Gender and Theology

Question 1

what are the questions at the core of feminist theology

Answer 1

• Justification of male dominance/female subordination in Theology
• Male language for God
• Men being more like God than women
• View that men represent God when they are in leadership in the Church

Question 2

summary of ruether

Answer 2

(Catholic theologian, wrote Sexism and God Talk)

• Believer in social reconstructionism (using theology to attain radical changes in society’s view of women)
• Feminist theology should promote the full humanity of women; society tends to dehumanise women, must reject chauvinism

Question 3

ruether view on god

Answer 3

God is against oppressive economic/political power structures
- Appeals to scriptures such as Amos 8:4 and 6, Luke 4:18-19 to support the idea that God is a prophetic God who overthrows an unjust society (- selective)
- Should take some of the elements from pre-Xian RE tradition when talking about God (early polytheistic religions were far less patriarchal)
- God/ess: combines masculine and feminine sides of the divine
o Ultimate Reality
o Critical of God as king/warrior
o ‘The liberating encounter with God/ess is always an encounter with our authentic selves resurrected from underneath the alienated self. It is not experienced against, but in and through relationships, healing our broken relations with our bodies, with other people, with nature’.

Question 4

ruether - maleness of christ in OT

Answer 4

o Messiah is often depicted as Davidic King
o King = Son of God and Son of Man
o Son of God – elect of God
o Son of Man – representative of people of Israel
o Kings did not live up to their expectations, so hope became displaced into future King (JC fulfils this expectation)
o In some parts of Judaism, the Davidic King-Messiah was presented as a MALE conquering warrior who liberates the people from their enemies
o ‘I, the Lord, promise that there will always be a descendent of David to be King of Israel’ (Jeremiah 33:17)
- Ruether shows how JC did not evoke a hope of a Davidic Messiah, refuses to accept the crowd’s calling him a king

Question 5

ruether - maleness of christ truth

Answer 5

• Fulfilment of expectations of kingship of JC was added in by later writers, JC did not want to be presented this way
  o Speaks of the Messiah not as a King, but as a servant, shows the redemption of the lowest people of society
  o Serves rather than rules, sacrificial e.g. washing the feet of his disciples/calling the Pharisees ‘hypocrites’.
• Christology has been changed by the Church to present JC as the Saviour rather than this title referring to one who is yet to come
  o 4th Century: Xian is imperial RE of Roman Empire, much stronger link between Messiah and King ideology
  o Should reject Messiah as a Davidic military figure, instead focus on the self-sacrificing, redeeming servant Messiah who is connected to the female notion of wisdom
  Maleness of Davidic military Messiah does a disservice to women as it combines the male gender of JC with the Davidic militant = double male

Question 6

ruether - yahweh

Answer 6

• Male monotheism is rooted in Judaism. Should look to Yahwehism which promotes strong image of female God: Yahweh is described like a mother, mixed gender images
• ‘The Lord goes out to fight like a warrior; he is ready and eager for battle. He gives a war cry, a battle shout; he shows his power against his enemies’ (Isaiah 42:13)
  o Verse 4 of same chapter: God says ‘for a long time I kept silent; I did not answer my people. But now the time to act has come; I cry out like a woman in labour’.
  o Male and female images swap within same chapter…

Question 7

ruether - Sophia

Answer 7

o Book of Proverbs shows Wisdom as the offspring of God and in the Wisdom of Solomon (apocryphal book accepted by RCC), Wisdom is the manifestation of God through whom God mediates the work of creation – subtle power of the presence of God
o ‘Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? At the highest point along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand’ (Proverbs 8:1-2)
o Sophia continued to mean divine wisdom for early Xians
o In Wisdom of Solomon, the wise man (Solomon) takes wisdom as his bride. Created image of God/ess but Hebrew thought maintained that she was a dependent attribute/expression of the transcendent male God rather than a goddess/female manifestation of the divine.

Question 8

ruether - Holy Spirit

Answer 8

o Xian iconography: see the female image in a 14th century fresco in Munich where there is a female spirit between an older male God and a younger JC.
o This side of God becomes dominated by image of male God.
o Male Messianic king has obscured this female wisdom.

