Feminist Theology Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Wayne Grudem is known for rejecting the "eternal generation of the son" and revising the historic doctrine of the Trinity (i.e., asserting the eternal subordination of the son) to re-enforce permanent female subordination. The argument is... more

- by
- •
- Theology, Feminist Theology, Egalitarianism, Trinity

This was a research paper for a course entitled Feminist and Multicultural Theologies. I unpack what gender complementarianism is, examine its history, and compare it to how Scripture and earlier Christian Tradition understood gender. This allows me to establish that gender complementarianism is a recent innovation in secular and Christian thinking about gender, and that it can be described as a "trajectory" from Scripture and Tradition on gender, influenced by social, ideological, and intellectual developments in secular societies. I then pursue a critique of gender complementarianism, arguing that it is an "unsatisfactory trajectory" because it has troubling implications for orthodox theology, is not borne out by empirical experience and observation, and has harmful effects on human beings and societies and on ethical development.

- by Caleb M Day
- •
- History, Gender Studies, Ethics, Normative Ethics

Cristina Lledo Gomez seeks to bring a more realistic
model of motherhood into theological discourse, focusing on
the motherhood of the church. she argues that the image of
mother church needs to reflect the realities of mothering in
order to foster a more mature understanding of faith in the
context of the maternal church, in which all the people of God
are called “to become mothers to others themselves.”

- by Cristina Lledo Gomez
- •
- Feminist Theology, Ecclesiology

Catherine Keller adalah guru besar Teologi Konstruktif di Universitas Drew, Amerika Serikat. Minat Catherine sangat luas dan ia meramu banyak hal dalam tulisannya, mulai dari tema-tema pascamodernitas, psikoanalisis, gender, mistisisme, hingga wacana antaragama. Ia pun nyaman berdialog dengan pihak yang berbeda keyakinan, kaum sekuler, bahkan Kristen tradisional. Pendekatan lintasdisiplin, lintastekstual menjadi kekhasan metodologi Catherine, merajut pemikiran feminis dengan ekologi, filsafat Eropa daratan (continental philosophies), teologi Kristen, dan pemikiran filsafat lainnya. Karyanya canggih dan rumit, namun menyelip kekocakan dan sinisme. Karya karya Catherine, tampak jelas menunjukkan ciri Teologi Proses, teopoetika, teopolitik, dan pendekatan apofatis dalam bangunan teologi feminisnya. Karyanya luwes, memberi perhatian pada konstruksi kemungkinan-kemungkinan dan potensi bahasa agama sebagai poiesis. Metodologi ini membantu Catherine menelisik, menyelami penderitaan manusia, memahami cara kerja kekuasaan, menelanjanginya, menemukan kebocoran pada wacana yang dianggap gagah dan tegar, sekaligus membangun imajinasi alternatif. Teopoetika “[m]embuka sumbat botol, membebaskan buih-buih bahasa, menobatkan kuasa metafora, ikon, dan kisah pada titik di mana teologi sistematis hanya bisa mendisiplinkannya”.

Can the Bible make one a feminist? Note that the question here is not, “Can a feminist read (and appreciate) the Bible?” Feminists, of course, do read the Bible. While most might find it at least occasionally a challenge to their feminist sensibilities, only some who approach the matter with Christian faith intact—most famously, perhaps, Mary Daly—walk away from it rejecting that faith. Many manage to retain their Christian convictions in spite of what may seem like a consistently dismal portrayal of Scripture’s female characters and its often tacit prescriptions for men in keeping women in line. Still others may even find their faith renewed and fortified by their feminist reading of Scripture, especially those who discover in the text a more feminine representation of God. 1

When Sojourner Truth phrased her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech, she demonstrated that theology can be radically transformed when the gospel story is taken literally, and seriously, in the mind of a despised woman. With boldness, she confronted a clergyman who argued for the natural marginalization of women, based on biblical principles. The courage to confront her male rival is only outdone by the power of her re-interpretation of the gospel.

