“Something Wicked: Why Feminism Can’t Be Fused with Christianity” (Sophia Institute Press, 2025)
Author: Carrie Gress has a doctorate in philosophy from The Catholic University of America in Washington and is editor of the online women’s magazine “Theology of Home.” She is the author of 11 books including “The Anti-Mary Exposed.” Gress has lived in the Arlington diocese for decades.
Why did you write this book? I wrote this book because there seemed to be one remaining open question that I didn’t address in my previous books — Whether or not there is a way in which feminism can fruitfully be grafted into Christianity. I know many have tried and most cite the influence of St. John Paul II as their source, but even he was very measured in his use of the word (there are only three documented uses by the Polish pope).
If feminism had been a word or movement he was robustly committed to engaging, he would have used it in “Mulieris Dignitatem” or his “Theology of the Body.” Moreover, when looked at carefully, his work on women is the antidote to the use, disorder and anti-Gospel messaging that are the hallmarks of feminism even from its earliest roots. No one has been making these distinctions publicly while the church, even conservative corners, are becoming awash with the misguided belief that somehow feminism is compatible with Christianity.
Synopsis: The book is an overview of the elements of feminism that have become a kind of “shadow church” that mimics Catholicism; feminism has an object of worship (the autonomy of women); commandments; theological virtues — instead of faith, hope, and love, there are rage, contempt, and envy — all easily on display in today’s culture. It has what Peter Kreeft has long called a sacrament, which is abortion, and it even has its own style of evangelization. These together, like any religion or cult, inform the way a person is to act, think, feel. This quasi-religious structure makes breaking away from feminism incredibly challenging, especially when it has so deeply saturated our own culture.
What’s something else the average Catholic in the pew should know about it? Most everything we have been taught about feminism is incorrect. Feminism is the fruit of the French Revolution and the idea of godless egalitarianism, growing up with socialism and communism. All of the first wave leaders were not pious Christian women, such as Mary Wollstonecraft, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, or Susan B. Anthony. They were committed to unitarianism (which denies the Trinity and the divinity of Christ), the occult in the form of witchcraft and spiritualism (for example, seances), or atheistic rationalism.
The lesser-known Matilda Gage, who broke with Stanton and Anthony when they joined forces with the Christian Temperance movement, was actively engaged in witchcraft and taught her daughter and son-in-law, L. Frank Baum, about it and other dark arts. Her influence can be seen in Baum’s magnum opus, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” which features witchcraft and the exposing of the patriarchy as a small man behind the curtain. The first wave-feminist goal was to defeat Christianity; they believed that it was a tool used by men to enslave women. The movement has always been about power and control, not about the animating Christian virtues of humility and self-gift.
