bullet summary: gender and theology

intro

• for many feminists, christianity has been a cause of female oppression
• it reinforces traditional gender roles and the subservience of women to men
• the bible as a whole regards women as a weaker sex and reinforces patriarchy
• christian feminist theologians think christianity isa source of spiritual and social liberation and their task is to offer convincing responses

god, the bible and feminism

• margaret atwood’s well-known novel the handmaid’s tale describes a rigidly patriarchal society reinforced by a state religion
• a warning against the fundamentalist religious ideologies that may escalate if unchecked
• for some scenarios like this are proof of why Christianity should be excluded from gender reform
• mary daly neatly summarises the view of many feminists: ‘it might be interesting to speculate upon the probable length of a ‘depatriarchalised bible’. perhaps there would be enough salvageable material to comprise an interesting pamphlet.’

the problem with god

• some secular feminists consider that belief in a god who is totally different from the world is a major cause of sexism
• this is because belief in a transcendent creator creates a master-slave relationship which reinforces patriarchal hierarchy

feminist theologies

• there are many different feminist theologies
• they share many of the concerns as secular feminists but on the whole do not reject the bible or existence of god
• feminist theologians think that christianity is not at fault, but secular feminism is lacking
• because without material and spiritual liberation, no one can live a full human life
• mary daly and rosemary radford reuther offer very different responses
• both share the idea that society’s relationship with nature requires a rejection of patriarchy with a transformed spirituality

rosemary radford ruether

• she is a roman catholic feminist liberation theologian
• she argues the insights of feminism provide the necessary means for reinvigorating christian spirituality and praxis

monotheism and goddess theology

• reuther argues that in order to understand how christian theology has developed its patriarchy, we must go back to before this was the case
• she is struck by polytheistic religions which are less sexist than monotheistic religions
• monotheism:
  • reinforces patriarchal hierarchy where the single god exerts authority over the world
  • justifies male superiority over women as men consider this a part of the natural hierarchy

the goddess

• reuther’s argument is that the roots of judaism were not monotheistic or male-oriented
• it has retained its respect for nature by maintaining the idea of the goddess as the source of life
• for example, isaiah depicts god as the mother goddess going through the pains of childbirth
• he uses the mother analogy to express god’s suffering love for the people

god as female wisdom principle

• another strand where god’s femininity has been retained is in wisdom
• it used to be universally understood as the divine source of knowledge and life
• she is always presented in female terms, like the greek sophia
• although wisdom plays an important role in many books in the OT, the wisdom of solomon develops it well
• she is described as ‘a breath of the power of god’ and ‘a reflection of his eternal light’, or even king solomon’s bride

• having established that judaism is not strictly monotheist, reuther goes on to show that christianity preserves this feminine aspect in the incarnation and trinity
• early christians saw the parallels between sophia and jesus
• jesus as divine wisdom explains his relationship to god, identity on earth and teachings
• st paul says he is ‘the wisdom of god’, and john’s gospel calls him ‘eternal wisdom’
• the holy spirit is also depicted in terms of sophia, as the immanent and relational aspect of god
• there is no gender division here
• reuther claims the trinity is relational and genderless
• yet despite biblical evidence, christianity has ignored the female aspect of god and promoted is male monotheism
• reuther argues there is enough evidence to tackle sexism in the church by reshaping thought and rethinking organisation

new antipatriachal communities

• one of reuther’s concerns is that churches have lost their egalitarian roots
• her argument is that historical evidence gives churches the authority they need to change
• she says jesus’ relationship with god was based on trust and respect
• he called god ‘father’ and early christians used this as a model for relationships
• traditional family ties were challenged, with members all being friends, not having servants and masters
• jesus says to his followers in john’s gospel, ‘i have called you friends, because i have made known to you everything that i have heard from my father’.
• despite this, the language of god the father has often become a justification for the patriarchy rather than a challenge

the apophatic path and inclusive language

• one criticism of feminist theology is that using feminine language for god is equally sexist and alienating, as well as assuming there is a distinct female experience
• the tendency is to use male language to emphasise god’s transcendence and female to emphasise his immanence
• but it limits god to gendered terms
• as god is infinite and human language is not, all language referring to god must be based in the apophatic assumption that god is beyond language and gender
• but it may act as analogy or symbol of how humans experience god
• reuther concludes that it is true to say god is as much female and he is not male and vice versa
• feminist theology is not claiming exclusive female language but warning against solely male

can a male saviour save women?

