if you want to understand what Daly's view of religion is but not so useful if you want to read an accurate book on the subject which isn't so slanted. A great place to start is "God or Goddess," by Hauke. "Speaking the Christian God" by Kimel is very useful. For a true historical look at the place of women in the clergy of the Christian tradition, Hauke's "Women in the priesthood?" is exhaustive. Not to be too timid here, I would recommend "Ungodly Rage" by Donna Steichen.

White males are clearly threatened when Mary Daly speaks of their cowardly embracing of phallocratic, eurocentric sexist paradigms. Her explorations of Women who fight the white male agenda of hatred, with their silly worship of a male "god", is brilliant. A book I want my adopted daughter to read when she's old enough.

Mary Daly (1928-2010) was a radical feminist philosopher and theologian who taught at Jesuit-run Boston College for 33 years; she retired in 1999, after a discrimination claim was filed against the college by two male students who claimed to want to be admitted to her advanced Womens Studies courses. She also wrote the books The Church and the Second Sex, Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism, Pure Lust: Elemental Feminist Philosophy, Websters' First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language, Outercourse: The Be-Dazzling Voyage, QUINTESSENCE: Realizing the Archaic Future A Radical Elemental Feminist Manifesto, and Amazon Grace: Re-Calling the Courage to Sin Big.

She wrote in the Preface to this 1973 book, "This book is in a real sense a sequel to 'The Church and the Second Sex,' published in the late sixties... The earlier book manifested some of the anger and ebullient hope that characterized the period immediately following the Second Vatican Council. The perceptive reader will notice that essentially the same anger and the same hope are the wellsprings of this book, but that the focus has shifted and the perspective has been greatly radicalized. The transition to a wider and deeper perspective within the author's own consciousness has been dramatic---as have been the five years between publication dates."

Here are some additional quotations from the book (page numbers refer to the 226-page 1973 Beacon Press edition):

"...would-be pacifiers of women seem to be fond of quoting the Pauline text which proclaims that 'in Christ there is neither male nor female.' This invites the response that even IF this were true, the fact is that everywhere else there certainly is." (Pg. 5)
"...women have had the power of NAMING stolen from us. We have not been free to use our own power to name ourselves, the world, or God." (Pg. 8)
"I have already suggested that if God is male, then the male is God." (Pg. 19)
"This is not a mere 'becoming equal to men in a man's world'... It is, rather, something like God speaking forth God-self in the new identity of woman." (Pg. 41)
"Discovered in the deep confrontation between being and nonbeing, the space of liberation is sacred." (Pg. 156)
"Sisterhood as cosmic covenant means beginning to re-name the cosmos." (Pg. 159)
"It is rapism that has spawned racism. It is gynocide that gives rise to genocide." (Pg. 194)

Mary Daly has so many devestating insights into the white male mind that I must truly say that this is one of the most fabulous books I have ever come across. A book that challenges assumptions and traditions, a book of *real* philosophy, moving and challenging and courageous. What a wonderful writer and theorist!!!

This book, along with many of the attempts to disuade seekers from using traditional language when referring to God, is very useful if you want to understand what Daly's view of religion is but not so useful if you want to read an accurate book on the subject which isn't so slanted. A great place to start would be any of these books:

God or Goddess?: Feminist Theology : What Is It? Where Does It Lead?

Speaking the Christian God: The Holy Trinity and the Challenge of Feminism is probably one of the best books on the subject.

For a true historical look at the place of women in the clergy of the Christian tradition, Hauke's Women in the Priesthood: A Systematic Analysis in the Light of the Order of Creation and Redemption is exhaustive.

Not to be too timid here, I would recommend Ungodly Rage: The Hidden Face of Catholic Feminism"

Lastly, This Is My Name Forever: The Trinity & Gender Language for God is also very useful and balanced.

Whatever you think on the subject, it is worth reading and praying and speaking out for what you beleive. Keep at it.

As a seminary trained theologian I can appreciate the value of reading Daly's book. In its day 'Beyond God the Father' inspired many religious folks to critically engage several of the accepted tenents of Christian theology. But this positive contribution notwithstanding I am afraid the book is finally little more than a self-righteous and self-indulgent tirade. Indeed, rather than engaging in some critical (and historical) thinking of her own -- grappling with fact that many women have been able to buttress their liberation struggles through their Christian faith, Daly assumes that hers is only authentic feminist perspective. This makes for an ultimately tiresome and intellectually unsatisfying read. I wouldn't encourage anyone to avoid this book altogether, but there is certainly more important and creative feminist theology out there.

For those who read or have read Mary Daly, you might wish to know that she died on 1.6.2010 in a nursing facility near Boston.

For decades feminist authors such as Miss Daly have used their dubious credentials in academia to promulgate the fantasy of a golden age before the onset of "patriarchy," It's the same 60s nonsense clothed in a new phraseology and when we strip away the fancy prose we're left with the following executive summary: Women once ruled the earth with flowy robes and Gaia conjuring magic wands, and all the world worshipped the Goddess. Any woman who has the courage to study the historical, archeological and paleological evidence by academics with ACTUAL ACCREDITED Ph.D.s will soon understand that this gynocentric vision is a myth which harms and enslaves women. Why? The effect of this genre of novel is not to increase grace, love and mercy, but to further splinter humanity into yet more little tribes, all petulantly vying for victim-status and privilege. When we sublimate and externalize our spiritual pain and longing for transcendence to a hatred of other groups (in this case, men) how can we find happiness in our journey through life?

The best antidote to Miss Daly's agenda-of-rage is Cynthia Eller's "The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory : Why An Invented Past Will Not Give Women a Future." Cynthia Eller easily exposes the Gaia/Sophia/Lilith scam. Reading this can help the reader differentiate between the two major taxonomies of Truth: the external, objective and verifiable reality which increases our understanding of the world, vs. collecting subjective emotional concepts to serve as a "stabilizing glue" for one's fragmented consciousness.
Another valuable read is "Interior Castle" or "The Way of Perfection" by St. Teresa of Avila. I challenge any woman to read those 2 books and conclude that this woman was "marginalized" and repressed by the "patriarchy." More likely, they would understand that a loving apprehension of woman's beauty, power and regnancy existed centuries before the word "feminism" was ever breathed on a western campus. The great irony is that this vision of women, infinitely larger, more beautiful and complex than anything modern feminism has ever proposed, is the very reality which Miss Daly desperately wishes to extinguish in her disciples.
In 50 years, the present farrago of theoreticians- Andrea Dworkin, Germaine Greer, Naomi Wolf, Susan Faludi ad infinitum will all be dead and forgotten, their books mouldering in bargain bins and used book stores. Each began with a half-truth: yes, our modern secular society is indeed repressive to women, but each fell into error by conjecturing that secular humanism was the implacable norm in society and represents God's plan for humanity. It is not. Feminist authors are themselves caught in the engrenage of materialism which afflicts our society, and thus, their solutions to free women can't work. In the guise of freedom, they end by merely exalting themselves and leading women further away from the truth. Don't follow their fate, sisters... only love is stronger than death, prejudice and violence. Open your heart and you will receive the graces to understand that there is but one division in life, that between creature and creator. When that day comes, you'll be forever immune to the hate of Miss Daly and her friends. God was beside you all along, a thousand times more ready to give than you were to ask.