Jesus Would be a Radical Feminist

It always made sense to us, but it’s nice to hear that a well-known Catholic priest thinks so, too. From the Arizona Daily Star:

It’s a notion that’s earning journalist, best-selling author and Catholic priest Andrew M. Greeley even more attention of late: If Jesus were alive today, he’d be a radical feminist.

So does that mean Jesus would be donating money to Planned Parenthood and working to break the proverbial glass ceiling in corporate America?

“No, that’s not what it means. It means that he would endorse the complete equality of women,” Greeley wrote in an e-mail. “But since I’m not his press spokesman, I can’t say where he would stand on issues that did not exist in his day.”

Greeley is making the rounds to discuss his new book, “Jesus: A Meditation on His Stories and His Relationships with Women.” Here’s an excerpt from the Publishers Weekly write-up:

Focusing largely on the parables, the book brings fresh meaning to these familiar stories, infusing them with what Greeley terms “the good news of a Great Surprise,” the marvelous revelation of God’s love and acceptance of women in a largely male-dominated society. Many of the women are unnamed — the Samaritan woman, the woman at the well, etc. — and some are named, like Mary of Magdala, who may have had a romantic relationship with Jesus. Greeley is certainly a prolific author — he’s written some 50 works of fiction and more than 100 works of nonfiction — and this book illustrates why he is so popular. He takes the familiar — in this case, the parables of Jesus — and infuses it with new life and meaning.