Letty M. Russell

Russell died of cancer on July 12, 2007. She was survived by her spouse, Shannon Clarkson.

In one of her last major public addresses, the annual Paul Tillich Lecture delivered at Harvard University in May 2006, Russell spoke to the role of the Church in confronting injustice. She said, "Our struggle is to overcome the fear of difference and to break the bars that keep us apart. [Others] want what we want. They want to work, they want to change the social structure. They want hospitality with justice."

Throughout her career, Russell developed multiple initiatives to facilitate dialogue among feminist scholars, particularly scholars from traditionally under-represented communities. She was on the World Council of Churches steering group that developed the program Being Church: Women's Voices and Visions, which held a series of regional discussions on feminist ecclesiology between 2000 and 2005.

In an introduction to a Festschrift published in Russell's honor in 1999 under the title Liberating Eschatology, fellow Yale Divinity School theologians Margaret Farley and Serene Jones called Russell's influence on contemporary theology "monumental" and wrote of her "uncanny ability to articulate a vision of the church that is radical in its feminist-liberationist critique but that nonetheless remains anchored in the historic traditions and communities of the Christian church."

Russell was a pioneer in the field of feminist theology. She authored, co-authored or edited over 17 books, including: Feminist Interpretation of the Bible (1985), Inheriting our Mothers' Garden: Feminist Theology in Third World Perspective (1988), Church in the Round: Feminist Interpretation of the Church (1993), and Dictionary of Feminist Theologies (1996). She has been described as a "prominent matriarch of contemporary feminist bible criticism." She was also active in the ecumenical movement, and worked closely with the National Council of Churches, the World Council of Churches, and the YWCA.

Russell was a leader in the ecumenical movement and she served on several units of the World Council of Churches, including the Faith and Order Commission from 1975 to 1983 and was one of the drafters of the document "Giving Account of the Hope Together" (Bangalore, India, 1978). She also worked with the National Council of Churches, including the Task Force on the Bible and Sexism; and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the successor to the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.

In the fall of 1969, Russell began her academic career as assistant professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College, Bronx, New York where she taught Protestant theology. She began teaching at Yale University Divinity School in 1974 where she would teach for the next 28 years. She began as an assistant professor of theology, and was promoted to Professor of Theology in 1985. She officially retired in 2001, but she continued to teach a few courses at Yale Divinity School as an emerita professor.

Returning to graduate school, Russell earned a Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.) from Union Theological Seminary in New York in Christian education and theology in 1967. Two years later, Russell completed her Doctor of Theology (Th.D.) in mission theology and ecumenics from Union.

In 1958, Russell was the first women ordained in her presbytery in the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Only three years prior, the denomination had voted in their General Assembly to allow the ordination of women to the Word and Sacrament.

Following her ordination, Russell returned to the East Harlem Protestant Parish (EHPP) in 1958, to serve as pastor at Mount Morris-Ascension Church, where she served for the next ten years. Russell's ministry focused on leadership development with the mostly Black and Hispanic members of the congregation to become leaders in the parish and the community. Her experiences in Harlem contributed to her personal and professional commitments to marginalized communities.

In 1955, Russell was admitted to Harvard Divinity School after appealing their male-only admission policy. She was one of eight women admitted to the school that year, in a reversal of long-standing opposition to women's inclusion in the ministry preparatory program. Russell graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Sacred Theology (S.T.B.) in 1958.

Russell attended Wellesley College, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in biblical history and philosophy in 1951. After graduation, she taught third grade in Connecticut for one academic year. Late in 1952, Russell moved to New York to begin work as the director of Christian Education at Mount Morris-Ascension Church, one of four churches in the East Harlem Protestant Parish. She worked in Harlem until 1955, before leaving to attend seminary.

Letty Mandeville Russell (September 20, 1929 – July 12, 2007) was a feminist theologian, professor, and prolific author. She was a member of the first class of women admitted to Harvard Divinity School, and one of the first women ordained in the United Presbyterian Church. After earning a doctorate in theology at Union Theological Seminary, she joined the faculty at Yale Divinity School, where she taught for 28 years.

Letty Mandeville Russell was born in Westfield, New Jersey on September 20, 1929. She was the second of three daughters born to Miriam (née Towl) and Ricketson B. Russell. Her mother gave up a professional career as a bacteriologist to care for her children; before her children were born, she worked on a floating hospital in New York during World War I. Russell's father worked as a trade-show salesman.