This article connects the work of M. Shawn Copeland to a dialogue between Bernard
Lonergan and Emmanuel Levinas. Exploring these authors’ insights on intersubjectivity,
alterity, dialectic, and embodiment, the article develops a framework for engaging
and overcoming contemporary crises of relationality. These resources are then used
to reframe questions of otherness in terms of the imitation of Christ, advocating
encounter grounded in open, prayerful engagement with the marginalized.

In 1968, Mary Daly published The Church and the Second Sex, one of the first monographs in the field of Catholic feminist theology. On the fiftieth anniversary of its release, this article remembers the book not only as an important historical milestone in Catholic theology, but also as an early and still-resonant articulation of issues that have concerned US Catholic feminist theologians since. This return to 1968 also puts into focus how the field has moved beyond Daly’s original project, clarifying important characteristics of the current discourse and its trajectories.