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Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation
'Certainly one of the most promising theological statements of our time.' --The Christian Century
'Not for the timid, this brilliant book calls for nothing short of the overthrow of patriarchy itself.' --The Village Voice
'Not for the timid, this brilliant book calls for nothing short of the overthrow of patriarchy itself.' --The Village Voice
264 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
About the author
Mary Daly
37 books168 followersMary Daly was an American philosopher, theologian, and one of the most influential yet controversial voices in radical feminism. Raised in a devout Irish Catholic family in Schenectady, New York, she earned degrees in English, religion, theology, and philosophy, including doctorates from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland at a time when few women pursued advanced theological study. Daly joined the faculty of Boston College in 1967, where she taught theology, feminist ethics, and women's studies for more than three decades. Her first major work, The Church and the Second Sex (1968), challenged the Catholic Church's treatment of women while still seeking reform from within. By the early 1970s, however, she had rejected Christianity altogether, arguing that patriarchal religion was incompatible with women's liberation. This shift shaped her later writings, beginning with the landmark Beyond God the Father (1973), followed by Gyn/Ecology (1978), Pure Lust (1984), and Websters' First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language (1987). These books combined philosophy, theology, social criticism, mythology, and inventive language to develop a distinctly feminist worldview that rejected traditional structures of authority. Daly became known for her uncompromising critiques of patriarchy, organized religion, and male-dominated institutions, as well as her belief that language itself could reinforce or challenge oppression. Her teaching career ended in 1999 after a prolonged dispute with Boston College over her refusal to admit men to certain advanced women's studies classes, arguing that women required a male-free environment for open discussion. The conflict led to legal action, a confidential settlement, and her departure from the university, an episode she later recounted in Amazon Grace. Beyond feminist philosophy, Daly advocated ethical vegetarianism, animal rights, and ecological awareness, viewing all forms of domination as interconnected. At the same time, many aspects of her work generated significant criticism. Scholars and activists challenged her writings for essentialist views of gender, insufficient engagement with race, and later comments widely regarded as transphobic. Her disagreements with writers such as Audre Lorde also became defining moments in debates over race and diversity within feminist thought. Despite these controversies, Daly's influence on feminist theology was profound, opening new avenues for women to critique religious traditions and redefine spiritual language. Her ideas inspired generations of feminist scholars while continuing to provoke debate about the limits and responsibilities of radical theory. She remained an active lecturer and writer after leaving academia, speaking internationally on feminism, religion, and philosophy. Mary Daly died in Gardner, Massachusetts, on January 3, 2010. Her papers are preserved in the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College, and her writings continue to be studied as major contributions to feminist philosophy, religious criticism, and the intellectual history of twentieth-century feminism.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
August 9, 2012
This book is important. I think even those Christians who reject her ungendering of God (as I ultimately do) cannot fail to acknowledge what she says: "By making God man, we make man God."
This is certainly how it has played out historically.
I love the ardor and anger of this book.
This is certainly how it has played out historically.
I love the ardor and anger of this book.
August 19, 2014
Daly was popular at seminary, but I didn't get around to reading her until years later. I was visiting an old high school friend in Springfield, Vermont, had finished the book I'd brought along for the trip and asked his wife for recommendations from their substantial library. She suggested Daly.
If one defines "feminism" as the belief that everyone should have the same rights and opportunities, then pretty much everyone is a feminist, even some people who would reject the label. A number of younger women I know do so, but they have been universally ignorant of how much the laws have changed in recent years and of outstanding income differentials and insurance policy inequities. What they are usually objecting to are particular radical feminists or parodies of them.
By most accounts, Daly is a radical feminist, more radical in the years after she published Beyond God the Father than she was then. Indeed, her career might be profitably studied for an understanding of the evolution of radical feminist thought.
Personally, I feel thankful that I started college just when gender issues were becoming publicly discussed and after Grinnell College had already developed a self-conscious feminist movement within its more generally progressive student organizations. Indeed, by the time I graduated there was also a men's movement allied to the feminists and substantially influenced, if not dominated, by guys who weren't simply heterosexual. I belonged to a men's discussion group there myself.
The challenges posed by the radicals are much more subtle than matters of pay or legal equity. If effective, they raise to consciousness the tacit assumptions of society, the unconscious presuppositions about self and others. Some of these may be more than unconscious. They may be actively repressed, the kind of ideas which one would never want to be associated with. When challenged, one is prone to dismiss, if not aggressively deny, the challenge. In fact, one may earnestly seek the offensive factors and be unable to find them. Perhaps they aren't there. Perhaps, however, they are abundantly evident to others in one's behavior. Thus it is essential that some of the work of uncovering repressions be done in social settings with others. Books alone don't, can't do the job.
It seems that most of my sexual, racial, class--one can go on and on--assumptions are deeply rooted in upbringing and culture. I am, perhaps inescapably, sexist, racist and elitist. Knowing this, knowing why and wherefrom, does allow me some greater measure of control, however. Such, in reference to Daly's focus, theology, is how I have been able to appropriate something meaningful from the traditional (since Augustine) Catholic doctrine of original sin: I am, by nature, imperfect. I am probably incapable of entirely overcoming impulses to act badly, but, knowing this, I am best able to attempt to act properly.
Of course, I've got a long way to go in terms of self-understanding. I can imagine wanting to kill, even torture, others and have, so far, managed to avoid doing so or to avoid even falling into the rages
which might result in such behavior. Here, the self-knowledge has been clearly helpful. I have trouble, however, relating to some kinds of sexual behavior and ideation. There are even things I come across that I'd never thought of before. For instance, a book I recently read about the "sexual revolution" got me to think for the first time about the motives of persons who want to change their genders by simply telling the stories of a few such persons in a sympathetic light. That opened a door for me, at least a crack. I am very much interested in being exposed to material which opens such doors and broadens my sense of self beyond the narrow confines of my known existence.
A healthy, middle-class white male with a U.S. passport could go on and on about this kind of stuff. It is hard for us to appreciate what it feels like to put down, oppressed or negatively "profiled".
If one defines "feminism" as the belief that everyone should have the same rights and opportunities, then pretty much everyone is a feminist, even some people who would reject the label. A number of younger women I know do so, but they have been universally ignorant of how much the laws have changed in recent years and of outstanding income differentials and insurance policy inequities. What they are usually objecting to are particular radical feminists or parodies of them.
By most accounts, Daly is a radical feminist, more radical in the years after she published Beyond God the Father than she was then. Indeed, her career might be profitably studied for an understanding of the evolution of radical feminist thought.
Personally, I feel thankful that I started college just when gender issues were becoming publicly discussed and after Grinnell College had already developed a self-conscious feminist movement within its more generally progressive student organizations. Indeed, by the time I graduated there was also a men's movement allied to the feminists and substantially influenced, if not dominated, by guys who weren't simply heterosexual. I belonged to a men's discussion group there myself.
The challenges posed by the radicals are much more subtle than matters of pay or legal equity. If effective, they raise to consciousness the tacit assumptions of society, the unconscious presuppositions about self and others. Some of these may be more than unconscious. They may be actively repressed, the kind of ideas which one would never want to be associated with. When challenged, one is prone to dismiss, if not aggressively deny, the challenge. In fact, one may earnestly seek the offensive factors and be unable to find them. Perhaps they aren't there. Perhaps, however, they are abundantly evident to others in one's behavior. Thus it is essential that some of the work of uncovering repressions be done in social settings with others. Books alone don't, can't do the job.
