LI nun's book draws ire of U.S. bishops

She is one of the most prominent Catholic scholars in the United States, a sister of St. Joseph of Brentwood who has served as president of the Catholic Theological Society of America.

But Sister Elizabeth Johnson, who teaches theology at Fordham University in the Bronx, has come under fire from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is attacking her 2007 book -- "Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God" -- for failing to uphold Catholic doctrine.

Male imagery challenged

In her book, Johnson, 69, a feminist theologian who came of age during the Vatican II reforms of the 1960s, explores the imagery of God in the Bible through the eyes of the poor, women, people of color and non-Catholics.

She challenges the traditional use of male images to represent God, arguing that female images also should be used. One chapter is called "God Acting Womanish."

"Stale, naive, worn-out concepts of God no longer satisfy," Johnson wrote.

In the four years since it was published, the book has gained popularity and was adopted as a college text, and the bishops' doctrine committee investigated it in secret for more than a year.

Then in March and again on Oct. 28, they issued critical reports, contending the book contains "misrepresentations, ambiguities and errors."

They argue, among other criticisms, that Johnson denounces -- and essentially calls for the replacement of -- the traditional masculine language of God as the Father in certain cases.

The unusual public disagreement has provoked an uproar among Catholic theologians, who contend the bishops misunderstood her work and failed to speak with her before publishing the critiques.

"The vast majority of theologians recognize they [the bishops] don't understand and they didn't try to understand what she's written," Stephen Pope, a theology professor at Boston College, contended.

Johnson is the latest in a line of theologians to clash with the U.S. bishops and the Vatican. In a similar 2007 case, the bishops' doctrine committee issued a critique of a book by the Rev. Peter Phan, a Georgetown University professor. The Vatican has gone further, silencing a Brazilian theologian, the Rev. Leonardo Boff, in 1985 for a year, and in 1979 permanently withdrawing permission for a Swiss theologian, the Rev. Hans Kung, to teach theology.

"The bishops have always tended to be conservative and fearful of any new way of articulating the faith," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at Georgetown's Woodstock Theological Center. "They see every theologian as a potential Martin Luther who is going to divide the church."

Bishops standing firm

The bishops are standing firm. Despite Johnson's demands to remove it as inaccurate, they have left on their website a statement from the doctrine committee's head, Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl, charging that Johnson never followed up on his offers to meet in July and again in October.

"She claims this [the book] is a creative new approach to theology," said James LeGrys, a theological adviser to and spokesman for the doctrine committee. "The response of the bishops is, 'OK, that's fine, but it has to be actually something that adequately expresses the church's faith.' The judgment is that this did not do that."

LeGrys said certain concepts, such as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, cannot be altered to include feminine imagery.

Johnson declined to be interviewed about the dispute.

Her publishing company, Manhattan-based Continuum, says sales of her book have jumped since March, but they would not release sales figures.

Johnson, a Brooklyn native, formerly taught at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and in 1993 won the $150,000 Grawemeyer Award in Religion from the University of Louisville for her insights.

LI order stands behind her

Sister Helen Kearney, head of her Brentwood order, said it "is standing by Beth Johnson with deep gratitude for the depth of insight shared in her lectures and writings, and with great respect for the national and international recognition she has received as a theologian."

The president of Fordham, the Rev. Joseph M. McShane, said the university is backing Johnson, whom he lauded as "a very highly respected member of the Fordham community."

But Frederick Bauerschmidt, chairman of the theology department at Loyola University in Maryland, a Jesuit-run institution, said, "On the whole, I think the [bishops'] criticisms are on target. I appreciate the effort she makes to try and open up the traditional language about God, but I think she is not always as careful as she might need to be."

One novel aspect of the dispute is that the U.S. bishops, not the Vatican, are pursuing it.

Also, unlike past doctrinal challenges that led to theologians and priests being silenced, Johnson so far has received no punishment, Reese said.

The Rev. Thomas Weinandy, executive director of the doctrine committee, said the panel has no disciplinary authority.