- by Maury Jackson
- •
- Feminist Theology, Childbirth, Seventh-day adventist theology, Sojourner Truth

Acquire my peace within yourselves! (...) For the child of true Humanity exists within you. Follow it! Those who seek for it will find. Gos Mary 4:2, 5-71
SUMMARY – The roles of women through whom a Matrology might be derived, are examined here in two ways: firstly, and according to apocryphal, historical and contemporary interpretations, through precarious gender relations of the political and historical context of the patriarchal Greco-Roman world; and secondly, by analysing both reductionist and inclusive accounts of women’s witness and role in the early Christian Church as ascetics, translators, benefactors, teachers and companion equals to early Church Fathers. That this disparity, and further omission of women from the Christian canon has been sustained until the twenty first century, makes such a study and reconsideration imperative to the veracity of studies in spirituality and theology.

- by Shé Hawke
- •
- Religion, Christianity, Comparative Religion, Cultural Studies

In the light of the gap between constitutional vision and social realities in South Africa and a perceived disconnect between religious and human rights discourses, this article suggests that embodying a liberating theological hermeneutic for human rights within Christianity remains urgent. This is critical if churches are to respond constructively to the post-apartheid call by theologians to play an active role in building a human rights culture for all who remain right-less. This article explores Jürgen Moltmann's Trinitarian approach to the imago dei which contributed to a global shift on human rights by churches in the 1970s. It traces its creative appropriation by South African feminist theologians Denise Ackermann and Miranda Pillay to underpin a subversive vision of a social order that points to relational ways of " becoming human " that can serve those that are often seen as less than fully human. It concludes that a liberating theology for human rights needs concrete embodiment and enactment in church mission and identity in South Africa today and ends with brief examples from the life of Rondebosch United Church in Cape Town where the author is a lay leader.

- by Selina Palm
- •
- Human Rights, Feminist Theology, Gender and Sexuality, Liberation Theology

For most religious practitioners religion serves several important functions, including providing a more thorough understanding and experience of the world in general, and sacred reality in particular. The tenants and practices of religion are supposed to help practitioners better understand or experience the divine, make sense of their place in the world, and interpret their experience of it. But religious frameworks sometimes fail with respect to these goals. Rather than illuminating, they can distort the world, the divine, and one's experience of them both. When one's experience is obscured as a result of unfair social structures, feminist philosophers have called it hermeneutical injustice. While some work has been done within philosophy of religion to demonstrate the psychological and spiritual harm that religious frameworks can enable, less has been said about the epistemic injustices they can perpetuate. In this paper I identify a form of hermeneutical injustice that arises when experiences are obscured from collective understanding not by a lacuna in the conceptual resources, as others have described, but by the widespread acceptance of normative concepts. I then argue that this form of hermeneutical injustice is often at play in cases of religious trauma and spiritual violence, either by causing the trauma directly or by creating a hermetical environment in which marginalized people are especially vulnerable to it.

- by Michelle Panchuk
- •
- Philosophy Of Religion, Feminist Theology, Feminist Philosophy, Trauma Studies

Presented at the 2015 Great Plains Regional SBL Conference at Creighton University, Omaha, NE.

In feminist theories and postmodern theories on human sexuality, we can observe the phenomenon of abandoning strict division of sex. The question therefore arises: is feminism, and thus feminist theology, which establishes this division, still has reason for being? What is the relation between feminism and postmodernism – seen as one rejecting any essentialist thinking? Are they mutually exclusive? In order to explore these issues, the article presents, at first, views of the authors who are known as representatives of postmodern feminism. Subsequently the article delineates views on sexuality presented by queer theory, which seem to achieve thoroughly the postmodern demands. At the end, authors make an attempt to answer, how feminism and feminist theology could be inspired by postmodern thought without losing their identity.

- by Anna Woźnica
- •
- Theology, Feminist Theology

A consideration of obstetric fistula as a theological problem. The destruction of women's bodies and their lives through obstetric fistula and its social consequences is deeply colored by our Christian assessment of the value of women's bodies and the importance (even, perhaps, the necessity) of women's suffering. The Christian understanding of human bodies and suffering is linked to our understanding of the Incarnation, sin, and redemption; and finally, how we think about women and redemption leads us back to Eve and the idea that the Incarnation was necessary only because of her sin. This paper argues for a contemporary, evolutionary understanding of the Incarnation as part of the answer to the suffering of women with fistula.

