A sad state of (international, intellectual, religious) affairs

All right, listen up, this may not be as sexy as gay priests, but it's important. Foreign Policy has compiled a list of the "100 leading public intellectuals" alive and working today, and they want you to pick the top five. Three religious thinkers made the list (for comparison, there are two "polemicists", which is actually a cooler job title than "theologian", do you think I should . . . Anyway.) We've got Benedict XVI, who did much to shape JPII's long and influential papacy, but assuming the assessment's being made on the influence of ideas published in his own name (a reasonable enough criterion in judging intellectuals) I see this as a pro-forma hat tip to show that FP isn't anti-God like most of those other thinkers. Christian theologian Hans Küng is on the list; from the amount I've heard about his importance, I'm not going to argue with that--weak, I know. The Iranian scholar Abdolkarim Soroush, a religious theorist, is the third list member who strikes me as a theological or religious thinker: Gilles Kepel and Tariq Ramadan, both described as "scholars of Islam," could round the tally to five.

Do you see what the problem is? It isn't just that the brainy pursuit of God's truth is the most wonderful and compelling activity in the world, and that I would like to see all monthly publications recognize that. It isn't that feminist theology, the threatening and liberating and invincible contribution to religious thought that will make our century stand out several more from now, isn't represented. (Well, that is the problem, but more later.) The problem isn't that one of the most influential 100 thinkers currently working in the world is apparently author/journalist Christopher Hitchens. No; the problem, and the reason I need you all to pull together and help out here, is this: no one at Foreign Policy has ever heard of Gustavo Gutierrez.

Casting aside for the moment the chilling implications for the education in international relations of our nation's youth, I would like to breathe a small sigh for the church, which scintillates with energy, talent, and Spirit-given inspiration, some of the best of which flies bang over the head of the people who toil at political glossies based in Washington, D.C. Those of us who don't should blush a little, too: obviously we aren't talking about our great thinkers loudly enough or in the right places. The founder of liberation theology, the radical priest who listened to the voices of the local prayer groups, the social justice advocate and meritorious advantage-taker of Vatican II's restoration of experience to theological practice, Gustavo Gutierrez, very much alive and kicking and teaching at Notre Dame, not influential, not known in Washington, not quite ranking up there with novelist Ha Jin? Shame. This is ridiculous.

And if you'd like to cast your write-in for an emblematic feminist theologian--sure to give you more to preen about decades from now than throwing your weight behind Umberto Eco--I'm ready for you. I couldn't decide who of a few grande dames of God wielded the most public influence (public intellectuals, remember?) so I did a highly scientific Googlefight. I now have data to support my vote for Elizabeth A. Johnson. Who is she? Only the reason any Catholic today dares to name God as female. What I'm saying is, she's no Naomi Klein or anything. Eh, Foreign Policy?