Question 9

ruether - rabbinic judaism

Answer 9

• Rabbinic Judaism did not uphold the Logos idea due to the adoption of it by Gnosticism, Shekhina became new image of female form of God. Shabbat celebration is a sign of the connubial embrace of God and his bride (Shekhina). God will become one with creation, uniting male and female.

Question 10

ruether - wisdom and JC

Answer 10

o Xianity has chosen male symbol for the Logos and SofG, correlation between maleness of JC historical person and the maleness of the Logos as the male offspring of a male God.
o Logos governs the cosmos so the Roman emperor with the Xian Church governs the world: ‘masters govern slaves and men govern women’
o Deems this as excluding women as representative of JC in ministry = second class citizenship
o 1 Cor 1:23-24 – ‘we preach Christ crucified… Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God’
o ‘Theologically, Logos plays the same cosmological role as Sophia as ground of creation, revealer of the mind of God, and reconciler of humanity to God’
o JC is not simply the male part of God but also the incarnation of female wisdom.

Question 11

ruether solution to sexism

Answer 11

• There is enough evidence to tackle sexism in the Church by reshaping how Xians think about God, the Trinity and organisation
• Xianity has lost its egalitarian roots, JC’s relationship w/God was based on respect and love
• The concept of Abba has been used to oppress women, we should obey God not men
• She is involved in the Women-Church movement = group of women who meet to model a church liberated from patriarchal bondage, questions the male construct of hierarchy in preference of a sisterhood
• Language
  o Must use language that is based on an apophatic assumption that God is beyond language and so beyond gender
  o God/ess is by analogy as much he/she as it is not he/she (- God is beyond language, but analogy is probably the best way to approach God-talk)
  o Does not want to claim purely female gendered language about God/ess, but rather warn against retaining only male and patriarchal language

Question 12

general positives of ruether

Answer 12

• Bridging gap between Church and liberal society, pushing Church towards modernity
• God/ess combines both genders, inclusive of men also
• Does use Biblical precedent, even if it is selective

Question 13

ruether positive - Phylis trible

Answer 13

• Phylis Trible sees that ‘the intentionality of biblical faith… is neither to create nor perpetuate patriarchy but rather to function as salvation for both women and men’. She employs the hermeneutic act of suspicion developed by Paul Ricoeur that we should look at who has interpreted the text when translating. Argues that male interp allows feminist theologies to reject patriarchal understandings rather than the Bible altogether.

Question 14

ruether positive - Elaine storkey

Answer 14

• Elaine Storkey argued that Xianity should not be seen as essentially sexist as JC’s ‘patronising attitude communicated respect and dignity and brought him their love’

Question 15

ruether positive - moltmann and congar

Answer 15

Some well-known theologians like Moltmann and Congar speak of the feminine, motherly characteristics

Question 16

Ruether negative - general

Answer 16

• Ruether makes JC too political, ignores Church tradition
• By using God/ess, Ruether has compromised the unity and sovereignty of God
  Male/female difference: RCC teaches men and women are equal but different in vocation/role
• Selectivity in sources: apocryphal literature, 14th century art, specific Scripture etc.
• Is it necessary to do all of this? Xianity is about salvation for all, JC expressed respect re. women
• Relies on her own assumptions of JC’s character, maybe JC was in fact a warrior King.

Question 17

ruether negative - Simon chan

Answer 17

• Simon Chan: you cannot rewrite the Xian story to give more prominence too women. Trinity relies on masculine language, should not therefore abandon the male language for God. Using female lang does not make society less patriarchal:
  o ‘Even today, many societies devoted to goddess worship remain oppressive toward women’. (‘Why we call God Father’ in Christianity Today, 2013)

Question 18

ruether negative - Daphne Hampson

Answer 18

• Daphne Hampson argues that Xianity and feminism are incompatible, some of the stories should be seen as myths. ‘The Christian story has harmed women: thus many a feminist no longer has any use for Xianity’

Question 19

ruether negative - Nicola sleep

Answer 19

• Nicola Slee criticises the attempt to endow the male God with feminine characteristics as she argues that the male still ends up being the norm and it also leaves unchallenged the stereotypical notions of masculine and feminine traits.