It seems that most of my sexual, racial, class--one can go on and on--assumptions are deeply rooted in upbringing and culture. I am, perhaps inescapably, sexist, racist and elitist. Knowing this, knowing why and wherefrom, does allow me some greater measure of control, however. Such, in reference to Daly's focus, theology, is how I have been able to appropriate something meaningful from the traditional (since Augustine) Catholic doctrine of original sin: I am, by nature, imperfect. I am probably incapable of entirely overcoming impulses to act badly, but, knowing this, I am best able to attempt to act properly.
Of course, I've got a long way to go in terms of self-understanding. I can imagine wanting to kill, even torture, others and have, so far, managed to avoid doing so or to avoid even falling into the rages
which might result in such behavior. Here, the self-knowledge has been clearly helpful. I have trouble, however, relating to some kinds of sexual behavior and ideation. There are even things I come across that I'd never thought of before. For instance, a book I recently read about the "sexual revolution" got me to think for the first time about the motives of persons who want to change their genders by simply telling the stories of a few such persons in a sympathetic light. That opened a door for me, at least a crack. I am very much interested in being exposed to material which opens such doors and broadens my sense of self beyond the narrow confines of my known existence.
A healthy, middle-class white male with a U.S. passport could go on and on about this kind of stuff. It is hard for us to appreciate what it feels like to put down, oppressed or negatively "profiled".
April 9, 2016
Really intriguing ideas, but also very much White Feminism.
October 2, 2008
This book will make you NOT ever want to step into another church ever again...
September 11, 2011
I read this after I was getting over the love of my life. I agree with Carl Jung's quote that drugs and alcohol are a low level search for God. I've always been a seeker. So I read this trying to get over my lusts and find a God I could believe in.
December 10, 2012
This book is a classic in feminist religious study. Daly does not pull any punches, and she skewers religion, politics, and every institution of our culture. I agree with most of what she says, and while I see that things are better in some ways than when she wrote the book in 1973, there are plenty of areas where things are just as bad if not worse.
Daly calls upon women and forward thinking men to redefine religion. She makes the excellent point that it's not by simply calling God "Goddess" or using gender neutral pronouns to talk about religion is change made. The entire structure of our religious bodies have to be changed to something non-hierarchical. As a Wiccan, it is an interesting consideration. Wicca claims to be gender equal, but most traditional covens HAVE just replaced the patriarchal God for a patriarchal Goddess. Traditional covens where the High Priestess has to be worshipped like the Goddess herself, do NOT fit Daly's idea of an egalatarian, non-hierarchical replacement for patriarchal religion. Daly seeks to redefine the entire concept of religion and religious structures (it could be argued that she really thinks there should be no structure at all to religion).
It is a very heavy read, and it calls upon the reader to be familiar with many of the major feminist/anthropological writers of the 20th century. It is interesting though, and it definitely gives the reader plenty of things to think about. I would love to have learned her views on how the culture has shifted in some ways, for better or worse.
Daly calls upon women and forward thinking men to redefine religion. She makes the excellent point that it's not by simply calling God "Goddess" or using gender neutral pronouns to talk about religion is change made. The entire structure of our religious bodies have to be changed to something non-hierarchical. As a Wiccan, it is an interesting consideration. Wicca claims to be gender equal, but most traditional covens HAVE just replaced the patriarchal God for a patriarchal Goddess. Traditional covens where the High Priestess has to be worshipped like the Goddess herself, do NOT fit Daly's idea of an egalatarian, non-hierarchical replacement for patriarchal religion. Daly seeks to redefine the entire concept of religion and religious structures (it could be argued that she really thinks there should be no structure at all to religion).
It is a very heavy read, and it calls upon the reader to be familiar with many of the major feminist/anthropological writers of the 20th century. It is interesting though, and it definitely gives the reader plenty of things to think about. I would love to have learned her views on how the culture has shifted in some ways, for better or worse.
December 6, 2023
در صفحات آخر کتاب، نویسنده از قول ویرجینیا وولف میگه: زنان محکوم به عمل آینهای هستند، آینهای که مردان رو دوبرابر اندازه واقعیشان نشان میدهد.
و بعد خودش توضیحاتی میده با این مفهوم که آزادی، انسان شدن و فراتر از ساختار جنسیتنگر زيستن زمانی رخ میده که این عمل آینهای از بین بره و...
.
همونطور که از بخشی از عنوان کتاب "خدای پدر" مشخصه، کتاب درباره نقش باورهای دینی و ساختارهای جنسیتنگر دین (مشخصا سنت مسیحی_یهودی) در ظلم سیستماتیک و تاریخی به زنان (و در راستای اون سایر طبقات فرودست) هست.
.
در مقدمه روش و هدفش رو توضیح میده.
بصورت خلاصه هدف مری دیلی در این کتاب بیرون رفتن از چهارچوب دنیای مردسالارانه و جنسیتنگر و فهم تجربهی زنان در دنیای مجزا و دستیابی و طرح چهارچوبی جدید و فراجنسیتی است.
در سه فصل اول سه باور مهم مسیحیت (خدای پدر، داستان آفرینش، مسیح -پسر خدا- و الگویی برا همیشه) رو مطرح میکنه، نقد میکنه و نقششون در فرودستی زنان و ساختار جنسیتنگر کلیسا و سنت مردسالار رو توضیح میده.
در هر فصل همچنین ایده و نظرات ایجابی خودش و احیانا رهاوردی که هر کدام ازین مفاهیم و داستانها میتوانند برای ما داشته باشند رو بیان میکنه.
.
فصل چهارم در خصوص اخلاق هست، اخلاق قضیبی(اخلاق مردسالارانه و مسیحی) رو نقد و در مقابل اخلاق فمینیستی رو بعنوان یک جایگزین مطلوب مطرح میکنه.
.
در فصل پنجم و ششم در خصوص چیستی و لزوم پیوند خواهری میان زنان صحبت میکنه و از ضدیت کلیسا (نهادهای مردسالارانه) با اون میگه. و در خصوص اون میثاق همگانی و خواهری، از آزادی مردان و پیوستنشون به این میثاق، توجه به طبیعت و ... هم صحبت میکنه.
.
در فصل آخر هم از علیت غایی و نقشش در شکلگیری این سنت ایستا و بدون تغییر مردسالار حرف میزنه و اینکه چگونه آیندهنگری میتونه و باید خلاق و آزادیبخش باشه.
.
چنتا نکته مهم در خصوص نویسنده که جدا از فصلها باید بهش بپردازم اینه که اولا، مری دیلی یک فمینیست رادیکال بوده و بارها در متن به انقلاب فمینیستی اشاره میکنه و تاکید میکنه مثلا فلان چیز خیلی مهمه ولی هدف نهایی ما نیست یا نباید با انقلاب فمینیستی اشتباه گرفته بشه. دوم اینکه همونطور که در متن کتاب هم مشخصه فردی علاقهمند به محیط زیست و حفظ حیات کره زمین و... بوده و این در آیندهنگری و ایدهای که درباره جهان غیرجنسیتنگر داره هم مشخصه. سوم اینکه در این کتاب خیلی کم به همجنسگرایان پرداخته چون موضوع بررسیش نیستن ولی در زمان خودش نوشتهها و فعالیتهایی برای حقوق تغییر جنسیت دادهها و همجنسگرایان و... داشته.