- by Colleen Carpenter
- •
- Feminist Theology, Christology, Theology of Suffering and Evil, Childbirth

La experiencia religiosa auténtica no se queda en el ámbito de la interioridad, ni deja igual la vida de quien la tiene, sino que impulsa a la transformación de situaciones injustas, lo que no deja de producir conflictos. Las diferencias de género se pueden observar, sobre todo, en su recepción y control por parte de las autoridades comunitarias. El capítulo examina la forma de control de la experiencia religiosa femenina que se produce con el proceso de etiquetamiento negati-vo que reciben, mediante tres etiquetas o «sambenitos», como son: «bruja», «mística» o «feminista». Asimismo, como ya sucediera en Jesús de Nazaret, se produce en ellas una autoestigmatización: estra-tegia de defensa y respuesta que consiste en la apropiación del estig-ma que les ha sido atribuido por el grupo, cambiando su valoración y presentándolo a la sociedad como un valor. Introducción Las figuras que están en la base de las grandes religiones, todas ellas varones, tuvieron importantes y profundas experiencias reli-giosas al inicio de su camino.
Carmen Bernabé Ubieta, "De Místicas, brujas y feministas cristianas. La experiencia de Dios que implica y complica",

- by Carmen Bernabé Ubieta
- •
- Feminist Theology

... of ancient societies is the indolent assumption that they must have resembled our ownthe existence of a different world is the hardest thing to admit&#x27;.50 Marija Gimbutas had a long and esteemed career in archaeology... more

- by Joan Marler
- •
- Feminist Theology, Social Structure
- by Heleen Zorgdrager
- •
- Feminist Theory, Feminist Theology, Ukrainian Studies, Post-Soviet Studies

The need for the news of the Gospel of Christ springs from the needs of a human being, of a group, of a community, of a region or of a city. Paul perceived the desire, the need, and the hope of the Athenians to know the true God, as he was seeing their sacred places and among them an altar dedicated to the unknown God, whom they worshipped though they were ignorant of him.

- by Ioanna Sahinidou
- •
- Feminist Theology, Ecology, Biblical Theology, Ecotheology

In 1924, B. Russell claimed the crucial importance of relationships to our understanding of many unresolved philosophical problems. Such observation is more than fundamental for the contemporary philosophical agenda: ontology, philosophy of religion and several other theoretical fields require an explanation for the very nature of what a relationship is and how it works. Collecting several contributions on the very meaning of relations, the volume aims to expand the international debate in the field from a philosophical perspective. Ranging from history of philosophy to ontology, from philosophy of religion to the history of religious doctrines, leading scholars from all over the world come together to address this timely topic.

- by Damiano Migliorini and +1
- •
- Jainism, Quantum Physics, Anthropology, Philosophy

Il testo vuole incarnare una possibile mediazione tra universi culturali lontani ed essere una lettura propedeutica per chi intenda addentrarsi nella tematica, lasciando che la fede cristiana s’interroghi liberamente sul ‘gender’. Un approccio sereno e critico sia alla cultura laica di genere – della quale si esaminano i nodi principali – sia a quella cattolica, con l’intento di superare le reciproche diffidenze e cercare insieme una verità umanizzante per tutti. L’obiettivo è gettare delle basi condivisibili su cui costruire una sintesi teologica più ampia. Un testo che, nell’esaminare i nodi teoretici, volge lo sguardo alla recente campagna ‘anti-gender’, cercando di fornire le coordinate utili a svelenire il clima e muoversi al suo interno con padronanza di lessico e concettualità. In questo senso, l’opera vuole essere uno strumento per formatori, pastori e attivisti che vogliano introdursi nella complessità senza scorciatoie, per cogliere la ricchezza del ‘pensiero di genere’: nell’orizzonte della promozione di un benessere comunitario e individuale.

