Monday, September 8, 2025
An academic vignette from Colgate University
In December 2019, when Sister Mary Canavan, SC, and her dearest friend, Colgate’s Professor Emerita Marilyn Thie were in Hamilton, New York, to celebrate Colgate University Press's publication of Women and Religion, Philosophy and Feminism: The Colgate Heritage in Honor of Professors Marilyn Thie and Wanda Warren Berry, our dear (and now departed) colleague Jane Pinchin hosted my wife, Carol Ann Lorenz, and me, along with Mary and Marilyn, at Jane’s house in Hubbardsville for dinner.
I told Mary and Marilyn that I was looking for some recent Catholic texts for the next rendition of the course, "Catholic Traditions," which Marilyn and I had taught in rotation since the early 1980s. Mary was not shy in strongly recommending the book: Johnson, Elizabeth A. Quest for the Living God. Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God (Bloomsbury Academic & Professional, 2011), a Catholic feminist theology. I ordered a copy for myself, and although Covid and a long sabbatical intervened, in fall 2022 I assigned Johnson's book and invited Mary and Marilyn to come to Colgate to lead a couple days of discussion in my classroom.
Unfortunately, Mary -- whose sturdy good health was legendary -- became ill; she and Marilyn had to cancel their visit, to the regret of us all. The class carried out its discussion of Johnson's work. Johnson's writings -- including Truly Our Sister. A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints (Continuum, 2009) -- have served as inspirations to students in my “Catholic Traditions” course over the past few years. I gratefully acknowledge Mary's wise advice; however, I regret that I was never again in her generous presence.
In sadness,
Christopher Vecsey, Harry Emerson Fosdick Professor of the Humanities and Religion,
Colgate University