.
بجز چند ارجاع کوتاه و مثالی، حرفی درباره اسلام و مسلمانان نزده ولی مفاهیمی داره که خیلی جاها بنیادیتر از ادیان مختلفه و برخی هم میتونه برای متفکر و منتقد فمینیست در سنت اسلامی ایدهدهنده باشه.
چرا ۴ امتیاز دادم؟
چون در دو فصل از کتاب احساس کردم سیر بحث رو نمیتونم دنبال کنم و مثلا وسط بحث میفهمیدم مسیر فکری اون فصل چی بوده و چرا و چگونه.
و بعد خودش توضیحاتی میده با این مفهوم که آزادی، انسان شدن و فراتر از ساختار جنسیتنگر زيستن زمانی رخ میده که این عمل آینهای از بین بره و...
.
همونطور که از بخشی از عنوان کتاب "خدای پدر" مشخصه، کتاب درباره نقش باورهای دینی و ساختارهای جنسیتنگر دین (مشخصا سنت مسیحی_یهودی) در ظلم سیستماتیک و تاریخی به زنان (و در راستای اون سایر طبقات فرودست) هست.
.
در مقدمه روش و هدفش رو توضیح میده.
بصورت خلاصه هدف مری دیلی در این کتاب بیرون رفتن از چهارچوب دنیای مردسالارانه و جنسیتنگر و فهم تجربهی زنان در دنیای مجزا و دستیابی و طرح چهارچوبی جدید و فراجنسیتی است.
در سه فصل اول سه باور مهم مسیحیت (خدای پدر، داستان آفرینش، مسیح -پسر خدا- و الگویی برا همیشه) رو مطرح میکنه، نقد میکنه و نقششون در فرودستی زنان و ساختار جنسیتنگر کلیسا و سنت مردسالار رو توضیح میده.
در هر فصل همچنین ایده و نظرات ایجابی خودش و احیانا رهاوردی که هر کدام ازین مفاهیم و داستانها میتوانند برای ما داشته باشند رو بیان میکنه.
.
فصل چهارم در خصوص اخلاق هست، اخلاق قضیبی(اخلاق مردسالارانه و مسیحی) رو نقد و در مقابل اخلاق فمینیستی رو بعنوان یک جایگزین مطلوب مطرح میکنه.
.
در فصل پنجم و ششم در خصوص چیستی و لزوم پیوند خواهری میان زنان صحبت میکنه و از ضدیت کلیسا (نهادهای مردسالارانه) با اون میگه. و در خصوص اون میثاق همگانی و خواهری، از آزادی مردان و پیوستنشون به این میثاق، توجه به طبیعت و ... هم صحبت میکنه.
.
در فصل آخر هم از علیت غایی و نقشش در شکلگیری این سنت ایستا و بدون تغییر مردسالار حرف میزنه و اینکه چگونه آیندهنگری میتونه و باید خلاق و آزادیبخش باشه.
.
چنتا نکته مهم در خصوص نویسنده که جدا از فصلها باید بهش بپردازم اینه که اولا، مری دیلی یک فمینیست رادیکال بوده و بارها در متن به انقلاب فمینیستی اشاره میکنه و تاکید میکنه مثلا فلان چیز خیلی مهمه ولی هدف نهایی ما نیست یا نباید با انقلاب فمینیستی اشتباه گرفته بشه. دوم اینکه همونطور که در متن کتاب هم مشخصه فردی علاقهمند به محیط زیست و حفظ حیات کره زمین و... بوده و این در آیندهنگری و ایدهای که درباره جهان غیرجنسیتنگر داره هم مشخصه. سوم اینکه در این کتاب خیلی کم به همجنسگرایان پرداخته چون موضوع بررسیش نیستن ولی در زمان خودش نوشتهها و فعالیتهایی برای حقوق تغییر جنسیت دادهها و همجنسگرایان و... داشته.
.
بجز چند ارجاع کوتاه و مثالی، حرفی درباره اسلام و مسلمانان نزده ولی مفاهیمی داره که خیلی جاها بنیادیتر از ادیان مختلفه و برخی هم میتونه برای متفکر و منتقد فمینیست در سنت اسلامی ایدهدهنده باشه.
چرا ۴ امتیاز دادم؟
چون در دو فصل از کتاب احساس کردم سیر بحث رو نمیتونم دنبال کنم و مثلا وسط بحث میفهمیدم مسیر فکری اون فصل چی بوده و چرا و چگونه.
July 28, 2011
My favorite theology book. Actually, my favorite book period.
July 21, 2020
Au delà de Dieu le Père, de Mary Daly est une théologie post-chrétienne de libération de la femme, appelé aussi "féminisme radical".
Commençons par les compliments: c'est une philosophe extrêmement douée, avec une bonne érudition, une réthorique féroce et efficace. A l'aide d'outils thomistes, nietzchéens et existentialistes, elle dessine une théologie presque complète pour le féminisme faisant de la Femme "Be-ing" le Dieu, le Christ et l'Eglise de sa philosophie. Elle est extrêment cohérente du début à la fin.
Bien évidemment, en tant que mâle chrétien orthodoxe, je suis typiquement le "sale porc phallocrate" qu'elle dénonce, et à mes yeux ses idées sont purement et simplement démoniaques. En un sens, elle n'essaie même pas de cacher que "la révolutions des femmes est un antichrist." Née, éduquée et ayant fait ses études dans la tradition catholiques, Mary Daly renverse très méthodiquement le christianisme traditionnel pour faire sa philosophie féministe, et à ce titre mérite pleinement le titre de "post-chrétien". Elle se montre aussi critique des tentatives de réconciliation de la religion chrétienne traditionnelle avec la cause féministe, et de ce point de vue je l'ai trouvé très utile. Que le lecteur soit averti cependant: cette philosophe est très douée pour défendre ses idées.
Commençons par les compliments: c'est une philosophe extrêmement douée, avec une bonne érudition, une réthorique féroce et efficace. A l'aide d'outils thomistes, nietzchéens et existentialistes, elle dessine une théologie presque complète pour le féminisme faisant de la Femme "Be-ing" le Dieu, le Christ et l'Eglise de sa philosophie. Elle est extrêment cohérente du début à la fin.
Bien évidemment, en tant que mâle chrétien orthodoxe, je suis typiquement le "sale porc phallocrate" qu'elle dénonce, et à mes yeux ses idées sont purement et simplement démoniaques. En un sens, elle n'essaie même pas de cacher que "la révolutions des femmes est un antichrist." Née, éduquée et ayant fait ses études dans la tradition catholiques, Mary Daly renverse très méthodiquement le christianisme traditionnel pour faire sa philosophie féministe, et à ce titre mérite pleinement le titre de "post-chrétien". Elle se montre aussi critique des tentatives de réconciliation de la religion chrétienne traditionnelle avec la cause féministe, et de ce point de vue je l'ai trouvé très utile. Que le lecteur soit averti cependant: cette philosophe est très douée pour défendre ses idées.
