Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schuessler (1938–)

American feminist theologian. Name variations: Elisabeth Shussler-Fiorenza or Shüssler-Fiorenza. Born in 1938 in Tschand, Germany; University of Würzburg, BA in Pastoral Theology; University of Münster, Doctorate in Theology.

One of the world's foremost feminist theologians, was an accomplished Biblical scholar at the universities of Würzburg and Münster; immigrated to US; published 1st book on ministries of women in church (1964); worked as associate professor at University of Notre Dame, simultaneously serving as associate editor of Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Journal of Biblical Literature and Horizons; wrote feminist interpretation of Bible, In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins (1983), based on liberation theology, which reconstructs the way women actively impacted early Christianity; became Krister Stendahl professor at Harvard Divinity School (1988); an international authority on The Book of Revelation and early Christian church structures, was the 1st woman scholar to serve as president of American Society of Biblical Literature; elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Wrote many books in English and German, including Invitation to the Book of Revelation (1981), Bread Not Stone (1984), Revelation: Vision of a Just World (1991), But She Said: Feminist Practices of Biblical Interpretation (1992), Discipleship of Equals: A Feminist Ekklesialogy of Liberation (1993), Searching the Scriptures (2 vols, 1993, 1994), Jesus: Miriam's Child, Sophia's Prophet: Critical Issues in Feminist Christology (1994), The Power of Naming: A Concilium Reader in Feminist Liberation Theology (1996), Sharing Her Word (1998), Rhetoric and Ethic (1999), Jesus and the Politics of Interpretation (2000) and Wisdom Ways: Introducing Feminist Biblical Interpretation (2001).