Meet the Scholar: Mary Hunt

Authors

  • Mary E. Hunt Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34019/2237-6151.2025.v22.48656

Keywords:

Mary Hunt, Feminist Theology, WATER, Feminism

Abstract

This article presents the talk given by the author during the “Meet the Researcher” event, organized by the Research Group indecencies – Religion, Gender, and Sexuality (ReGeSex – PPCIR/UFJF). It offers reflections on: (1) how she came to Latin America and how that changed her life; (2) what WATER is and what it does; (3) some trends and developments in feminist studies in religion over the forty years of her work; and (4) what we can reasonably expect for the future. Narrating her journey in the first person and from her own experience, the author invites readers to reflect on important and profound questions related to the trajectory of feminist and queer theologies, the current context, and the challenges and possibilities ahead.

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Author Biography

Mary E. Hunt, Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER)

Mary E. Hunt, Ph.D., is a feminist theologian who is co-founder and co-director of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER) in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. A Catholic active in the women-church movement, she lectures and writes on theology and ethics with particular attention to social justice concerns.

Dr. Hunt received her Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California (1980). She also received the Masters in Divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley (1979) and the Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School (1974). Her undergraduate degree in Theology and Philosophy is from Marquette University (1972). She completed Clinical Pastoral Education and is fluent in Spanish. She spent several years teaching and working on women's issues and human rights in Argentina as a participant in the Frontier Internship in Mission Program. She continues that work through WATER's project, "Women Crossing Worlds," an ongoing exchange with Latin American women.

Dr. Hunt was Adjunct Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies at Georgetown University for five years. She has lectured and taught at numerous institutions. For the 2000-2001 academic year she was a Research Fellow at Harvard Divinity School’s Center for the Study of Values in Public Life. She has taught online and in summer programs at Iliff School of Theology and Pacific School of Religion, and in the summer at Lancaster Theological Seminary. She teaches periodically at the Evangelical Theological Seminary (SET) in Matanzas, Cuba.

References

Daniel C. Maguire, “renewable moral energy of religion,” Sacred Energies, Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000, 10.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Woman’s Bible, New York, European Publishing Co., 1895-98.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/07/why-people-with-no-religion-are-projected-to-decline-as-a-share-of-the-worlds-population/.

Inés San Martín, Pope calls gender theory a ‘global war’ against the family, Crux, October 1, 2016, https://cruxnow.com/global-church/2016/10/01/pope-calls-gender-theory-global-war-family.

Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, https://www.jofa.org/.

Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/pages.php?pID=84&CDpath=4

Marvin Ellison and Judith Plaskow, Editors, Heterosexism in Contemporary World Religion: Problem and Prospect. Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 2007.

Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation, Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1973.

Mary E. Hunt quoted in, Charlotte Bunch, Passionate Politics: Feminist Theory in Action, New York: NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1987, 140.

Mary E. Hunt, “Just Good Sex: Feminist Catholicism and Human Rights,” in Good Sex: Feminist Perspectives from the World's Religions, Eds. Patricia Beattie Jung, Mary E. Hunt, Radhika Balakrishnan, Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001, pp. 158-173.

Mary E. Hunt. Bodies Don’t Lie: A Feminist Theological Perspective on Embodiment, World Forum on Theology and Liberation, Belem, Brasil, January 24, 2009.

Mary E. Hunt. Sexo bom, Sexo justo: Catolicismo, Feminista e Direitos Humanos, Cadernos No. 7, Católicas pelo direito de decidir, São, Paulo, Brasil, 2001.

Michael Lipka and David McClendon, Pew Research Center, “Why people with no religion are projected to decline as a share of the world’s population,”

Patricia Beattie Jung, Mary E. Hunt, Radhika Balakrishnan, eds., Good Sex: Feminist Perspectives from the World's Religions, Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001.

Pinar Ilkkaracan, “Islam and Women’s Sexuality: A Research Report from Turkey,” in Good Sex: Feminist Perspectives from the World's Religions, Eds. Patricia Beattie Jung, Mary E. Hunt, Radhika Balakrishnan, Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001, pp. 61-76.

Rebecca T. Alpert, “Guilty Pleasures: When Sex Is Good Because It’s Bad,” in Good Sex: Feminist Perspectives from the World's Religions, Eds. Patricia Beattie Jung, Mary E. Hunt, Radhika Balakrishnan, Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001, pp. 31-43.

Valerie Saiving Goldstein, “The Human Situation: A Feminine View,” The Journal of Religion 40, no. 2 (1960): pp. 100-112.

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Published

2025-09-07

How to Cite

E. HUNT, M. . Meet the Scholar: Mary Hunt. Sacrilegens , [S. l.], v. 22, n. 2, p. 49–64, 2025. DOI: 10.34019/2237-6151.2025.v22.48656. Disponível em: https://periodicos.ufjf.br/index.php/sacrilegens/article/view/48656. Acesso em: 4 feb. 2026.

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 2 (2025): Dossiê Temática livre

Section

Temática Livre

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Mary E. Hunt; Andrea Sidnei Musskopf

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons License Sacrilegens is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.