September 1, 2010
I wish I had taken notes on this book as I went through it because there are definitely plenty of things to talk about once you finish this.
Having met her a year or two before she died, I knew it was a once in a life time chance to see her speak and pick up a book. Most of my friends picked up her last book, but I was far more interested in this one dealing with religion... and I'm glad I picked it up and got it signed.
There were plenty if things that were eye opening and there were plenty of things I wholeheartedly disagreed with, but I think that's what makes philosophy interesting.
There were some pretty dense spots and others were a quick read. If you can put your mind to it, then I think it is worth the read. The last section in her conclusion I thought was particularly strong, powerful, and emotional. It was a fantastic conclusion.
Having met her a year or two before she died, I knew it was a once in a life time chance to see her speak and pick up a book. Most of my friends picked up her last book, but I was far more interested in this one dealing with religion... and I'm glad I picked it up and got it signed.
There were plenty if things that were eye opening and there were plenty of things I wholeheartedly disagreed with, but I think that's what makes philosophy interesting.
There were some pretty dense spots and others were a quick read. If you can put your mind to it, then I think it is worth the read. The last section in her conclusion I thought was particularly strong, powerful, and emotional. It was a fantastic conclusion.
August 14, 2015
*2.5 stars*
I had a difficult time rating this book. Daly makes some intriguing insights, but also often throws the proverbial baby out with the bathwater.
I'm glad to have read her book (i.e., she wraps up one on-going conversation in just 3 sentences) but I'm also curious as to what conclusions later feminist scholars have reached, on the place of the church especially.
I had a difficult time rating this book. Daly makes some intriguing insights, but also often throws the proverbial baby out with the bathwater.
I'm glad to have read her book (i.e., she wraps up one on-going conversation in just 3 sentences) but I'm also curious as to what conclusions later feminist scholars have reached, on the place of the church especially.
December 28, 2010
this lady is out of her mind crazy fun!
Read
May 5, 2013great book i wish all my friends reading this book before three years ago i read it all and i like it much <3
October 3, 2014
It takes a lot to blow my mind. My mind was blown and I was changed after reading this.
October 16, 2021
Mary Daly is a genius, though certainly commits the typical sins of our TERF mothers. I’ll address some of those sins first and then get into the good stuff.
As Mary Daly puts it, “It is rapism that has spawned racism. It is gynocide that gives rise to genocide.” For Daly, because sexism is the first and most universal “-ism”, it takes absolute priority. All other revolutionary movements (black liberation, pacifism, Marxism, etc. are superficial because they don’t address sex and therefore stand for only half of humanity at best.
In her attempts to acknowledge black feminism, she highlights the work of Pauli Murray and Angela Davis, but she can’t seem to acknowledge the role of white women in perpetuating racism:
“In the South, Negro women are sexually exploited by white men. Black men have often raped white women in revenge for their own degradation. Yet it was not women who brought slaves to America. Women have been pawns in the racial struggle…”
Daly wants to have her cake and eat it too. She’s not wrong that black liberation that ignores gender or worse, argues for black male supremacy, isn’t enough for black women. But she fails to acknowledge the insufficiency of the radical feminist movement to fully address problems like race. She presumes that once sexism is fixed, everything else will be fixed too because the root of “the Other” is, and only is, sexism.
How much better could Daly have been with a better understanding of intersectionality?
Daly envisions a future that is non-binary and pansexual:
“The categories of heterosexuality and homosexuality are patriarchal classifications. …doctrinaire insistence upon exclusive homosexuality…is not radical enough, for…it lends support to the notion that is *does* matter what the sex of your partner may be.”
“By becoming whole persons” women (and consequently men challenge “the artificial polarization of human characteristics into sex-role identification… The becoming of androgynous human persons implies a radical change in the fabric of human consciousness and in styles of human behavior.”
However, it should be clear in 2021, nearly 50 years after the book was written, that the growing visibility and acceptance (both self-acceptance and societal acceptance) of trans people is changing the fabric of human consciousness with relation to gender and sex in a radical way that a trans-exclusionary movement never could. The pioneering of non-binary identities (est at 1.2 million in the US this year) and increasing prevalence of pansexuality/bisexuality speak to this point. It is the utter rejection of sexual roles assigned at birth that both Mary Daly and trans activists are pushing for.
Intersectionality is the missing piece of the puzzle in Mary Daly’s diagnosis of what is wrong with society. By integrating Daly’s best insights with the insights of more recent feminists, especially in regards to intersectionality and trans liberation, a higher form of radical feminism can start to emerge. So what are those insights that are worth keeping?
It’s hard to do Daly justice in the space of a review. Her categorization as a “feminist philosopher” and therefore exclusion from Philosophy proper is a real shame. Her analysis is not just political (or even mostly political); it is theological, metaphysical, ontological. Daly is not interested in questions of voting rights or abortion (except as a practical example of her deeper point); she is interested in the ontological implications of sisterhood, alienation, nonbeing and Be-ing. She engages with thinkers as diverse as Aristotle, Aquinas, Augustine, Bachofen, Bacon, Berger, Berrigan, Bonhoeffer, Camus, de Beauvoir, Descartes, Eliade, Jung, Kant, Leibnitz, Marcuse, Metz, Mill, Moltmann, Nietzsche, Pannenberg, Roszak, Spinoza, Szasz, Teilhard de Chardin, Tillich, Weber, and Whitehead, to name just a few (seriously). Her style is continental and poetic but her analysis is rigorous. Her insights transcend the dichotomy between detached “armchair” theory and practical prescription.
Her insights are far more individualist than one might expect to find in feminist philosophy. It is precisely this aspect of her worldview that feels the most important today, in a society obsessed with propping up a false dichotomy between freedom/autonomy/individualism and community/sisterhood/love.
“I suggest that if one wishes to speak adequately of “convergence” then this has to have as a basic element in its meaning a coming together and harmonizing of *traits within individual human psyches* that have been split apart and objectified by sex role socialization. This fundamental convergence, or unity, or individuation will mean increasing human potential for participation in society as unique, diverse individuals. It will mean “divergence.””
She highlights the importance of community in achieving our full potential *as individuals.*
“The bonding phenomenon among women, expressed by the word “sisterhood,” is… essential to the battle against false consciousness…To oppose the essential lovelessness of the sexually hierarchical society is the radically loving act. Seen for what it is, the struggle for justice opens the way to a situation in which more genuinely loving relationships are possible.”
“…the women’s revolution is a communal phenomenon…a collective refusal to be “the Other.””
She criticizes the “pseudo-feminine” passive ethic of self-sacrifice, humility, meekness, and obedience that serve the interests of the oppressor at the expense of the oppressed, especially women, who should instead prioritize values like pride and self-esteem, and creativity. This is perhaps a loaded comparison, but it’s hard not to think of Ayn Rand here (and wonder whether she would have changed her views on feminism if she had encountered Mary Daly).
Daly acknowledges the transitional nature of her place and time and leaves her philosophy open to further development and evolution. The Possible is still obscured by the oppressive structures of the Now, but we can start to live on the boundary. In this sense, Daly has a sort of courageous humility in her approach. She is not prescriptive. She diagnoses the present, and through this diagnoses, she opens up ways to an unknown future for which there is no existing model.