Question 20

mary daly summary

Answer 20

(American radical post-Christian feminist theologian)

• Clear influence of Simone de Beauvoir on her work
• 1971: Harvard Memorial Chapel – did a sermon encouraging men and women to leave the Church and Xianity
• 1999 – refused to allow men in her lectures, dismissed from lectureship
• Argues that the idea of a patriarchal fatherly God is the foundation of a sexist culture of denigration and violence to women and an unholy trinity of rape, genocide and war.

Question 21

mary daly influence from nietzche

Answer 21

• Influence from Nietzsche can be observed: emphasised the need to deliver people from their self-imposes cultured prison via transvaluation:
  o There are 2 aspects of nature: Apollonian/passive self and the Dionysian/energetic self. Daly believes only women can be Dionysian.
  o Apollonian veil: when humans falsely create ideas that they believe are true. Daly believes only women can remove false ideas.
  o Becoming and Be-ing: being human is a creative process, no perfect end point as no one can say what it is to be human as there is no God. Daly argues only women understand the spiritual process of loving that is be-ing
  o Daly disagrees with Nietzsche’s concept of the ‘ubermensch’, arguing that even Nietzsche is blinded by the Apollonian veil that he was trying to support as he unwittingly supported patriarchy. Daly thus claims that ‘it is radical feminism that can unveil the feminine ethic’

Question 22

daly image of god

Answer 22

‘If God is male, then male is God’
- Popular image of God = great patriarch in the sky
- Sets a pattern for society to be male dominated
- The divine patriarch castrates women as long as he lives on in the human imagination
- Need to cut away the Supreme Phallus by transforming the collective imagination
- Not enough to call God ‘she’, most basic change has to take place in women
- This complete annihilation of God the Father that will be a part of the transvaluation of all ‘phallic values’
o People use it to subordinate women to God’s will
o To call God ‘Father’ is argued to make humans more aware of themselves, but it actually just makes women more isolated
o By not having any reference to the sexual hierarchy means that people are failing to engage with the reality of the problem

Question 23

daly criticism of church father

Answer 23

o Tertullian, ‘the devil’s gateway’ responsible for the Fall and the reason God needed to send JC to die to save everyone
o Augustine, women are not made in the image of God
o Aquinas, ‘misbegotten males’
o Bonhoeffer insisted that women should be subject to their husband
o Barth claimed women are subordinate to their male head
o Fletcher’s SE is male-made theory, part of the thinking of patriarchy’s dominating elite. Through being individualistic, it denies the communal dimension so important for women’s liberation

Question 24

daly - dethronement of gods

Answer 24

• Women have the capacity for a new spiritual consciousness, must involve themselves in the ‘dethronement of false gods’
  o There are 3 particular false gods:
  1. God of explanation/’stop gap for the incompleteness of our knowledge’ (Bonhoeffer quote)
  ♣ With sickness, natural disasters etc. we cannot explain these as God’s will
  ♣ Women must see that ‘God’s plan’ is often a front for men’s plans which are evil
  2. Otherworldliness
  ♣ God = judge of patriarchal religion
  ♣ Women have been told to believe that everything will be better in the afterlife
  ♣ Daly argues women should come into their home in this world, can develop otherworldliness
  3. God who judges our sin
  ♣ Supports the rulers of the reigning system, women have suffered e.g. been told abortion/contraception are wrong

Question 25

daly - new language

Answer 25

• There needs to be a new language of transcendence
• Current words/symbols have been formulated by men under the conditions of the patriarchy
• Women have been subjugated to the often sexist views of Church fathers
• Process of transvaluation involves the reinvention of language
  o Uses words that have been used to disempower women and instead turns them into empowering terms e.g. hag, crone, nag and spinster.
  o Be-ing is not static, women are ‘spinster’, spinning new meanings and exploring new non-patriarchal ways of living

Question 26

daly - patriarchal world

Answer 26

• Patriarchal world is made up of 2 forms:
  o Foreground
  ♣ World dominated by Apollonian values
  ♣ False world, sucks life out of women
  ♣ Calls male leaders ‘snools’, female snools are ‘henchwomen’ who gain power from snools
  o Background
  ♣ Women have become used to living in the shadow of men, background is older, more energetic and closer to the reality of be-ing

