In 1913 Emily Wilding Scott reported a conversation between church fathers debating whether women had souls. Upon the conclusion of the conversation, they decided that women ‘probably’ had souls. Emily Wilding Scott later threw herself in front of the King’s horse at the English Derby in protest for women’s suffrage.
The word ‘feminism’ was first used in an issue of ‘The Athenium’ in 1895. It has developed and become established as a broad term for socio-political movements and theories aimed at eliminating gender inequality and promoting women’s rights. Feminist theology began as a branch of feminism, and throughout history the two have been closely tied, as the first feminists were Christian women protesting for suffrage.
Today Feminist theology’s establishment has been revised into three stages: stage one being tied to Mary Daly’s ‘The Church and the Second Sex’ 1968, which shows the beginnings of noticing and documenting patriarchal overtones in tradition. Stage two saw a split in feminist theology- Mary Daly’s 1973 work ‘Beyond the Father’ presented the idea that tradition, being reflective of the patriarch, had infected and distorted the Bible, as the ideas depicted had been jeopardised through the lens of male perception. This idea surfaced as psychoanalysts became aware of the authors of works being subject to underlying social, cultural, and historical presuppositions: thus texts such as the Bible, comprised of male perception, was hindered by gender. However Elizabth Schussler Fiorenza’s 1982 work ‘In Memory of Her’ took a revisionist approach to Daly’s debasement of the Bible and asserted that the essence of the word is true, but needed analysis to separate the patriarchal overtones from the word. To achieve this Fiorenza used two methodologies, ‘depatriarchalizing’ (the removal of male overtones to recover the true essence of the Word) and ‘remembering’ (creating a sacred history of female historical figures such as Hagar, and Tamar the daughter of David).
The Essay on Women And The Bible
Women and The Bible The Bible and the church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of woman's emancipation. A famous 19 th century feminist named Elizabeth Cady Stanton voiced this about her struggle for women's freedom. Women, considered a lower class than the men, wanted this subjugation changed. Part of the reason for the subjugation of women is that the Bible could be interpreted ...
The subsequent advances in feminist theology have only continued under the branch that Fiorenza instigated; Daly’s work applied no methods to move forward as her studies stagnated at her conclusion that the Bible was simply undermined by men. Following in the footsteps of Fiorenza, feminist theologians have contributed to Christianity by redefining good and evil, revelations, and salvation, which heralded the third stage of feminist theology, an exemplary work being Rosemary Radford Reuther’s ‘Sexism and God-talk’.
The most avid realisation of Feminist theology is that historical writing has never been objective- it is subject to relative truths that must be deconstructed: however Fiorenza urged us to see that the core of the Bible is still valid. Some believe that reading the Bible is an anachronistic process, and that one must consider it from the perspective of its time, but feminists find this doesn’t excuse quotes such as ‘sin began with a woman and thanks to her we must all die’ (Eccles 25:33) Feminist theologians see this as the word being skewed in male translation, but these translations have been supported by Christian leaders such as Tertullius, who claimed women to be ‘the devil’s gateway’. Martin Luther, who founded the Lutheran Church, commented on women harshly, saying ‘let them die in childbirth. That’s why they are here’ which illustrates an obvious demotion of women in that it applies the burden of original sin on their shoulders as well as the objectified single use being childbirth, and nothing more. Feminist theologians helped revise these methods of thinking within Christianity and it is because of this that Christians are now able to view women closer to being the equals of men, yet collectively women still only own 1% of the world’s wealth, and 75% of the world’s impoverished are female.
The Essay on Feminist Theology Text Biblical God
... Evangelical feminists who uphold the integrity of the biblical text as the Word of God have done much to cause the Church to ... why I place great respect in the feminist hermeneutic traditions that choose to write about theology with fear and trembling, with the ... God in scripture (noting: the word for Spirit, Reach, in Hebrew, is feminine) and pointed out the roles of women in the Bible ...
The advent of feminist theology has helped give birth to alternative churches such as women’s church, while presenting alternate images of God, the release of Church exclusivity, and the incorporation of inclusive language instead of male references to God being the Father. An example of an Alternate Church is the ‘Weave of Faith’, which states that ‘All sexual orientations are welcome. We believe we are created in God’s image. We seek to bring forth the spirit of God from the Ghost of the Church.’ Undoubtedly this wide acceptance is a welcomed aspect of Christianity contributed by Feminist theology. Only twenty years ago Feminist theology wasn’t recognized as an academic subject. Now women can be alter servers, Eucharistic ministers, leaders, and cantors. Conservative Christians might argue that the deconstruction of the Bible is almost blasphemous, but it was undoubtedly necessary, as the Bible described them as ‘better than death’, whose ‘heart is snares and nets’. Obviously the reconstruction was necessary- bringing forth the true meaning of the Bible. In Gallatians 3:28 Paul states ‘In Christ, religious distinction between male and female is eliminated.’ There is no doubt that this is a better view than the previous representations, and a view that Feminist Theology has and continues to bring forth.