“[The feminist movement] is the catalyst that enables women and men to break out of the prison of self-destructive dichotomies perpetuated by the institutional fathers… *this* movement *is* movement. Realization of this is already the beginning of a qualitative leap in be-ing. For the philosophers of senescence “the final cause” is in technical reason; it is the Father’s plan, an endless flow of Xerox copies of the past. But the final cause that *is movement* is in our imaginative-cerebral-emotional-active-creative being.”
It is the transcendent nature of Daly’s philosophy that renders her aforementioned sins less relevant, (and makes this an unapologetically 5-star review), because her real insights into human nature and human possibility are so integrable into a worldview that *is* properly trans-inclusive and intersectional.
“Participation in Be-ing is the final cause, and because this is “the end,” we can look forward to endless divergence.”
God, therefore, is not the Father. God is not a being. God is the Verb. God is Be-ing.
As Mary Daly puts it, “It is rapism that has spawned racism. It is gynocide that gives rise to genocide.” For Daly, because sexism is the first and most universal “-ism”, it takes absolute priority. All other revolutionary movements (black liberation, pacifism, Marxism, etc. are superficial because they don’t address sex and therefore stand for only half of humanity at best.
In her attempts to acknowledge black feminism, she highlights the work of Pauli Murray and Angela Davis, but she can’t seem to acknowledge the role of white women in perpetuating racism:
“In the South, Negro women are sexually exploited by white men. Black men have often raped white women in revenge for their own degradation. Yet it was not women who brought slaves to America. Women have been pawns in the racial struggle…”
Daly wants to have her cake and eat it too. She’s not wrong that black liberation that ignores gender or worse, argues for black male supremacy, isn’t enough for black women. But she fails to acknowledge the insufficiency of the radical feminist movement to fully address problems like race. She presumes that once sexism is fixed, everything else will be fixed too because the root of “the Other” is, and only is, sexism.
How much better could Daly have been with a better understanding of intersectionality?
Daly envisions a future that is non-binary and pansexual:
“The categories of heterosexuality and homosexuality are patriarchal classifications. …doctrinaire insistence upon exclusive homosexuality…is not radical enough, for…it lends support to the notion that is *does* matter what the sex of your partner may be.”
“By becoming whole persons” women (and consequently men challenge “the artificial polarization of human characteristics into sex-role identification… The becoming of androgynous human persons implies a radical change in the fabric of human consciousness and in styles of human behavior.”
However, it should be clear in 2021, nearly 50 years after the book was written, that the growing visibility and acceptance (both self-acceptance and societal acceptance) of trans people is changing the fabric of human consciousness with relation to gender and sex in a radical way that a trans-exclusionary movement never could. The pioneering of non-binary identities (est at 1.2 million in the US this year) and increasing prevalence of pansexuality/bisexuality speak to this point. It is the utter rejection of sexual roles assigned at birth that both Mary Daly and trans activists are pushing for.
Intersectionality is the missing piece of the puzzle in Mary Daly’s diagnosis of what is wrong with society. By integrating Daly’s best insights with the insights of more recent feminists, especially in regards to intersectionality and trans liberation, a higher form of radical feminism can start to emerge. So what are those insights that are worth keeping?
It’s hard to do Daly justice in the space of a review. Her categorization as a “feminist philosopher” and therefore exclusion from Philosophy proper is a real shame. Her analysis is not just political (or even mostly political); it is theological, metaphysical, ontological. Daly is not interested in questions of voting rights or abortion (except as a practical example of her deeper point); she is interested in the ontological implications of sisterhood, alienation, nonbeing and Be-ing. She engages with thinkers as diverse as Aristotle, Aquinas, Augustine, Bachofen, Bacon, Berger, Berrigan, Bonhoeffer, Camus, de Beauvoir, Descartes, Eliade, Jung, Kant, Leibnitz, Marcuse, Metz, Mill, Moltmann, Nietzsche, Pannenberg, Roszak, Spinoza, Szasz, Teilhard de Chardin, Tillich, Weber, and Whitehead, to name just a few (seriously). Her style is continental and poetic but her analysis is rigorous. Her insights transcend the dichotomy between detached “armchair” theory and practical prescription.
Her insights are far more individualist than one might expect to find in feminist philosophy. It is precisely this aspect of her worldview that feels the most important today, in a society obsessed with propping up a false dichotomy between freedom/autonomy/individualism and community/sisterhood/love.
“I suggest that if one wishes to speak adequately of “convergence” then this has to have as a basic element in its meaning a coming together and harmonizing of *traits within individual human psyches* that have been split apart and objectified by sex role socialization. This fundamental convergence, or unity, or individuation will mean increasing human potential for participation in society as unique, diverse individuals. It will mean “divergence.””
She highlights the importance of community in achieving our full potential *as individuals.*
“The bonding phenomenon among women, expressed by the word “sisterhood,” is… essential to the battle against false consciousness…To oppose the essential lovelessness of the sexually hierarchical society is the radically loving act. Seen for what it is, the struggle for justice opens the way to a situation in which more genuinely loving relationships are possible.”
“…the women’s revolution is a communal phenomenon…a collective refusal to be “the Other.””
She criticizes the “pseudo-feminine” passive ethic of self-sacrifice, humility, meekness, and obedience that serve the interests of the oppressor at the expense of the oppressed, especially women, who should instead prioritize values like pride and self-esteem, and creativity. This is perhaps a loaded comparison, but it’s hard not to think of Ayn Rand here (and wonder whether she would have changed her views on feminism if she had encountered Mary Daly).
Daly acknowledges the transitional nature of her place and time and leaves her philosophy open to further development and evolution. The Possible is still obscured by the oppressive structures of the Now, but we can start to live on the boundary. In this sense, Daly has a sort of courageous humility in her approach. She is not prescriptive. She diagnoses the present, and through this diagnoses, she opens up ways to an unknown future for which there is no existing model.
“[The feminist movement] is the catalyst that enables women and men to break out of the prison of self-destructive dichotomies perpetuated by the institutional fathers… *this* movement *is* movement. Realization of this is already the beginning of a qualitative leap in be-ing. For the philosophers of senescence “the final cause” is in technical reason; it is the Father’s plan, an endless flow of Xerox copies of the past. But the final cause that *is movement* is in our imaginative-cerebral-emotional-active-creative being.”
It is the transcendent nature of Daly’s philosophy that renders her aforementioned sins less relevant, (and makes this an unapologetically 5-star review), because her real insights into human nature and human possibility are so integrable into a worldview that *is* properly trans-inclusive and intersectional.
“Participation in Be-ing is the final cause, and because this is “the end,” we can look forward to endless divergence.”
God, therefore, is not the Father. God is not a being. God is the Verb. God is Be-ing.
March 15, 2020
"By making God man, we make man God"
January 9, 2023
I read this back when it came out. It was revolutionary then. I'm not at all interested in theism of any stripe, so I won't be re-reading, but I am curious about how it held up.
October 17, 2014
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Read this and reviews of other classics in Western Philosophy on the History page of www.BestPhilosophyBooks.org (a thinkPhilosophy Production).
