Gender and Theology

Question 1

Define the term Post Christian Theology

Answer 1

Religious thinking that abandons traditional Christain thought

Question 2

Define the term reform feminist theology

Answer 2

religious thinking that seeks to change traditional christian thought

Question 3

Define the term servant king

Answer 3

an understandng of the messiah that focuses on service rather than overlordship

Question 4

Define the term thealogy

Answer 4

Studying God based around the goddness

Question 5

What are Mary Darys ideas on religion and womens oppression?

Answer 5

• Religion is used to reinforce the oppression of women

- Female oppression is a result of cultural and historical impact of Christianity’s rape, genocide and war

Question 6

What has the idea of a male God lead to?

Answer 6

• The spawn/caused the mechanism for the oppression of women
• “God is men= men are God” concept
• Patriarchal religion perpetuates these sexual role delusions, calls them natural and bestows supernatural blessings on them

Question 7

How does Daly critique Priests or fathers?

Answer 7

She critics them for being anti feminist. E.g. Tertullian saw women as “the devils gateway” responsible for the fall and the reason God needed Jesus to salvate us. Aquinas-women are misbegotten men
Augustine-women weren’t made in the image of God

Question 8

What does Daly believe we should do in order to improve the problem of giving God a gender?

Answer 8

Gods maleness should be removed and they should be castrated: women need to use language in a new way because the old language is androcentric (male centred)- women need a new spirit

Question 9

How does Daly critique Bonhoeffer?

Answer 9

he insists women should be subordinate to their husbands

Question 10

How does Daly critique Pope Pius XII?

Answer 10

He suggests women’s true liberation does not come from formalistic equality with men but in the recognition of the vocation of a woman to become a mother.

Question 11

How does Daly critique Situation ethics?

Answer 11

It is male made theory and part of the thinking of patriarchy’s dominating elite. It takes a personalist, individual approach to ethics, denying the communal dimension required for the liberation of women.

Question 12

What does the term “rapism” mean according to Daly?

Answer 12

A culture of rape. A symbol of all violent oppression which builds and connects a society that encompasses e.g. nuclear arms race and racism

Question 13

How is female power prevented according to Daly?

Answer 13

Soverign of sudo-society (leaders of society) use culture, religion, policitcs and themedia to erase female power and imprison them.

Question 14

Complete the phrase “There is a connection between the _________ __ _____ and ____ ______ __ ___. For example, 100 Bengali women were raped by Pakistani men”

Answer 14

There is a connection between the mentality of rape and the phenomenon of war.

Question 15

How does Moses show a hatred for women in the Bible?

Answer 15

Moses was mad the lives of all women were spared

“Kill every women who has slept with a man but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man”

Question 16

Define the term “arm chair rapist”

Answer 16

those who enjoy stories of rape through pornography

Question 17

Daly states that rape is the cultural manifestation of a sexual caste system. What is the “sexual cast system”.

Answer 17

The idea that we are socialised into a class system according to our sex with men being the dominating class and women being the victim class. This socialisation takes place from birth through processes such as gender regimes and gender specific expectations or even labels.

Question 18

Daly states that thee is a deep link between rape and genocide. How does she support this?

Give a historical example she gives

Answer 18

• male sexual violence forms the basis of military interest
• A raped person stops being a individual and becomes part of a large group of raped people
• Rape is the act of one group against another- male against female and therefore an expression of thinking of the dominant group

She makes a link between the Nazis group thinking against Jews and the disabled people and the Catholic Church’s group thinking where there is a collective focus on sameness against those who are different

Question 19

What is war an inevitable result of according to Daly?

Answer 19

Male dominated policies

Question 20

How is language of violence covered up according to Daly?

Answer 20

With technical language e.g. collateral damage is another way of covering up the fact that the lives of innocent people are at risk

Question 21

How is war defended according to Daly?

Answer 21

War is defended by male morality and mentality

Question 22

What do women need to do to defend themselves against war defences?

Answer 22

Women need to seek liberation from this moral hypocrisy
this liberation requires women to be “radically deviant” - reject all moral standards because they have been created and used by men to subjugate women

Question 23

What importance does Christianity have in the male dominated society we live in according to Daly?

Answer 23

• Christianity is a key concept in sustaining and shaping men’s created moral and social standards
• Christians incarnation is the “symbolic legitimation of the rape of all women and matter”
• Rape, genocide and war is impregnated in Christianity and changing the culture means leaving Christianity

Question 24

What does Daly believe about the spirituality?

Answer 24

• The maleness of God needs to be overturned (abolished)
• Priests- who control the spiritual moments of life- have locked women into an Eden (place) which needs to be broken
• Traditional religious places (built and managed by men) aren’t suitable as centres of spirituality
• we should turn away from the maleness of God and sacred places to spirit of quintessence which is found in the whole universe in nature

Question 25

Define the term “Quintessence” and what Daly says about it.

Answer 25

The being in which we live, love and create
The highest essence, the spirit that gives life to everything
This can be blocked by violence, pornography and poverty but rediscovered in nature

Question 26

How does Chan critique Daly?

Answer 26

• The Christian idea of fatherhood is unique due to the Holy trinity. This is very different from a simple “God is male” idea
• The heavenly father is a heavenly father for all. He is in a relationship with all humans and the concept of universal fatherhood expresses this relationship
• Using God language for God doesn’t create masculine QUALITIES for God. e.g. in Isiah God is referred to as the husband who acts with “deep compassion” (not a masculine quality)

Question 27

How does Fiorenza critique Daly?