Question 27

daly - rape

Answer 27

• In Gyn/Ecology, Daly claims Xianity stands for its desire to oppress women and elevate male values
• JC’s sacrifice is a symbol of male enjoyment of pain, torture and sexual domination over women
• Mary legitimises the abuse of women by the Church, being the archetypal rape victim
• Rape
  o Correlation between rape and war
  o Scant references to victims of rape in war
  o E.g. Joyce Goldman, gives example of one Pakistani officer in the Pakistani war, ‘we use the girls until they die’
  o E.g. In Daccam women were raped and thrown off roofs. 8 year old girl slit and raped until she died
  o Rape is a symbol of the violent oppression that connects together the nuclear arms race, racism, man-made poverty and ecological disaster
  o Leaders of society (‘sovereigns of sado-society’) use culture, religion, the media etc. to erase female power and imprison women in a state of grateful dead
  o Women have almost forgotten the gross inequality and have become divided against eachother

Question 28

daly - rape and bible

Answer 28

♣ Numbers 31:17-18
• ‘Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves ever girl who has never slept with a man’
♣ Numbers 31:31-35
• Take 32,000 women, keeping 16,000
♣ Deuteronomy 21:14
• ‘If you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife’
♣ Judges 19:24
• ‘Here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now and you can use them and do them whatever you wish. But as for this man, don’t do such an outrageous thing’
• Men end up taking the concubine and ‘raped her and abused her throughout the night’
• Woman goes back to house and collapses on the floor. Man cuts her up into 12 pieces and sends them into all the areas of Israel.
• However, response is not positive, ‘We must do something! So speak up! (v30)
♣ Argues rape is part of Jewish and Xian tradition

Question 29

daly - genocide

Answer 29

o Church has occasionally been guilty of not dealing with the reality of genocide
o E.g. the American Catholic Bishops said nothing about the genocidal policies of the US in S East Asia, instead focusing on abortion
o E.g. Xians did not really help the Jews at that time and their passivity makes them guilty in part of the Holocaust.
o Daly links the Nazi ‘groupthink’ with that of the RCC, collective focus on those who are ‘other’

Question 30

daly - war

Answer 30

o Teddy Roosevelt: associated war with the ‘manly and adventurous virtues’
o Horrors in the war become invisible, we come desensitised
o James Gustafson argued that a morally conscientious soldier who fights a war and takes a life is more just than one who takes the life of a foetus in the rom of abortion. Daly sees this as ‘a logical expression of phallocentric power’
o Women must break it: ‘the casting out of the demonic Trinities is female becoming’
o Views Xianity as sustaining and shaping the moral standards, must leave Xianity
o Daly argues the only true form of friendship is lesbian, but against the ‘butch’ form of lesbianism where women try and imitate men.
o Speaks against Xian Galatians 3, argues it is the Church trying to make it palatable

Question 31

daly - spirituality

Answer 31

Spirituality experienced through nature

• Sacred men’s club of male mothers (priests) control every spiritual moment in the life of a woman, locks them in Eden
• Traditional holy places are built and run by men
• Promotes quintessence, a being in which we live, love and create. It is the highest essence, can be blocked by things such as violence, rediscovered in nature
• Women should adopt a more natural approach to life, embrace paganism and eco-feminist witchcraft
• Daly believes feminism will triumph, will create a Most Holy Whole Trinity of power, justice and love
• Spinster = women spinning a transformed spirituality free from Xian patriarchy

Question 32

daly positive - carol christ

Answer 32

• Carol Christ (pagan spiritual eco-feminist)
  o Wants to replace the God of patriarchy with a goddess of humanity who is fallible and constantly changing
  o By tapping into the power of the Goddess, we can help one other
  o We rise each morning with the following greeting to the sun: as this day dawns in beauty, we pledge ourselves to repair the web i.e. web of good relationships
  We just need to goddess, energy of human creativity

Question 33

daly positive - alhuwalia and bowie

Answer 33

Ahluwalia and Bowie write ‘goddess images inspire creative activity, in the work of weaving or the dragon identified passions of rage and lust for nemesis. Goddess names call for action, movement and change’

Question 34

daly positive - rosemarie tong

Answer 34

• • Rosemarie Tong speaks of the relatively new spiritual ecofeminism. Gravitate toward ancient goddess worship, woman’s ability to give birth is analogous to Gaia’s role who creates life and creates all that exists. ‘Women’s relationship to nature is privileged over men’s relationship to nature, according to spiritual ecofeminists’

Question 35

daly negative - Elaine storkey

Answer 35

Elaine Storkey argues that the fruit of Spirit in Gal 5 can belong to both men and women.