---
Mary Daly, radical feminist philosopher and theologist, has been a controversial figure both inside and outside of feminist philosophy. Nonetheless, she has inspired countless women to think deeply about spirituality and the link between spirituality, sexuality, and gender based oppressions. In Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation, Daly offers a hereto unparalleled critique of Christianity that takes the religion back to its pagan roots and the spiritual practices based in women’s reproductive powers. The following review from an Amazon reader well sums up the text and the power it effects:
Written in an accessible but lyrical style, Beyond God the Father should not be missed. Readers as diverse as those interested in theology, the history of Christianity, radical feminist thought, and paganism will get a lot out of this book, even if it will likely be a shock to their system.
---
Read this and reviews of other classics in Western Philosophy on the History page of www.BestPhilosophyBooks.org (a thinkPhilosophy Production).
---
Read this and reviews of other classics in Western Philosophy on the History page of www.BestPhilosophyBooks.org (a thinkPhilosophy Production).
---
Mary Daly, radical feminist philosopher and theologist, has been a controversial figure both inside and outside of feminist philosophy. Nonetheless, she has inspired countless women to think deeply about spirituality and the link between spirituality, sexuality, and gender based oppressions. In Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation, Daly offers a hereto unparalleled critique of Christianity that takes the religion back to its pagan roots and the spiritual practices based in women’s reproductive powers. The following review from an Amazon reader well sums up the text and the power it effects:
“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!” — Chrissy the Stooges Woman, Amazon Reader Review
Written in an accessible but lyrical style, Beyond God the Father should not be missed. Readers as diverse as those interested in theology, the history of Christianity, radical feminist thought, and paganism will get a lot out of this book, even if it will likely be a shock to their system.
---
Read this and reviews of other classics in Western Philosophy on the History page of www.BestPhilosophyBooks.org (a thinkPhilosophy Production).
---
September 24, 2012
I won't claim to have finished this, but did become reasonably acquainted with the contents. This is a historic (early 1970s)feminist look at theology. Strong statements reflect the passion of those times insisting that everyone, but women in particular, question the words they use and the actions they live by as they think about God, about culture and society, and ourselves. This is an author who emphasizes words by capitalizing, underlining, separating, etc. so there is strong notation included. She suggests we have been fed a certain way to think and we need to wake up. This book made a big impact when first published. It is interesting that only recently are we beginning to see some of the changes she suggests are in order: female pastors, openly gay relationships in church, and more. Thought provoking. This is dense, heavy academic reading.
August 8, 2021
Is the second time I read this book, I must say that I think I wasn´t prepare the first time, and I did not appreciated the value and power of this work. Is a very important work in order to create a new philosophy of feminist trascendance, and many (if not all) the points Mary gave are still very contemporary.
November 8, 2015
Deeply thought-provoking. She begins from the assumption that theology itself, and the Church itself, are corrupted by misogyny not only in form but also in principle. From there, she makes a full critique and describes her vision of a way forward, out of patriarchal religion.
September 24, 2007
Very radical feminism, to the point of enchanting the reader with the outrageousness of her artful wit!
February 5, 2008
I must say that as a re-read I'm enjoying this more the second time around. Interesting perspective that Daly creates.
September 19, 2013
While stimulating, I think that Mary Daly's views are hard to translate into practice.
March 1, 2026
life changing.
April 13, 2022
I’ll start by saying I am aware of the author’s negative views on transgender people, but I don’t think reading an author should mean one necessarily agrees with everything they think. I am a firm believer that there’s something to learn from everything, and I think it’s counterproductive to cancel a dead person anyway, especially when I picked up this book used for $3.
That being said, I did get a lot out of this book, and it definitely challenged me more than most of what I read. I am not in the habit of reading philosophy, so it was very hard to understand. I would take a few tries to understand a sentence, then a paragraph, and then have an aha! moment when I finally get what she was trying to convey. I really enjoyed engaging with the text actively this way; it felt like being back in school! But despite the many good points Daly made, I had trouble figuring out how they would tie back into the rest of the book, and I’m not exactly sure what the thesis was. The full title is Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation, but the whole thing is approached very theologically, so it seemed to be sort of an effort to establish a new feminist theology, which would in turn transform our own ontology because…?
The best part about Beyond God the Father is that unlike most books of theory, it spends most of its time proposing solutions, instead of simply describing problems. Even if these solutions are discussed in an extremely vague sense, it’s better than the theorists who only complain. It gave me a lot to think about, especially on language — Daly calls it the “castrating of language” — reminding me of Monique Wittig’s Les Guérillères. Everything Daly proposes does seem to be within the context of those who are already some form of religious/spiritual, because nonbeing is apparently existentially terrifying, whereas most atheists I know have already confronted that idea and find it comforting. She makes a lot of criticisms within a Christian framework while claiming to reject that very thing, for example calling things she doesn’t like “idolatry”. Is this short-sighted, or is it a clever rhetorical tool to bring over dissenters?
While a minor part of the book itself, the most glaring issue it had was in its discussion of race. Daly, like other second-wave feminists, draws comparisons between women’s liberation and black liberation, but unlike porto-intersectional feminists like Andrea Dworkin, certain biases are not addressed. Why exactly is a black god less revolutionary than a female god? What makes misogyny “the root and paradigm of various forms of oppression”? I agree that liberal feminists often outright ignore the existence of misogyny, and that it is a throughline to basically everything, but to not back up why it’s the origin of racism seems a very self-centered white way of thinking. Daly discusses minority mens’ capacity to perpetuate misogyny, but does not find it within herself to discuss the opposite, which Dworkin does extensively in Right Wing Women. Perhaps this is a question of authorship — Dworkin was jewish so she knew why true intersectional thinking is necessary. Daly’s most absurd assertion about race was that “it was not the women who brought slaves to America. Women have been pawns in the racial struggle.”
Despite this book’s (and the author’s) shortcomings, the thesis that women’s liberation is going to help human nature as a whole is very inspiring and smart. I respect any book that makes me reflect and self-reflect this much, and would recommend it if you’re interested in a point-of-view that’s not often heard from.
That being said, I did get a lot out of this book, and it definitely challenged me more than most of what I read. I am not in the habit of reading philosophy, so it was very hard to understand. I would take a few tries to understand a sentence, then a paragraph, and then have an aha! moment when I finally get what she was trying to convey. I really enjoyed engaging with the text actively this way; it felt like being back in school! But despite the many good points Daly made, I had trouble figuring out how they would tie back into the rest of the book, and I’m not exactly sure what the thesis was. The full title is Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation, but the whole thing is approached very theologically, so it seemed to be sort of an effort to establish a new feminist theology, which would in turn transform our own ontology because…?
The best part about Beyond God the Father is that unlike most books of theory, it spends most of its time proposing solutions, instead of simply describing problems. Even if these solutions are discussed in an extremely vague sense, it’s better than the theorists who only complain. It gave me a lot to think about, especially on language — Daly calls it the “castrating of language” — reminding me of Monique Wittig’s Les Guérillères. Everything Daly proposes does seem to be within the context of those who are already some form of religious/spiritual, because nonbeing is apparently existentially terrifying, whereas most atheists I know have already confronted that idea and find it comforting. She makes a lot of criticisms within a Christian framework while claiming to reject that very thing, for example calling things she doesn’t like “idolatry”. Is this short-sighted, or is it a clever rhetorical tool to bring over dissenters?
