Mary Daly, radical feminist, dead at 81

CWN - January 04, 2010

Mary Daly, a radical theologian who described herself as a “post-Christian feminist,” died in Massachusetts on January 3 at the age of 81, after a long illness.

Daly’s 33-year teaching career at Jesuit-run Boston College was marked by two crises. In 1968 she was dismissed, but then brought back and granted tenure after student protests against her removal. In 1999 she was again removed, when she refused to accept a male student into a class on feminism. Her lawsuit challenging the firing was settled out of court.

Daly’s feminism grew more radical over the years, and her attacks on the “patriarchy” of the Church evolved into condemnation of most Christian doctrine. Her many books often carried outlandish titles, pointing to the extremism of her thought:

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