Communities of Celebration and Resistance: Rosemary Radford Ruether’s Integrative Model of Transformation

Abstract

Most scholarship on Rosemary Radford Ruether, one of the most significant Catholic theologians and feminist scholars of the contemporary era, focuses on her theology and critical analysis. However, Ruether also developed a comprehensive, ecologically-oriented model of social, economic, and political transformation—what she calls an “integrative feminist vision of society.” Written less than a year after her death, this paper illuminates Ruether’s under-treated yet invaluable constructive vision of liberative communities, in which domination is replaced by interdependence, mutuality, and ecological kinship. Ruether argues that we can begin to transform society by building “base communities of celebration and resistance”—local communities that integrate land, labor, and daily living, and can include work collectives, assemblies for participatory decision-making, and groups with shared spiritual practices. Ruether envisions a “mosaic” of local groups and mutual aid networks that can join in larger coalitions of solidarity for structural political action, and are held together in a common commitment to holistic liberation. This paper synthesizes Ruether’s model, elucidates her theory of change, and explores its implications for ecclesial transformation. It also offers starting points for reflection and action, and a look into how Ruether’s vision is already being lived in communities today. Ultimately, this paper argues that Ruether’s constructive model is relevant, needed, and usable, particularly for Catholics, eco-communitarians, progressive advocates, and young people today who seek an inter-structural liberatory project. This paper also argues that Ruether’s vision entails new ways of being-as-church, and that we can and should (and in many instances, already do) take up Ruether’s call to create communities of celebration and resistance.