Heidi Schlumpf

Who is God? That is the question Elizabeth A. Johnson has spent her life exploring. As a Catholic theologian, writer, teacher, and religious woman, Johnson has searched for “the Living God” and ways to understand God that make sense for our time, perhaps most famously in her groundbreaking book She Who Is. Her work is firmly grounded in the Catholic tradition while it explores the edges of that tradition, pushing it to be more inclusive—a project that has caught the attention of other scholars, everyday Catholics, and sometimes critics.
Johnson’s own relationship with God as Holy Mystery has helped her to navigate her life’s challenges, including finding herself thrust into the spotlight as a headline-making symbol of religious women facing challenges from the church leadership. With this first biography of one of the preeminent Catholic theologians of our time, those who have been enriched by Johnson’s work will now find themselves inspired by her remarkable life story.