Question 36

daly positive - starhawk

Answer 36

Carol Christ and Starhawk argue the patriarchal models of God are so damaging that they are beyond repair, must remove him and replace him with the goddess

Question 37

daly positive - Daphne Hampson

Answer 37

• Daphne Hampson argues that Xianity and feminism are incompatible, some of the stories should be seen as myths. ‘The Christian story has harmed women: thus many a feminist no longer has any use for Xianity’

Question 38

daly negative - Simon chan

Answer 38

• Simon Chan: appeals to the Creed, speaks of belief in masculine trinity. By having 3 persons, it incorporates multiple people in a relationship. Also emphasises that God is a Father for all. Using masc. language does not create masc. qualities. Isaiah 54:5-7 shows how God is compassionate, which is not ordinarily a male characteristic ‘The term father, then, excludes not feminine qualities, but rather the idea of a distant and impersonal deity’

Question 39

daly negative - fiorenza

Answer 39

• E Schussler Fiorenza stresses how the Bible supports challenging sexism as JC himself does this.

Question 40

daly negative - general

Answer 40

• Gone too far, lesbian separatism excludes men and some women
• Selective exegesis, linking specific texts to cause, not holistic
• Evolution of language is very long process, re-appropriation may not be successful due to the engrained nature of original association
• Idea of all female society is limiting and unhealthy
• Do we still need her theology? Society is become increasingly equal.
• Fails to evaluate other religions e.g. Buddhism, v Christocentric understanding of spirituality
• Her vision of the new elect is implicitly aimed at white, lesbian, western women. Does not include women of different ethnicities, backgrounds and sexualities

Question 41

daly negative - Phylis trible

Answer 41

• Phylis Trible sees that ‘the intentionality of biblical faith… is neither to create nor perpetuate patriarchy but rather to function as salvation for both women and men’. She employs the hermeneutic act of suspicion developed by Paul Ricoeur that we should look at who has interpreted the text when translating. Argues that male interp allows feminist theologies to reject patriarchal understandings rather than the Bible altogether.

Question 42

daly negative - janet soskice

Answer 42

Janet Soskice: God’s title of Father stretches beyond biological meaning

Question 43

ruether and daly similarities

Answer 43

• Both recognise patriarchal nature of institutionalised Xianity
• Both want to break free from patriarchy
• Both believe it is the role of women to make change
  Both believe that we must change the way we use language (D: reappropriation, R: God/ess)

Question 44

ruether and daly differences

Answer 44

• Daly rejects Xianity, Ruether attempts to reconcile it

Ruether – equality, Daly rejects men and advocates lesbian separatism

Question 45

Elisabeth schussler fiorenza summary

Answer 45

(RCC feminist theologian)

• She argues that for women to be autonomous beings, societal institutions, cultural images and the roles of women and men must be redefined
• Argues that in a sexist society, woman’s main role is to be male’s ‘helpmate’, they are ‘denigrated and infantilised or idealised’
• Views Xian ethics as having intensified the internalisation of feminine passive attitudes e.g. humility, ‘impede the development of self-assertion and autonomy by women’

Question 46

E Schuss F - responses to feminist critique

Answer 46

• Any argue that women are in no way inferior e.g. Pope Francis maintains that ‘women can do many other things better than men’
• Men assert that they are attempting to increase gender equality, yet maintain that ‘women have to be excluded from hierarchical orders on the grounds of an antiquated and simply false historical exegesis’
• People can act violently to women’s demand for institutional and theological change as they are required to give up certain ‘centuries-old privileges’ (Daly supports this view)