• this question is posed by reuther
• she builds on many of her ideas and says that although christianity offers a distinctive understanding of god it is not exclusive
• many of its ideas can be found in other religions
• yet the presentation of christianity as in the churches has excluded these non-christian elements
• these church traditions support a male-oriented version of christianity

no, a male saviour cannot save women

• jesus is not only historically male but as the Word he is the perfect example of being human, so being male
• for a woman to be saved would be denying who she is and adapting to a male mindset
• when christianity was adopted as the official religion of the roman empire, jesus was promoted as a triumphal king who would return to rule his kingdom, as the davidic messiah
• the church thus justified only having male church officials to represent christ and women could only achieve salvation through men
• even today it is unlikely to see ordained women
• for centuries aquinas’ teachings that women were distorted men was used by the church to explain why god could not have been incarnated as a perfect man
• even the pope stated that there must be a natural resemblance between church ministers and christ, so, not women
• reuther’s conclusion is that traditional christianity is too sexist and cannot be a means of salvation or liberation for women.

yes, a male saviour can save women

• reuther makes her own counter argument here to say that it is possible if the more radical traditions are rediscovered
• first the death and resurrection is significant as is touches on the human cycles of life and death
• second, jesus’ roles as messiah deliberately challenged the expectations of the warrior king
• his teaching was more about justice and dignity for the marginalised than worldly power
• the kingdom of god as he presents it is not just a reward but healing and restorative
• third, the holy spirit continues jesus’ work and reuther gives examples of christian communities who chose not to conform:
  • the story of pentecost in acts describes how after jesus’ ascension, the spirit was poured to people as a sign of a new age, it inspired some to consider jesus as less important than the spirit
  • the shakers say that omen are particularly receptive to the spirit and have prominent roles to play in the preparation for the second coming.
• reuther argues these movements and their christologies have done more than feminise god, but tackle the weaknesses of humans and so thus a male saviour can save women.

christ the liberator

• reuther acknowledges that there is no clear answer
• the problem lies in differing christologies and ideas on salvation in the NT
• for some it may never be okay for jesus to be male
• reuther argues that once we understand the development of christianity then the patriarchal elements can be removed
• what is left is jesus the liberator who challenged the social, religious and spiritual assumptions of his day for both gender
• that is why the gender of jesus is ultimately not important

mary daly

• she argued women must abandon christianity for a post-christian spirituality
• she drew attention to the marginalisation of women in the church in the hope that it would cause reforms in organisation and theology
• she became convinced that christianity could not be reformed due to its inherent sexism
• she encouraged men and women to leave the church and attacked the church for being a source of women’s abuse
• daly then developed the view that in earlier times women has achieved a spiritual relationship with nature that had been destroyed by patriarchal societies using god
• she liked nietzsche’s ideas on reusing and rediscovering archaic meanings of words and she used this to uncover this relationship with nature
• she used language to shift consciousness
• she describes herself as a traveller seeking out ways to live outside of a patriarchy
• although she is presented and a radical feminist and anti-religion, her life story shows what she rejected was really the formal institutional religion model and its doctrines and forms of control
• she believes these doctrines have been developed by men to favour men
• so much that even calling god female would not change his male essence
• she wanted the transvaluation of christianity

