Elizabeth A. Johnson Quotes

United States, Theologian
December 7, 1941

Elizabeth A. Johnson is a Roman Catholic feminist theologian. She is a Distinguished Professor of Theology at Fordham University, a Jesuit institution in New York City and a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood. The National Catholic Reporter has called Johnson "one of the country's most prominent and respected theologians." Johnson has served as president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and is "one of its most well known members."

Benevolent patriarchy is still patriarchy.

Elizabeth A. Johnson
- Patriarchy
- Benevolent
Whether consciously or not, sexist God language undermines the human equality of women made in the divine image and likeness.

Elizabeth A. Johnson
- God
- Language
- Image

As history shows, dead metaphors make good idols.

Elizabeth A. Johnson
- History
- Idols
- Metaphors
Those who die relearn or remember The secrets of life that they forgot at birth.

Elizabeth A. Johnson
- Remember
- Birth
- Relearn
I quickly realized that more than any other vegetable, the potato evokes strong reactions in people. As the head of communications for the International Potato Centre in Peru put it, 'No one gets worked up over lettuce like they do the potato.'

Elizabeth A. Johnson
Spiritually, trees play a unique role in the Jewish and Christian scriptures, from the Garden of Eden to the Cross of Christ. Biologically, in great forest communities, they help sustain life on our planet, giving off oxygen, anchoring soil, keeping stream and rivers clear, and providing habitation for thousands of species. How can religious persons not care about the widespread destruction of these creatures of God? We need to love them as our very selves, as neighbors in earth's community of life.

Elizabeth A. Johnson
Woven into our lives is the very fire from the stars and the genes from the sea creatures, and everyone, utterly everyone, is kin in the radiant tapestry of being. This relationship is not external or extrinsic to our identity but wells up as the defining truth from our deepest being.

Elizabeth A. Johnson
- Truth
- Relationship
- Fire
The way in which a faith community shapes language about God implicity represents what it takes to be the highest good, the profoundest truth, the most appealing beauty. ... While officially it is rightly and consistently said that God is spirit and so beyond identification with either male or female sex, yet the daily language of preaching, worship, catechesis, and instruction conveys a different message: God is male, or at least more like a man than a woman, or at least more fittingly addressed as male than as female.

Elizabeth A. Johnson
- God
- Truth
- Faith