Book Review: The Magdalene Moment - A Vision for a New Christianity by Joanna Manning

In 1975, feminist theologian Sheila Collins said that it was only five years earlier that women "began to take their own experience seriously as the basis for doing theology." By her reckoning, half the human species has had roughly 36 years to play catch-up with the other half in this business of theological reflection - or at least the sort of reflection that emerges without compunction to adhere to male forms.

In the realm (an unabashedly "male" word) of such reflection, 36 years is the blink of an eye, and yet it has produced a rich chorus of voices. What began as faint chants from the edge of belief have swiftly been swept to the center of the congregation and sound with a sure voice. One such voice belongs to Joanna Manning, perhaps best known for her first book, Is The Pope Catholic?

One of the most significant contributions of feminist theology is the conversation that has emerged about how we do our theology in the first instance. At the risk of a dangerous generalization, most feminists tend to view theology not as a body of knowledge to be explained (in the manner of a pope offering doctrinal statements), but as a process that may or may not have a resolution (in the manner of friends telling stories by the fireside). This makes the personal narrative central to doing theology.

Instead of making extrapolations to a grand scheme, we get down to the particular, to the heart of the story, to the heart of the story-teller. The Magdalene Moment begins in precisely this manner, with a story of dancing with Daniel, a panhandler on the streets of Toronto, and it is story which gives the book its continued impetus. Joanna Manning shares her personal story and shows clearly how it is a small part of a much larger story that draws in the modern struggles of women everywhere, the two thousand year arc of church history, the longer arc of all believing, and enfolding all of these, the billion-year story of life's emergence on our planet.

Joanna's adult spiritual development began with the decision to enter a convent. She describes the oppressive environment, including the "Chapter of Faults", a weekly opportunity for communal confession and public humiliation. But with the heady times of Vatican II, university life, and the affection she felt for a Jesuit named Roger, she left her order and was married.

Article Author: David Barker

Theoblogger - a forty-something ex-lawyer theologian from Toronto dedicated to finding the nuggets beneath the mountains of crap that some try to pass off as belief.

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