transvaluation

• daly’s aim in her book beyond god the father has things in common with frederich nietzsche‘s concern that delivering humans from their self-imposed cultural imprisonment requires transvaluation – a complete re-evaluation of all existing values
• daly borrows some of his language and his notion that to enter a new era, everything which ensures the existence of the present culture must bee overturned
• both agree this new era is not possible without the death of god and christianity
• daly uses the following of nietzsche’s ideas:
  • two aspects of human nature: the two conflicting sides are the apollonian/passive self and the dionysian/energetic and creative self. daly thinks only women can be dionysian.
  • the apollonian veil: this is created when humans falsely create ideas that they believe which alienate them from their naturally creative selves. daly argues only women have the ability to remove these false ideas.
  • becoming and be-ing: being human is a creative and on-going process, without a perfect end point. daly argues only women understand this creative process of be-ing

beyond god the father

• although daly shares many of nietzsche’s ideas on transvaluation she disagrees on one point: nietzsche’s transvaluation of god merely substituted the god the father with man the god, the ubermensch
• for daly this shows how deeply engrained patriarchy is, that even nietzsche was blind to the apollonian veil he thought he was removing
• so because men have failed to transvaluate, daly’s vision is that it is only women who will complete the task
• the transvaluation of all phallic values (as daly calls patriarchal values) begins with a complete annihilation or castration of god
• this means abolishing the word god and all associated ideas
• she says this is not the same as rationally arguing for the non-existence of god but deeper, in which the old god is replaced with authentic human existence
• daly does not consider herself an atheist, as they still retain the ideas on god, nor an agnostic because it lacks a convincing knowledge of god
• be-ing replaces god for her, a spiritual process of the continual discovery of the richness of nature

new language and be-ing

• the process of transvaluation is the conscious and radical reinvention of language
• daly’s provocative use of old vocabulary used in new ways is to give women the means to talk about a new world entirely free of all forms of patriarchy
• the patriarchal world is characterised thus:
  • foreground: the world dominated by patriarchal apollonian values. daly calls the male leaders snools, and the female snools who gain power from men are called henchwomen
  • background: the existence which is the world of women and true be-ing. the background is energetic and close to the reality of be-ing
• archaic language is a means of re-connecting women with their ancient relationship to nature or be-ing
• some words transvaluated by daly were foreground word falsely designed to disempower women such as hag, crone, nah and witch, but as background words they become empowering
• as be-ing is not static, women are spinsters, spinning a new meaning and a new history.

the most unholy trinity: abuse and the failure of christianity

• daly is outspoken in her claim that christianity is a root cause of women’s abuse
• the god of christianity justifies patriarchal values and ways of thinking, for ‘if god is male, then the male is god’
• but she goes further in her book gyn/ecology, arguing that call christianity stands for is its desire to destroy women and elevate male values
• for example, she sees the symbol of jesus’ deah on the cross as an expression of male enjoyment of pain, torture and sexual dominance over women
• another failure of christianity is the way in which the catholic church particularly has presented the virgin mary as a symbol of purity and womanhood
• the reality, to daly, is that she is a passive ‘hollow eggshell’ and the ‘total rape victim’ who was forcefully impregnated by god to bear his son
• the image of the virgin mary has legitimised women’s abuse

the most unholy trinity

• in developing her claims about women’s abuse, she parodies the notion of the trinity but substituting it with the three male symbols of power that she believes the church has promoted
• ‘the most unholy trinity of rape, genocide and war is a logical expression of phallocentric power’
  • rape: a phallocentric rape culture is one based on power and not on community. it is both literal and metaphorical. metaphorically, christianity has been the major reason why women have been abused and treated as passive objects.
  • genocide: a rape culture represents an alienated society where one group destroys another, just as one race murders and destroys another. daly argus the catholic church commits genocide when it forces women to have unwanted children as a result of rape because of its anti-abortion teaching. it promotes genocide in its support of war and the killing of innocent citizens.
  • war: war symbolises the worst of apollonian values which have been praised by the church. the process of un-veiling shows just how inconsistent moral theologians are when they defend war and condemn compassionate killing like abortion and euthanasia.