Answer 27

Daly’s approach to interpreting the Bible is mistakenly narrow. There is evidence in which the Bible supports women’s struggle against patriarchal sexism because it contains examples that directly challenge sexist patriarchal norms e.g. when Jesus breaks sexist customs

Bible Quote from ST Paul:
“There is no longer Jew nor Greek, there is no longer male and female for you are all one in Christ Jesus”
-This shows that St Paul wasn’t sexist and that he is rejecting the ideas of the time that women could not remain as women but can be disciples or achieve salvation
-Really important declaration that women did not have to become like men to be holier, they just had to follow Jesus.

-It is quite remarkable that the canonical literature of the NT —————————————–

Question 28

What is the hermeneutic of suspicion?

Answer 28

challenging previous interpretations of a text. Who can interpret it? Why might they interpret it in this way?

Question 29

How does Schussler Fiorenze refer to the hermeneutic of suspicion?

Answer 29

Questions how would these questions be answered in relation to the Bible? Men who decided which texts entered the “canon” were either early church members (men), church leaders etc.
These men provided Androcentric (men based) interpretations in order to uphold their positions of power

Question 30

What does Schussler Fiorenze say about Biblical evidence and Jesus being sexist?

Answer 30

“It is quite remarkable that the canonical literature of the New Testament does not transmit a single sexist “story of Jesus” “ -If Jesus lived in a patriarchal society and wasn’t sexist, he CHOSE not to be sexist.

• Jesus invited not the pious or highly esteemed but tax collectors, sinners and women
• Women did not play a marginal role: women accompanied Jesus as disciples, women were witnesses to his crucifixion and resurrection

Question 31

What does Ruether say the Messiah expectation was in the Old Testament?

Answer 31

The OT views the Messiah as Gods chosen one. He will restore Israel as autonomous power - a warrior who liberates people from their enemies and reigns over them in a new kingdom
-Gods favour and wellbeing of his people are assured through his Messiah. Therefore there is a maleness associated with the Messiah an the messiah can only be imagined as a male.

Question 32

How did Jesus turn out to be compared to what was expected of him as a “Messiah”; according to Ruether?

Answer 32

-Jesus wasn’t the warrior Messiah that was expected. The expected Messiah is in no way an incarnation of the divine, someone who forgives sins through self sacrifice. - “He is expected to win, not to suffer and die”
-He comes to ensure all basic human needs are met, people stay in harmony with one another and with God without needing a leader to protect them
-Jesus is a servant king- focused on serving his people rather than ruling over them as shown by the fact that he washed the feet of his disciples.
Jesus is also critical of Jewish authority and argues against those in religious authority showing that he is a servant for his people.
-Reuther believed people are freed by following the servant king and becoming servants of God

Question 33

How does Ruether critique the Messiah concept in Christianity?

Answer 33

• The Messiah concept shouldn’t represent the military Messiah idea but should instead represent the self-sacrificing, servant Messiah who is linked to the female notion of wisdom
• Christianity shouldn’t mix the maleness of Jesus and maleness of the Davidic Messiah into the Christian concept of a Messiah as this displaces females from the concept of God

Question 34

Define the term Sophia.

Answer 34

Divine wisdom. a concept associated with God before the introduction of a messianic King who brings a new age of redemption.- this leads to female wisdom becoming obscured (forgotten) behind the patriarchal veil of the male Messiah.

Question 35

How does Ruether link Jesus and Sophia?

Answer 35

Divine wisdom is closely linked to Jesus Christ and wisdom is referred to in female terms. Therefore, the messiah is a male part of God but also the incarnation of wisdom (female)

Question 36

What is Gaia?

Answer 36

Ruether refers to God as Gaia. This is an ancient Goddess of the earth.

Question 37

Why does Ruether refer to Gaia?

Answer 37

• Ruether tries to recover a concept of God which has been suppressed by patriarchal ideas about maleness
• She is seeking to recover a full account of human nature and divine by balancing male and female in our understanding of human nature and God -this produces a truer reflection of imago dei

Question 38

What is imago dei?

Answer 38

Th belief that human beings are the image and likeness of God

Question 39

Give two Bible quotes to support the idea of Sophia.

Answer 39

“Does not wisdom call out?”- Old Testament

“Wisdom has built her house, she has set up its seven pillars” - Old testament

Question 40

How does Chan critique Ruethers idea of rewriting Christian history?

Answer 40

-You cannot rewrite the Christian story to give more prominence to women because it is the story itself that shapes Christian identity- Belief in the holy trinity is central to christianity
E.g., Anglican ‘Alternative service book’ adresses God as “almighty God, our heavenly God”
Catholic Churchs Eucharistic prayer also says “through him, with him and in him”
Chan says that to rewrite the central prayers to downplay the maleness would be wrong

Question 41

How does Chan critique Ruethers idea of using more feminine language to describe God?

Answer 41

Christianity should resist the temptation to abandon the male language for God. He accepts that feminine images are used to show God e.g., taking care of his children but God called “mother” for a reason- this was unique to ancient times.
Chan gives example of other religions in which a male God and female goddess ruled and even these werent equal. Therefore, using female language for God doesnt make society less patriarchal and using male language doesnt make a society patriarchal.

“Even today, any societies devoted to goddess worship remain oppressive toward women”- chan