Question 47

E Schuss F - feminist theology as a critical theology

Answer 47

• Highlights how Scripture is essentially as rooted in a patriarchal culture
• Similarly to Phylis Trible, Fiorenza adopts the hermeneutic act of suspicion when interpreting the Bible
  o H, dangerous due to subjectivity
• Quotes Simone Weil, ‘History, therefore, is nothing but a compilation of the depositions made by assassins with respect to their victims and themselves’
• Christian tradition was recorded/studied by male theologians, thus the reason for their androcentric tone. His-story must be rewritten in such a way that it becomes not only his-story but her-story also.
• Argues against Schillebeeckx claiming that to merely understand the Xian tradition and texts in their settings does not suffice, as it fails to recognise the role tradition has played in female oppression.

Question 48

E Schuss F - liberated theology

Answer 48

• Feminists must demand a radical change of oppressive, patriarchal institutions and structures
• Women cannot be fully involve in the theological profession, given ‘junior’ roles dependent on male authority. ‘If they demand to be treated as equals, they are often labelled “aggressive”, “crazy” or “unscholarly”’
• Uses mental experiment to show how ‘damaging the masculine language and patterns of theology are to women’.
  o Essentially reverses the concept of male God, female bishops praise accomplishments of female theologians, RC seminarians tell men they cannot be ordained as they are male.
• In order to move towards a ‘whole theology’, women and men, black and white etc. must be involved in the formulation of new theology, not exclusively women who must undertake this role. (Unlike Daly) Theology must once again become communal.
• Must promote new symbols, ask new questions in order to reinterpret Xian symbols = radical

Question 49

E Schuss F - Mary mother of god

Answer 49

• Mary resembles aspects of ancient goddess mythologies e.g. Magna Mater, thus portrayed as on equal level with God
• Mary has powerful effect on people’s lives but does not influence church structure
• Acts 2: Mary portrayed as in the midst of the apostles
• Myth of Mary as virgin mother sanctions a double dichotomy in the self-understanding of Catholic women:
  o Woman is defined by her ‘nature’ i.e. ability to carry children
  o This is demonstrated in RCC stance on contraception etc. which shows how women are not allowed to be in charge of their biological processes
  o Secondly, women are thus forced to choose between motherhood or virginity = mother or nun
• Traditional Mariology is thus damaging to women’s quest for independence

Question 50

E Schuss F - mary magdalene

Answer 50

• V important woman: Luke 8:3 (goes with JC and other women to proclaim the word) and witnessed JC’s burial and resurrection
• Bernard of Clairvaux calls her the ‘apostle to the apostles’
• However, she is defined as a sinner and penitent woman, ‘must free the image of Mary Magdalene from all distortions and recover her role as apostle’
• Women and men must rewrite Xian theology to recover aspects that have been neglected/distorted by patriarchal theologians
• Gospel of Thomas (apocryphal) acknowledges her special nature, but can only describe it in a way that is analogous to men ‘I will make her male that she may too become a living spirit resembling you males’

Question 51

janet soskice - trinity

Answer 51

• Suggests the Trinity is important as it guards against androcentric
  o Trinity says that JC was wholly God but not the whole of God
  o JC was God incarnate but God incarnate is more than just JC (Similar to R’s view that JC’s masculinity is accidental)
  o ‘Human bodies must be either male or female, but Christ is the Saviour not because he is male but because he is human’
  o ‘If the doctrine of the Trinity has suffered from a distorted male weighting, then the challenge to contemporary theology – not just to feminist theology – is to return the balance’

Question 52

janet soskice - how to achieve gender equality

Answer 52

o Desexualising language, replacing male trinity with the Creator/Redeemer/Sustained
o Emphasise the female characteristics of the Spirit
o However, she does note the problems within these approaches
♣ First is depersonalising, potentially limiting in roles of Trinity to one area
♣ Second is problematic for feminists, if we argue that the Spirit’s female qualities are rooted in its nurturing tendencies, it suggests women are defined by motherhood
♣ ‘The spirit by implication is here handmade of the other two (male) persons who are the ones to be really known and loved’
o Deems Julian of Norwich to have provided a useful pattern for feminist understandings of the Trinity. Julian was willing to speak of JC and God as mother, did not reject male language but advocated the use of female language in conjunction
o OT God is spoke of in male and female language