- by Damiano Migliorini
- •
- Christianity, Sociology, Developmental Psychology, Gender Studies

Existential Theology: An Introduction offers a formalized and comprehensive examination of the field of existential theology, in order to distinguish it as a unique field of study and view it as a measured synthesis of the concerns of Christian existentialism, Christian humanism, and Christian philosophy with the preoccupations of proper existentialism and a series of unfolding themes from Augustine to Kierkegaard. To do this, Existential Theology attends to the field through the exploration of genres: the European traditions in French, Russian, and German schools of thought, counter-traditions in liberation, feminist, and womanist approaches, and postmodern traditions located in anthropological, political, and ethical approaches. While the cultural contexts inform how each of the selected philosopher-theologians present genres of “existential theology,” other unique genres are examined in theoretical and philosophical contexts, particularly through a selected set of theologians, philosophers, thinkers, and theorists that are not generally categorized theologically. By assessing existential theology through how it manifests itself in “genres,” this book brings together lesser-known figures, well-known thinkers, and figures that are not generally viewed as “existential theologians” to form a focused understanding of the question of the meaning of “existential theology” and what “existential theology” looks like in its varying forms.

- by Hue Woodson
- •
- Theology, Systematic Theology, Philosophical Theology, Feminist Theology

30 years of Feminist, Gender, and Masculinty approaches to Hos 11

- by Marie-Theres Wacker
- •
- Gender Studies, Feminist Theology, Book of Hosea

The aim of my paper is to consider the construction of Christian Orthodox anthropology beyond sexual ideology and towards the eschatological body.
Among the arguments of Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church against the ordination of women, the sex of the incarnated God Word appears as a fundamental one and makes the female human being unsuitable to represent Christ. Although those who argue against the ordination of women acknowledge a) the fact that the aim of the incarnation of Son of God was exactly the restoration of unity of the divided human nature and b) the fact that in Christ men and women are equal, they in fact support that sexual difference is a structural component of human nature (and not just an external element) and that men and women are different not because each human being is a unique person but on the basis of their sexed body. What lies behind this argument is a sexual ideology that assumes that human beings are distinguished into sexes naturally. In this paper, I propose that such a view comes against not only current understandings of the construction of sex and gender but also the biblical witness and the Church’s tradition. My main argument is that if we see human beings in the light of the eschatological body, no person can be excluded from ordination.

- by Muhammed Jaseel KK
- •
- Islamic Law, Feminist Theory, Feminist Theology, Feminist Epistemology

The account of the rape of Dinah (pronounced Dee-nah) in Genesis 34 is a narrative which does not easily function as a ‘morality tale’; a point made by Brugeman , Scholz and Shanker, in their respective reflections on what is possibly the biblical texts least well known and understood story. Despite its relative scarcity amongst commentaries or academic work, the rape of Dina is an important narrative, highlighting ancient sexual politics as well as those of today. Other than the first verse where Dinah takes it upon herself to ‘go out’ to visit the woman of the land, everything in this account happens to Dinah. In this narrative, Dinah is the one acted upon and not the actor. In the narrative Dinah is given no agency by her brothers, her father, Shechem, not even the narrator allows her to talk. For Willett the outcome of the sordid story is not good for anyone, she sees no heroes in this story, other than Dinah herself. The “dark side of patriarchy” has been shown up for its incapacity to produce positive results for anyone.

Agar peserta mengenal (walau sekilas) gagasan utama dan metodologi hermeneutika feminis Elizabeth A. Johnson dalam bukunya She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourses;
Agar peserta memahami framework dan strategi-strategi hermeneutika feminis yang ditawarkan oleh Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza;
Agar peserta sanggup menjalankan metodologi hermeneutika feminis sesuai dengan locus theologicus ataupun locus philosophicus masing-masing.