friendship and lesbianism

• on the issue of sexuality, daly argues that true friendship can only be lesbian
• she is deeply critical of male imitating forms of lesbianism (butch women)
• for daly the notion of heterosexuality is an example of a patriarchal ideas which the church developed because it has such a clear difference between genders
• but she believes that biological difference is not destiny, and all relatiosnhips are valid if they work within the holy whole trinity of radical feminist values

neither male nor female

• christians have often claimed that despite daly’s accusation that as god is male then male is god, jesus’ teaching opened up a vision of a new transformed society in which gender distinction would disappear
• but daly think is is all a feeble attempt to make christianity palatable
• st paul never thought that gender would become irrelevant because if christ is male then women would have become like men

spinning: a new spirituality

• daly is certain that radical feminism will triumph and create what she calls the ‘cosmic tapestry’ making up the holy whole trinity of justice, power and love
• daly’s vision is deeply spiritual, uniting women with the forces of nature
• it will not be easy, women will suffer the earthquakes of patriarchy
• she describes women’s spiritual journey using the traditionally female task of being spinsters
• while spinster today means a lonely single women, daly uses it to describe women working together to create from nature cloth
• the way of life now being spun by women is a transformed spirituality free from christian patriarchy
• she hopes will end up with a transvaluated society

a comparison of ruether and daly

common ground

• they share the view that traditional christianity is a source of sexism but that there is a spirituality which feminism brings attention to.

• goddess: both agree that calling god ‘she’ is not enough because a female pronoun won’t change the patriarchal perception of the divine
• ecology: both agree that feminism properly deals with humanity’s relationship with the environment. patriarchy assumes a dominance over nature which is challenged by feminism.
• praxis: both argue the purpose of feminist theology should be to transform society, and that women have a unique role to play in that.

differences

• they disagree over whether christianity can be reformed:

• god: reuther maintains the existence of god known in spirit and wisdom, while daly rejects god and replaces him with nature
• separatism/co-operation of genders: reuther thinks there is no advantage to daly’s lesbian separatism, daly believes only women have the sensitivity to transform the world.
• goddess/god: daly completes rejects that god can be female or male and says that the patriarchy will not allow a genderless experience of christ, while reuther considers the experience of god in gender terms as ancient and preserved in christianity.
• church: daly rejects the church because it is sexist but reuther believes it can be reformed with the bible, tradition and reason as evidence.

criticism

• there are many feminist theologians who take less radical approaches than reuther and daly
• between them they cover many of the issues debated

critique of ruether

• one of her strengths is inclusivity
• she does not see herself in competition with anyone, but aims to integrate and respect them all
• spirit/wisdom is not unique to christianity
• although she think its is expressed clearly in christ, she wants society to be in harmony because of it.
• these are her flaws:

• church tradition: reuther is a catholic and wants reform but many think she goes too far, making jesus too political, is selective on what passages she chooses from the bible and often refers to minor discredited movements outside christianity.
• god’s sovereignty: by including the ‘goddess’ language and experience from non-christian religions, she compromises god.
• male/female difference: catholic teaching is that men and women are equal but different. the NT teaches that it is natural and god ordered this way. women’s vocation is to be the mother in imitation of mary. reuther confuses and disregards this natural order.

critique of daly

• although her ideas can be obscure and alienating, some find that in treating her prophetic language symbolically they can find insight into the nature of human relationships and society’s flaws
• daly helps renew the christian vision of humanity’s relationship with the world and god
• many feminists see her work as deeply flawed because:

• exclusive: she alienates too many women who do not conform to her view. her vision of the new elect is only white, lesbian, professional and western women. she ignores other races, classes and sexualities.
• narrow: despite her call for wider understanding of spirituality, she dismisses those who find it in other religions, instead placing them as snools and labelling them ‘totally demonic’.
• irrational: despite her imaginative insights, her demonisation of men as the casue of rape culture is not the view feminists have of men. she alienates men by demonising them when they might share her views.