While a minor part of the book itself, the most glaring issue it had was in its discussion of race. Daly, like other second-wave feminists, draws comparisons between women’s liberation and black liberation, but unlike porto-intersectional feminists like Andrea Dworkin, certain biases are not addressed. Why exactly is a black god less revolutionary than a female god? What makes misogyny “the root and paradigm of various forms of oppression”? I agree that liberal feminists often outright ignore the existence of misogyny, and that it is a throughline to basically everything, but to not back up why it’s the origin of racism seems a very self-centered white way of thinking. Daly discusses minority mens’ capacity to perpetuate misogyny, but does not find it within herself to discuss the opposite, which Dworkin does extensively in Right Wing Women. Perhaps this is a question of authorship — Dworkin was jewish so she knew why true intersectional thinking is necessary. Daly’s most absurd assertion about race was that “it was not the women who brought slaves to America. Women have been pawns in the racial struggle.”
Despite this book’s (and the author’s) shortcomings, the thesis that women’s liberation is going to help human nature as a whole is very inspiring and smart. I respect any book that makes me reflect and self-reflect this much, and would recommend it if you’re interested in a point-of-view that’s not often heard from.
June 27, 2025
HER ‘SEQUEL’ TO HER FIRST BOOK… THAT GOES FAR BEYOND…
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 Women's Studies courses.
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… just before the contemporary tide of women’s liberation writings burst forth. The earlier book manifested some of the anger and ebullient hope that characterized the period immediately following the Second Vatican Council… the same anger and the same hope are the wellsprings of this book, but… 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… For women involved in liberation, these have been years of intense living ‘on the boundary’---a veritable full generation of change measured by the accelerated time flow of this age.” (Pg. xi)
She continues in the Introduction, “Exclusively masculine symbolism for God, for the notion of the divine ‘incarnation’ in human nature, and for the human relationship to God reinforce sexual hierarchy… The entire conceptual systems of theology and ethics, developed under the conditions of patriarchy, have been the products of males and tend to serve the interests of sexist society.’ (Pg. 4)
She observes, “There are many devices available to both women and men for refusing to see the problem of sexual caste. One way is ‘trivialization.’ One is asked, ‘Are you on that subject of women again when there are so many important problems---like war, racism, pollution… Another related method of refusing to see is ‘spiritualization’… a refusal to look at concrete oppressive facts… Finally, some people, especially academics, attempt to make the problem disappear by ‘universalization.’ One frequently hears: ‘But isn’t the real problem HUMAN liberation?’” (Pg. 4-5)
She explains, “if the word ‘theology’ can be torn free from its usual limited and limiting context… then my book can be called an effort to create theology as well as philosophy. For my purpose is to show that the women’s revolution… is an ontological spiritual revolution, pointing beyond the idolatries of sexist society and sparking creative action in and toward transcendence. The becoming of women implies universal human becoming. It has everything to do with the search for ultimate meaning and reality, which some would call God.” (Pg. 6)
She notes, “it is necessary to grasp that 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. The old naming was not the product of dialogue---a fact inadvertently admitted in the Genesis story of Adam’s naming the animals and the woman. Women are now realizing that the universal imposing of names by men has been false because partial… To exist humanly is to name the self, the world, and God.” (Pg. 8)
She acknowledges, “It is true that [Paul] Tillich TRIES to avoid hypostatization of ‘God]… and that his manner of speaking about the ground and power of being would be difficult to use for the legitimation of any sort of oppression. However, the specific relevance of ‘power of being’ to the fact of sexual oppression is not indicated.” (Pg. 20-21)
She suggests, “The new wave of feminism desperately needs to be not only many-faceted but cosmic and ultimately religious in its vision. This means reaching outward and inward toward the God beyond and beneath the gods who have stolen our identity.” (Pg. 29)
She explains, “a basic thesis of this book is that creative eschatology must come by way of the disenfranchised sex. What I am proposing is that the emergence of the communal vocational self-awareness of women is a creative political ‘ontophany’. It is a manifestation of the sacred (hierophany) precisely because it is an experience of participation in being, and therefore a manifestation of being (ontophany).” (Pg. 34-35)
She proposes, “Instead of settling for being a warped half of a person… the emerging woman is casting off role definitions and moving toward androgynous being. 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 women.” (Pg. 41)
She asserts, “In a real sense the projection of guilt upon women IS patriarchy’s Fall, the primordial life. Together with its offspring---the theology of ‘original sin’---the myth reveals the ‘Fall’ of religion into the role of patriarchy’s prostitute.’ (Pg. 47)
She states that ‘prostitutes … have been allotted the privilege of serving as venereal safety valves for men… The existence of ‘good’ women---according to male standards of being unmolested private property---has required the existence of ‘bad’ women, who have been scapegoats for male sexual guilt.” (Pg. 61)
She points out, “refusal to recognize the evident fact that the ‘particularity’ of Jesus’ maleness has not functioned in the same way as the ‘particularity’ of his Semitic identity… Non-Semites… have not been universally excluded from the priesthood on the basis that they do not belong to the same ethnic group as Jesus. By contrast, the universal exclusion of women from the priesthood… has been justified on this basis. The functioning of the Christ image in Christianity to legitimate sexual hierarchy has frequently been blatant.” (Pg. 79)
She notes that “Catholicism has offered women compensatory and reflected glory through identification with Mary. The inimitability of the Virgin-Mother model … has left all women essentially identified with Eve. At the same time, it has served to separate the ‘feminine’ ideal of good from the active role attributed to Jesus.” (Pg. 81) Later, she adds, “The image of Mary as virgin, however, has an (unintended) aspect of pointing toward independence for women.” (Pg. 84)
She asserts, “from this perspective the Antichrist and the Second Coming of women are synonymous. The Second Coming is not a return of Christ but a new arrival of female presence, once strong and powerful, but enchained since the dawn of patriarchy… The Second Coming, then, means that the prophetic dimension in the symbol of the Great Goddess---later reduced to the ‘Mother of God’---is the key to salvation from servitude to structure that obstruct human becoming.” (Pg. 96)
She observes, “Women are beginning to be able to say this because of our conspiracy---our breathing together. It is being said… in the manner of OUTLAWS---which is exactly what radical feminists are. It is being said in the diverse words of our lives, which are just now being spoken. (Pg. 131)
She says, “The covenant is the DEEP AGREEMENT that is present within the self and among selves who are increasingly in harmony with an environment that is beyond, beneath, and all around the nonenvironment of patriarchal splits and barriers… ‘Covenant’ has always been bound up with language. Sisterhood as cosmic covenant means beginning to re-name the cosmos.” (Pg. 159)
She adds, “the covenant embraces our sister the earth and all of her nonhuman inhabitants and elements… This means that we will look upon the earth and her sister planets as being WITH us, not FOR us. One does not rape a sister.” (Pg. 178)
Daly more or less abandoned ‘theology’ after this book, in favor of her own unique and creative ‘Radical Feminism.’
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 Women's Studies courses.
