Background
Janet Kalven was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Rose Nathan and Harry Kalven.
(Through memoir, interviews, and historical overview, Wome...)
Through memoir, interviews, and historical overview, Women Breaking Boundaries chronicles the evolution in the United States of the Grail--an organization of Catholic lay women dedicated to restoring the Christian spirit to all aspects of life. Janet Kalven, who has been part of the movement since its inception in the early 1940s, traces its development through 1995.
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consultant writer humanities educator
Janet Kalven was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Rose Nathan and Harry Kalven.
After finishing high school as valedictorian of her class, she attended the University of Chicago, where writer Jane Kesner was her friend and assigned "big sister". She graduated from the University of Chicago in 1934.
Later in life she earned a master"s degree in adult education from Boston University. Her family background was Jewish, but Janet Kalven became a Roman Catholic convert as a young woman. She would eventually write a memoir and history of the movement in the United States, Women Breaking Boundaries: A Grail Journey, 1940-1995 (State University of New York Press 1999).
Kalven was on staff at the University of Dayton and was director of the Seminary Quarter at Grailville, in the 1970s.
She co-organized the historic ecumenical conference "Women Exploring Theology" at Grailville in 1972. Ten years later, she co-hosted the "Women"s Spirit Bonding" conference, also at Grailville.
In 1988, she co-edited With Both Eyes Open: Seeing Beyond Gender, a collection of essays on women, Christian theology, and liturgy. In 1990 Kalven was inducted into the Ohio Women"s Hall of Fame.
Kalven was the 2003 co-recipient of the Enduring Spirit Award, presented by MUSE: The Cincinnati Women"s Choir.
She was a trustee of Housetop Center for Women"s Ministries. Among the notable women influenced by Kalven"s work at Grailville were Mary East. Hunt and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza. Of her work, Kalven declared,
I ground my hope for the world and for the Grail chiefly in the strength of women, women who develop all of their gifts and talents, women who act together generously and in hope to bring into reality their vision of a world where difference does not connote domination, a world where each person and culture will grow and enrich the others, a world where a hope-filled future awaits every child.
We hold fast to our conviction that terror, poverty, and oppression will not have the last word.
Late in life, Kalven moved from Grailville to buy a converted school building in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she lived and created affordable housing for women. Janet Kalven died April 24, 2014, at age 100, in Milford, Ohio.
(Through memoir, interviews, and historical overview, Wome...)
Founder, board directors Women Institute Religion and Society, Cincinnati, 1985—1993. Co-founder, board directors Women's Research and Development Center, since 1988. Member national commission Church Women United, New York, 1970—1971.
Board directors Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition, Cincinnati, 1969—1972, Cincinnati Industrial Mission, 1971—1974, Women Church Convergence, Baltimore, since 1984. Member of National Organization of Women, National Women's Studies Association, Women's Ordination Conference (member program committee), Phi Beta Kappa.