Giving new insight into Catholic feminism and theology today, Associate Professor of Religious Studies Rosemary Carbine gave an invited talk on Mary Magdalene as a guest speaker at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry (STM) this summer.
Her talk, Nevertheless, She Persisted: Women’s Religio-Political Witness for Love and Justice, explored Mary Magdalene as an important biblical figure. Carbine correlated, Mary's “prophetic public witness and ministry against Roman imperialism and other kinds of violence in her day” with current social justice movements against gendered and sexual violence, hate crimes, and white nationalism.
“I hope attendees took away with them a richer more expansive understanding of the Magdalene tradition, that is, of women's witness for love and justice and how that witness continues and persists in dynamic ways today, particularly but not only in U.S. faith-based social justice movements such as Nuns on the Bus and the Revolutionary Love Project,” said Carbine.
Carbine’s talk was part of the Boston College STM’s annual celebration, which takes place on or near the feast day of St. Mary of Magdala. Inspired by the role of Mary Magdalene, who in the Bible was the first to proclaim the news of Christ’s resurrection, the event includes a liturgical celebration as well as a lecture by a distinguished scholar on a topic that highlights the legacy of women in the Catholic church. Past lecturers include some of the most important and groundbreaking women in Catholic feminist theology today at such institutions at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, Boston College, the University of Notre Dame, and Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Carbine’s talk was recorded and is available on the STM Encore website.