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… just before the contemporary tide of women’s liberation writings burst forth. The earlier book manifested some of the anger and ebullient hope that characterized the period immediately following the Second Vatican Council… the same anger and the same hope are the wellsprings of this book, but… 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… For women involved in liberation, these have been years of intense living ‘on the boundary’---a veritable full generation of change measured by the accelerated time flow of this age.” (Pg. xi)
She continues in the Introduction, “Exclusively masculine symbolism for God, for the notion of the divine ‘incarnation’ in human nature, and for the human relationship to God reinforce sexual hierarchy… The entire conceptual systems of theology and ethics, developed under the conditions of patriarchy, have been the products of males and tend to serve the interests of sexist society.’ (Pg. 4)
She observes, “There are many devices available to both women and men for refusing to see the problem of sexual caste. One way is ‘trivialization.’ One is asked, ‘Are you on that subject of women again when there are so many important problems---like war, racism, pollution… Another related method of refusing to see is ‘spiritualization’… a refusal to look at concrete oppressive facts… Finally, some people, especially academics, attempt to make the problem disappear by ‘universalization.’ One frequently hears: ‘But isn’t the real problem HUMAN liberation?’” (Pg. 4-5)
She explains, “if the word ‘theology’ can be torn free from its usual limited and limiting context… then my book can be called an effort to create theology as well as philosophy. For my purpose is to show that the women’s revolution… is an ontological spiritual revolution, pointing beyond the idolatries of sexist society and sparking creative action in and toward transcendence. The becoming of women implies universal human becoming. It has everything to do with the search for ultimate meaning and reality, which some would call God.” (Pg. 6)
She notes, “it is necessary to grasp that 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. The old naming was not the product of dialogue---a fact inadvertently admitted in the Genesis story of Adam’s naming the animals and the woman. Women are now realizing that the universal imposing of names by men has been false because partial… To exist humanly is to name the self, the world, and God.” (Pg. 8)
She acknowledges, “It is true that [Paul] Tillich TRIES to avoid hypostatization of ‘God]… and that his manner of speaking about the ground and power of being would be difficult to use for the legitimation of any sort of oppression. However, the specific relevance of ‘power of being’ to the fact of sexual oppression is not indicated.” (Pg. 20-21)
She suggests, “The new wave of feminism desperately needs to be not only many-faceted but cosmic and ultimately religious in its vision. This means reaching outward and inward toward the God beyond and beneath the gods who have stolen our identity.” (Pg. 29)
She explains, “a basic thesis of this book is that creative eschatology must come by way of the disenfranchised sex. What I am proposing is that the emergence of the communal vocational self-awareness of women is a creative political ‘ontophany’. It is a manifestation of the sacred (hierophany) precisely because it is an experience of participation in being, and therefore a manifestation of being (ontophany).” (Pg. 34-35)
She proposes, “Instead of settling for being a warped half of a person… the emerging woman is casting off role definitions and moving toward androgynous being. 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 women.” (Pg. 41)
She asserts, “In a real sense the projection of guilt upon women IS patriarchy’s Fall, the primordial life. Together with its offspring---the theology of ‘original sin’---the myth reveals the ‘Fall’ of religion into the role of patriarchy’s prostitute.’ (Pg. 47)
She states that ‘prostitutes … have been allotted the privilege of serving as venereal safety valves for men… The existence of ‘good’ women---according to male standards of being unmolested private property---has required the existence of ‘bad’ women, who have been scapegoats for male sexual guilt.” (Pg. 61)
She points out, “refusal to recognize the evident fact that the ‘particularity’ of Jesus’ maleness has not functioned in the same way as the ‘particularity’ of his Semitic identity… Non-Semites… have not been universally excluded from the priesthood on the basis that they do not belong to the same ethnic group as Jesus. By contrast, the universal exclusion of women from the priesthood… has been justified on this basis. The functioning of the Christ image in Christianity to legitimate sexual hierarchy has frequently been blatant.” (Pg. 79)
She notes that “Catholicism has offered women compensatory and reflected glory through identification with Mary. The inimitability of the Virgin-Mother model … has left all women essentially identified with Eve. At the same time, it has served to separate the ‘feminine’ ideal of good from the active role attributed to Jesus.” (Pg. 81) Later, she adds, “The image of Mary as virgin, however, has an (unintended) aspect of pointing toward independence for women.” (Pg. 84)
She asserts, “from this perspective the Antichrist and the Second Coming of women are synonymous. The Second Coming is not a return of Christ but a new arrival of female presence, once strong and powerful, but enchained since the dawn of patriarchy… The Second Coming, then, means that the prophetic dimension in the symbol of the Great Goddess---later reduced to the ‘Mother of God’---is the key to salvation from servitude to structure that obstruct human becoming.” (Pg. 96)
She observes, “Women are beginning to be able to say this because of our conspiracy---our breathing together. It is being said… in the manner of OUTLAWS---which is exactly what radical feminists are. It is being said in the diverse words of our lives, which are just now being spoken. (Pg. 131)
She says, “The covenant is the DEEP AGREEMENT that is present within the self and among selves who are increasingly in harmony with an environment that is beyond, beneath, and all around the nonenvironment of patriarchal splits and barriers… ‘Covenant’ has always been bound up with language. Sisterhood as cosmic covenant means beginning to re-name the cosmos.” (Pg. 159)
She adds, “the covenant embraces our sister the earth and all of her nonhuman inhabitants and elements… This means that we will look upon the earth and her sister planets as being WITH us, not FOR us. One does not rape a sister.” (Pg. 178)
Daly more or less abandoned ‘theology’ after this book, in favor of her own unique and creative ‘Radical Feminism.’
March 28, 2021
For so many years there have been 3 Mary Daly titles on my bookshelf I've kept as little treasures without more than a cursory knowledge of what was inside. Isn't that odd? I guess it was difficult at first for me, the woman with a thousand urgent distractions, to find a method of aiming my entire attention at her rather scholarly writing. And that, my friend, was the absolutely necessary piece. It took several months for me to get through Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation reading it aloud in the bathroom where no one could completely interrupt me, but oh was it worth it. She has a powerful way of uniting strains of half comprehended fragments of information my brain has collected over the years into something cohesive that actually makes sense. Highly recommended.
March 23, 2018
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This book features some truly one-of-a-kind, refreshingly upending theological ideas...and an unsettling amount of transmisogyny and racism. Mary Daly was indomitable in her thought, for better in her dealings with the church and other institutions throughout her life, and for worse in terms of who she included in her fold. You will find yourself uncomfortable in ways you never knew you needed and in ways you definitely did not. On this note, some of her recurring key words may inspire one to roll their eyes, but a generous reader will blame at least half of that on the time. In the end, a worthwhile text for students of religious and/or gender studies or those interested, but to be read with several grains of salt. In fact, take some lemon and tequila with you, too.
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This book features some truly one-of-a-kind, refreshingly upending theological ideas...and an unsettling amount of transmisogyny and racism. Mary Daly was indomitable in her thought, for better in her dealings with the church and other institutions throughout her life, and for worse in terms of who she included in her fold. You will find yourself uncomfortable in ways you never knew you needed and in ways you definitely did not. On this note, some of her recurring key words may inspire one to roll their eyes, but a generous reader will blame at least half of that on the time. In the end, a worthwhile text for students of religious and/or gender studies or those interested, but to be read with several grains of salt. In fact, take some lemon and tequila with you, too.
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