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On December 6, 1989, a man armed with a semi-automatic rifle entered an engineering school in Montreal and murdered fourteen women before killing himself. Responses to what has come to be known as “The Montreal Massacre” varied, from the initial shock and mourning and efforts to “make sense” of the tragedy to an outpouring of writing, art, conferences, and political lobbying. Rage and Resistance: A Theological Reflection on the Montreal Massacre examines, from a theological perspective, how the massacre was “taken up” by the media, experts, politicians, and a variety of individuals and groups. A practical exercise in Canadian contextual theology, Rage and Resistance analyzes responses to a tragic historical event by engaging with the work of theologian Gregory Baum and sociologist Dorothy Smith. Baum articulates the theological imperative to address the context in which our lives are embedded, calling for critical social analysis in order to understand, and possibly convert, social evil; Smith takes the standpoint of women as a determinate position from which society may be known. If one of the tasks of theology is to articulate and clarify the struggles in which we are engaged—to name our reality, both the forces that oppress and the possibilities for resistance and healing—this book takes on that task by focusing on an event indelibly etched into the minds of many Canadians. It analyzes some of the artistic, memorializing, and activist responses as manifestations of a spirituality of resistance and urges ever greater resistance to violence against women.
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Rage and Resistance
Studies in Women and Religion / Études sur les femmes et la religion Studies in Women and Religion is a series designed to serve the needs of established scholars in this new area, whose scholarship may not conform to the parameters of more traditional series with respect to content, perspective, and/or methodology. The series will also endeavour to promote scholarship on women and religion by assisting new scholars in developing publishable manuscripts. Studies published in this series will reflect the wide range of disciplines in which the subject of women and religion is currently being studied, as well as the diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches that characterize contemporary women’s studies. Books in English are published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press. Inquiries should be directed to the series coordinator Eleanor J. Stebner (Faculty of Theology, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg). Coordinators Heidi Epstein St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan Coordinatrice Monique Dumais Université du Québec, Rimouski Advisory Board/Comité du Conseil Monique Dumais Université du Québec, Rimouski
Board Members Anne Marie Dalton St. Mary’s University Monique Dumais Université du Québec, Rimouski Mavis L. Fenn St. Paul’s College, Waterloo Pamela Klassen University of Toronto Jackie Kuikman University of Regina Marilyn J. Legge Emmanuel College, Toronto Pamela Milne University of Windsor Eva Neumaier University of Alberta Marie-Andrée Roy Université du Québec, Montréal Eleanor Stebner Simon Fraser University Tracy Trothen Queen’s University Randi Warne Mount St. Vincent University Pamela Dickey Young Queen’s University
Studies in Women and Religion / Études sur les femmes et la religion Volume 11
Rage and Resistance A Theological Reflection on the Montreal Massacre Theresa O’Donovan
Published for the Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion/ Corporation Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses by Wilfrid Laurier University Press 2007
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social Scienc