The Implicit Liberation Theology of Dorothy Day: Spiritual Dissatisfaction, Lo Cotidiano, and Sacred Spaces of Hospitality

This paper will analyze the life of Servant of God Dorothy Day through the hermeneutical lens of liberation theology. Although Day was not an explicit liberation theologian, her work through the Catholic Worker Movement exemplifies liberative qualities. I will first reflect on Day’s interior life and her dissatisfaction with social injustices, claiming this as the starting point of liberative theological practices; then, I will turn to St. Thérèse of Lisieux, a saint whom Day came to greatly admire, and Thérèse’s method of “the little way,” paralleling it with mujerista theologian Ada María Isasi-Díaz’s epistemological concept of lo cotidiano as an important method in spiritual praxis; and finally, I will parallel the liberation between Base Ecclesial Communities in Latin America and the houses of hospitality in the Catholic Worker Movement, ultimately arguing that liberation for those on the margins stems from first offering safe places for the creativity of the marginalized to flourish. It is safety that thus leads to creativity—to a restoration of one’s agency and an affirmation of one’s voice and dignity—that can then lead to a stable and sustainable type of liberation. Day and the Catholic Worker movement serve as exemplars in this liberative method.