Feminist biblical scholar and theologian Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza (born 1938) provided models, methods, and metaphors for biblical interpretations and a reconstruction of early Christianity in which women shared the center and were restored to human subjectivity.

One of the foundational maxims of the feminist movement--the personal is political--provided a significant lens through which to view the life of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza. Born in Romania in 1938 and fleeing to what would become West Germany with her family during World War II, she desired, as a young German woman, to become a professional theologian in the Roman Catholic Church, which defined her role and mission as a "lay" woman within the world rather than within the church. Her 1963 licentiate thesis from the University of Würzburg, where she was the first woman to enroll in the theological course required of students for priesthood, was therefore her...