- by Petrus Lakonawa
- •
- Feminist Theology, Feminist Biblical Hermeneutics

Saba Mahmood begins Politics of Piety with a question: [H]ow should issues of historical and cultural specificity inform both the analytics and the politics of any feminist project?' She notes that while many forms of 'difference' have been integrated within feminist theory, 'religious difference' has received comparatively little emphasis. She attributes this to the 'vexing relationship between feminism and religion,' arising from feminism's firm situation within 'secular-liberal politics.' In this essay, I explore how Mahmood's insights might enrich the study of premodern Christianity. My particular focus will be a central, yet highly contested, aspect of medieval women's piety: the practice of nuns taking the veil during consecration, marking them as 'brides of Christ'. I hope, with Mahmood, to consider how an analysis of 'the particular form that the body takes might transform our conceptual understanding of the act itself', offering new possibilities for the practice of feminist historiography.

- by Karl Shuve
- •
- Feminist Theory, History of Christianity, Feminist Theology, Medieval Studies
- by Sheri D Kling
- •
- New Testament, Feminist Theology, Transformation, Wisdom

The biblical wisdom tradition is often seen as an incidental or even marginal addition to biblical theology, at best a sort of alternative voice in the conversation. But when considering the development and implementation of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, it seems that the wisdom tradition plays a central role in forging and understanding this doctrine.

- by Lois Malcolm
- •
- Feminist Theology, Christology, Trinitarian Theology, Biblical Wisdom literature

Insofar as public theology is one of several contextual theologies in the world that is focused on and limited to specific contexts, its raison d'être may be understandable. But we argue that if or since public theology has ambitions to become a totalizing and global theological methodology-a ready-made frame to be adapted to and adopted in various contexts-we shall, in this article, unmask and interrogate the unspoken imperial ambitions of global public theology. We will use Black and African theologies to evaluate it. In this article, we argue that the context in which Black and African theologies are done is too important for them to be buried under generalized and seemingly context-less notions of public theology. To this end, we will sketch a few issues that define the context in which Black and African theologies are being done today. These include doing theology not at the helm but in the shadow of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, doing theology in the midst of violence, and doing theology in a manner that does not minimize the painful history of the continent of Africa. In closing, we will propose a theological agenda for Black and African theologies at this time.

This transdisciplinary inquiry is a personal and academic inquiry into Goddess Spirituality in contemporary society. It focuses on the stories of women who joined a Goddess Temple in the Appalachian Mountains of Western North Carolina. The central inquiry question is: What are the motivations and lived experiences of women who are drawn to Goddess Spirituality and who choose to join a Goddess Temple? Organic inquiry and narrative inquiry will be employed in order to collect the stories of these women, and the women’s narratives, or tellings, will be analyzed using The Listening Guide (Gilligan, C. & et al., 2006). These will be contextualized within the broader literature of Goddess Spirituality, thealogy, and ecofeminism.

- by Shelly M Nixon
- •
- Feminist Theology, Transdisciplinarity, Narrative Methods, Ecofeminism

Using a feminist hermeneutic, Autumn Reinhardt-Simpson attempts to set out in this article how a third or fourth-wave intersectional reading of the stories of Hagar and Sarah and Leah, Rachel, and their maids can become a source of both truth and healing within feminist activist communities today, particularly those working for reproductive justice. Reinhardt-Simpson identifies several issues within the stories such as societal acceptance of women who seek power only within patriarchal constructs or to benefit the aims of patriarchy, as well as issues that divide women both then and today such as class, race, and status and the way that women relate to each other within a patriarchal structure. Reinhardt-Simpson concludes that a liberatory reading of these stories can point us toward reconciliation with our sisters.

- by Autumn Reinhardt-Simpson
- •
- Feminist Theory, Feminist Theology, Social Activism, Feminism

Reviews of Divine Currency and Kathryn Tanner's Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism by Nichole Flores, John Thiel, David Cloutier, and Philip Goodchild, and responses by Kathryn Tanner and Devin Singh.

- by Devin Singh
- •
- Finance, Economics, Theology, Systematic Theology
- by Dan Lunney
- •
- Religion, Theology, Feminist Theology, Evolution
- by David Muthukumar Sivasubramanian
- •
- Theology, Feminist Theology, Feminism, Trinity (Theology)

The article begins with some methodological remarks on feminist theology which are necessary to understand the feminist approach to the biblical description of the fall of the first people and its implications. Then it presents a feminist interpretation of the biblical passages about the fall. Il also shows some inappropriate (according to feminist researchers) developments of the Christian interpretation of the fall and their disastrous consequences for Church and society. Finally, it points out the main manifestations of sin in human individual and social life as presented in feminist theological discourse.

