Feminist theology

Scottish Journal of Theology, 1999

The issue of women and church has been a crucial one for last five decades. Many people have written on this issue and many women have fought against the male hegemony in the church and society. In this process a feminist interpretation of the Bible has been produced by many feminist writers. The real issue before us today is whether Bible considers women as equal to male or not, or is there any kind of inferiority suggested for the female part of humanity? Jesus was neither a feminist nor did he start any movement on behalf of the marginalized women in his time, but one thing is sure that he treated them as equals to men and incorporated them in his ministry, obviously not bringing any havoc in the patriarchal society; Mary is an apt example of this. Paul, considered as the second founder and the most important propagator of Christianity, has so much to say regarding the role of women in the church and society, though not as universal norm but obviously within the contexts he was writing. Many consider Paul as an inconsistent in his views regarding women. He restricts women from speaking or teaching in the church, yet he allows them to prophesy. He advocates man to be the head of the woman, yet says that both are equal in Christ. In spite of all the restrictions laid by him, he commends women for their zeal in the ministry and associate many of them in his ministry. The early church history has been suspicious about the role of women in church and society and many of the church fathers have considered women inferior to men. But at the same time church history has witnessed many women being very active in the ministry and leading the church and society. One thing we need to bear in our mind that today's context is entirely different from the past history. Today technology and science have brought radical changes and challenges before us which were unknown even before ten years. In today's context the role of the church is not only related to the religious activities but also to the secular world. In present scenario, it is impossible to neglect the role of women in the church and society as they have become increasingly significant with their male counterpart. But at the same time we find that many advocate the inferior position to women and deny leadership and pastoral role to them. In many cases their voices are suppressed and they are marginalized and often, unfortunately, on biblical basis. Many societies still consider women inferior to men and because of that their full potential is not being used. In this context church has a very vital role to play in liberating them from patriarchal hegemony and bring out their complete potential to be used in church and society. Introduction The present era has witnessed a real revolution in the roles of women and men. To some extent this revolution is a result of fast societal and cultural change. For example, the rapid process of urbanization has moved the population from the farms with their relatively clear and traditional roles for women and men, into the increasingly modern cities, where traditional identities have been distorted. This shift and its associated turmoil have had some positive results. Women have never enjoyed more opportunities than these in any time of the history. Their valuable inputs to society are increasingly acknowledged. At the same time, dramatic changes in male-female roles have also created perplexity and doubt. Perhaps this perplexity and doubt have influenced the church too. In the context of the feminist movement, the movements for the equal rights, and connected sociological and political developments, several Christian denominations have involved themselves in discussions of the role of women in the life of the church. Should churches ordain women for pastoral ministry? Should church polity be revised that women may serve as elders and deacons? Is there any ecclesiastical position from which women should be kept away? These and other similar questions have been prominent on the theological agenda of numerous church bodies.

2002

Religion Compass, 2008

Feminist theology today denotes a widening field of scholarship that shares historic, pragmatic concerns about gender justice in diverse cultural and racial contexts, but that increasingly differs in approach. In this essay, we discuss internal, creative challenges surfacing in (largely Christian) feminist theologies and review the historical social movements that have shaped them up to the present. Theologians who use race, queer, and postcolonial theory to assert the co-constituting dynamics of gender with race, class, sexuality, nationality, and religion are muddying the waters of older feminisms that focused exclusively on gender, rendering the future of feminist theologies more ambiguous, broad-reaching, and fluid.

Horizons, 2000

2000

2022

If God is male, then male is God." 1 This famous dictum of American Professor Mary Daly, (1928-2010) "radical lesbian feminist," in her own words, and recognized early leader in feminist theology brought to the fore the question of perceived patriarchy and androcentrism in Christian theology, identity and tradition, and in the Scripture itself. The new theology thus conceived elevates the "woman's experience" and her full humanity within a religious discourse in a reversal of the traditional male-centered top-down approach of the Christian historical essentialism. 2 Through liberation hermeneutics, it aims at realizing "an emancipatory ecclesial and theological praxis" which carries with it weight-bearing implications in other areas of society. 3 In that praxis, feminist Christology holds a prominent place, for Christ's salvific work is at the heart of Christian theology. Greatly expanding and ever morphing over the past six decades, feminist spirituality has experienced an egregious diversification in terms of theories of interpretation and analytical critiques regarding women's decried gendered inferiority and oppression, and the theological methodologies employed. Four waves have been identified with the longest lasting dating back to the 1800s. The second-wave feminism, from the 1960s to the early 1990s, grew out of the "woman experience" and claim for dignified selfhood in family, religion and society by mainly the white, middle-class and heterosexual women. Other feminists criticized it as failing to unify the pluralistic aspects across 1

Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 2011