Gender and Theology Flashcards
Feminist thought can inspire change in Christianity. Discuss.
Points FOR
A greater understanding of the fact that Jesus’ maleness is not essential to his nature can lead Christianity to understand that God is not essentially male. This would make the faith more accessible to women.
If Jesus’ maleness is not essential to his nature, then his priests do not need also to be male. Greater female leadership in churches would radically change Christianity.
One aspect of the counter-cultural nature of Jesus was that he spent time with women. In the early Church, there was a clear leadership role for women. There is a clear non-patriarchal opportunity within Christianity if it only re-finds its true roots.
Feminist thought can inspire change in Christianity. Discuss.
Points AGAINST
What is explored on a theological level is not relevant to the day-to-day believer who is not theologically trained. For them, Jesus was a man and that is a stumbling block.
Even those churches, such as the CoE, that have allowed women to be priests for some time, are experiencing decline.
There are too many years of historical patriarchy to be overcome. Christianity should be abandoned. This is Mary Daly’s view.
Some might argue that we shouldn’t try to rewrite the very essence of 2000 years of Christianity because Christianity is not just about Jesus but also about the development of faith over time. It is perhaps more important that society as a whole changes.
Christianity should be abandoned. Discuss.
Points FOR
Some might argue that 2000 years of patriarchy is simply too deep-rooted to reform. The divine is greater than organised religion and people should seek other ways to express their spirituality.
Mary Daly’s focus on nature might demonstrate the essential aspect of the world better than an objective deity.
Mary Daly’s use of language engages people in a shift in consciousness, designed to shock us to help us to step back from the world we are absorbed in and to see that significant change is required.
Christianity should be abandoned. Discuss.
Points AGAINST
Mary Daly’s approach is very much centred on people like her and so becomes dangerous as the patriarchy she challenges. Shde does not really consider women of colour, or non-lesbian, non-educated, non-Western women.
Mary Daly’s thinking could be said to be based on a hatred of men and so Christianity should be seen as needing reform from its patriarchy, not abandonment .
Mary Daly’s idea that ‘if God is male then male is God’ is flawed because pronouns like ‘he’ are simply linguistic devices and not true descriptions of the ineffable God who not only is genderless but is not a thing at all.
Evaluation of ‘Christianity should be abandoned.’ Discuss.
Some might argue that a symbolic understanding of Mary Daly might lead to a realisation that society has absorbed patriarchy too much. This could help people to re-find equality both within society and religion.
Christianity is essentially sexist. Discuss.
Points FOR
The male hierachy is fundamental to Christianity now and so the sexism is fundamental. This is seen not only in male-only priest traditions but in the language of texts.
Christianity’s sexism comes from 2000 years of tradition because Christianity is the sum of all its experiences. Therefore, Christianity should either be radically changed or abandoned.
The Unholy Trinity shows how engrained sexism is in Christianity and shows the need to abandon it entirely and to start again.
Christianity is essentially sexist. Discuss.
Points AGAINST
At the root of the faith is a rich Goddess and wisdom tradition that shows that the male hierachy is imposed by humans later on.
The Biblical texts are simply products of the societies from which they come. The essentials of Christianity are to live within a given society and so, as long as twenty-first century society is not sexist, Christianity does not need to be. For example, the warrior imagery for Jesus comes in the male-warrior Roman time.
The example of Jesus demonstartes this: Jesus broke the taboos of his day in his interaction with women and if Jesus was not sexist, Christianity cannot be sexist.
A male saviour can save women
Jesus’ gender was not essential to his nature as God-incarnate and so it doesn’t matter what gender he was: his salvation was for all people who were made in God’s image.
In the same way that Jesus was not a typical warrior-messiah, Ruether says that discovering the feminine aspect of Jesus through the wisdom tradition makes salvation open to both genders.
Jesus showed how he brought salvation to all who desire it in his work in the Gospels. His gender was entirely coincidental.
For those Christians who accept women’s ministry, there is an inherent equality at all levels, both material and spiritual between men and women.
A male saviour cannot save women
Daly said that Jesus on the cross is a symbol of the male enjoyment of pain, torture and sexual dominance over women because his death only served to save men.
Any belief that Jesus is the perfect or ideal person seems to indicate that perfect people are necessarily men, which means women cannot achieve salvation.
Dalt believed that women should stand against the Church and everything that it stands for, including its central message of Jesus saving the world.
The first stage of being saved is to develop a prayer life with God through Jesus. For some Christians, perhaps especially women, this cannot be achieved as it is too difficult to have a pure relationship with a man.
Only women can develop a genuine spirituality
Daly argued that only women can fullt access the creative aspect of human nature and that thsi creative aspect of human nature is the way to join with Be-ing. Therefore, only women can develop a genuine spirituality.
Daly also argued that, as spinsters, women can spin a new narrative in the world - to remake the tapestry of history so destroyed by Christian patriarchy.
Spirituality is about relationships and women tend to make deeper and more meaningful relationships with others than men. Thus it is more likely that women will develop genuine spiritualities.
Both men and women can develop a genuine spirituality
There is a rich tradition of female mystical writers in Christianity - such as Teresa of Avila - who have achieved as much as male mystical writers such as John of the Cross.
If women and men see the world differently, at least in some ways, it is entirely possible to say that women’s route to spirituality is different to that of men’s, through neither is inferior to the other. This would match the idea that different individuals have different spiritual journeys, with no reference to gender.
The Catholic Church says that both men and women have ‘perfections’ that reflect ‘something of the infinite perfection of God’ - thus both can access a spiritual unity with God.
Evaluation of women/men who ca develop a genuine spirituality
It could be argued that there is no such thing as a genuine spirituality. Each individual is different and, perhaps by definition, each individual will have a different spirituality. Some individuals might find God in nature and others in words. If there is no such thing as genuine - or ‘right’ spirituality, then gender plays no part in the discussion.
The Christian God can be presented in female terms. Discuss.
Points FOR
Ruether would argue that the Christian God can - and must - be presented in female terms so as to put behind us the historical patriarchy and also the assumption that it is better to be male than female. Thsi would further lead to a change in the structures of the Church, such as in allowing women to be priests.
The Jewish God was presented as having female aspects such as wisdom. This is significant because the Old Testament does not make a big thing of God having a female aspects - as if it were normal to think of God in female terms as well as male terms.
Ruether would argue that the language already exists to present God in female terms and it simply needs to be rediscovered in the tradition.
Ruether would further argue that the more we understand the true nature of Jesus, not as a male warrior-messiah but as a liberator and champion for the oppressed, the more we can see female charcateristics with which we can describe him.
The Christian God can be presented in female terms. Discuss.
Points AGAINST
The Catholic Church stated that ‘there must be a physical resemblance between priest and Christ’ and so priests must be male. Therefore, because Christs’ maleness was essential to who he was, the historical fact of Christ being a male means that God should be presented only in male terms.
The Christian God is a male object. If female terms are used, it is re-defining female words to fit already-existing masculine characteristics.
There are too many years of tradition of the Christian God as male. It has become entrenched in Christian patriarchy and has led to too much destruction and rapsim. Everything about God is gendered. It simply needs rejection on all levels.
The Christian God cannot be presented in male or female terms because God is beyond gender. The apophatic tradition would support this.
Evaluation of presenting God in male/female terms
Some might argue that the Christian God should not be presented in gendered terms at all because gender is a human idea linked to biological sex, but also linked to the langauge that you speak in.
However, a problem with this is that worshipping God is about worshipping someone with whom you can have a relationship - and it is hard to have a relationship with an ‘it’.