- by Marcin Skladanowski
- •
- Feminist Theory, Feminist Theology, Womanist Theology, Ecumenical Theology

This article suggests to view monasticism as a sequence of 'unisex-experiments' and to reflect on the fact that the medieval world developed monastic ideals that were to a large extent applicable equally to women and men. Furthermore, it analyzes the different textual techniques to describe female religious life as a mere variant of a male model. It contrasts this marginalization of the female 'variant' with an archeology of concepts of religious life, which shows that a lot of central aspects of medieval religious life (of women and men) had its roots not in desert father asceticism but in the tradition of urban praying virgins and widows. The 'first medieval monk' was, in fact, a religious woman.

- by Albrecht Diem
- •
- Gender Studies, Women's Studies, Gender History, Feminist Theology

This article explores the relationship between God and a posthuman representative of humanity in Octavia Butler's " The Book of Martha " (2005). Using Daphne Hampson's feminist post-Biblical ideas, the article argues that the story, as a sample of science fiction, exposes a posthumanist perspective where existence and subjectivity of human kind is defined based on a mutual, non-hierarchical relationship between human being and God. The article aims to explore the capacity of the story to embody a positive standpoint of science fiction towards the transformation of the human. This article suggests that " The Book of Martha, " reflecting this transformation together with an unothered perspective of the God-human relationship, illustrates the potential for a more humanitarian life on Earth. The relationship is investigated through an unorthodox theological perspective that confronts Christian norms, particularly the norms dealing with what is considered as true femininity. In this way, the story describes a fictional space in which the Christian concept of human as a fallen, condemned, and passive object before a ubiquitous Almighty is substituted with a non-Christian active concept of the human entity. This active representation is based on the recognition of a posthuman agency which is free from surrender to divine power. " The Book of Martha " is about the gradual awakening of a black woman who, in interaction with God as the source of goodness, becomes aware for the need to redefine an authentic sense of self beyond that of an obedient servant before a masculinized God. This article explores this awakening.

- by Elham Mohammadi Achachelooei and +1
- •
- Philosophy Of Religion, Feminist Theology, Anthropology of Religion
- by Matthew P Anstey
- •
- Feminist Theory, Feminist Theology, Spirituality, Liberation Theology

Las reivindicaciones de los legítimos derechos de las mujeres, a par tir de la firme convicción de que varón y mujer tienen la misma dignidad, plantean a la Iglesia profundas preguntas que la desafían y que no se pueden eludir superficialmente (Evangelii gaudium 104).
La primera década del siglo XXI nos ha proporcionado un ho rizonte eclesial diferente que puede sustentar, si sabemos aprove charlo, a la Iglesia del siglo XXI. Para ello es importante hacemos como comunidad de comunidades las preguntas adecuadas y buscar entre todos soluciones diversas y dialogadas. Necesitamos caminar juntos. A ello nos exhorta la sinodalidad. No se camina junto a otro cuando se camina dos pasos por detrás. No se camina junto a otro sin darle conversación unas veces y sin escucharle otras. No se camina junto a otro sin preguntar qué camino tomar y llegar a un consenso. Caminar juntos tiene una serie de condiciones para que verdaderamente se cumpla que «caminamos juntos». No vale de cualquier manera. Debemos preguntarnos cuáles son las cuestiones teóricas y prácticas que afectan a la construcción de una Iglesia que se adapta a los signos de los tiempos. También debemos preguntamos cuál es el papel que desempeñamos y las responsabilidades que nos atañen a cada uno de nosotros. Todos debemos asumir nuestra parte en la construcción de una Iglesia caminante, verdaderamente comunitaria y no autoritaria y excluyente.
Silvia Martínez Cano, "Hablar de sinodalidad es hablar de mujeres", en Rafael Luciani y Mª Teresa Compte (coords.), En camino hacia una Iglesia sinodal, PPC, Madrid 2020, pp. 347-368. ISBN 978-84-288-3568-8.