Gender +Theology

• Sophia 


  Greek word for wisdom, personified in female form in the ancient world
• Servant King


  Understanding of the Messiah that focuses on service rather than overlordship
• Davidic Messiah


  messiah figure based on the kingly military images of the hebrew scriptures
• Reform feminist theology 


  religious thinking that seeks to change traditional Christian thought
• Post-Christian theology 


  religious thinking that abandons traditional Christian thought
• Now kill all the boys. And kill every women who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every woman who has never slept with a man

  Numbers 31: 17 - 18 -- Fits Daly's unholy trinity -- rape
• Look here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. Bat as for this man, don't do such an outrageous thing.

  Judges 19:24 - Daly's idea of rape in the Unholy Trinity
• Feminism represents a revolution. It is a different view of the world. This must be of fundamental import for theology [...] As women come into their own, theology will take a different shape

  Daphne Hampson - Theology and Feminism 1990
• The beginning of liberation comes when women refuse to be 'good' and/or 'healthy' by prevailing standards. To be female is to be deviant by definition in the prevailing culture.

  Mary Daly
• Who are the key feminist theologians for this topic?

  • Mary Daly
  • Rosemary Radford Ruether
• Mary Daly (1928- 2010):

  • originally a Roman Catholic and then a reformer who came to the opinion that the RC was patriarchal
  • Challenged Orthodox views from the beginning
  • male dominance came from the Bible
  • fired as a lecturer from Boston College in 1998 -- refused to let men learn about feminist ethics -- discrimination
  • ' I really don't care about men'
  • must get rid of religion - damage already done
• Mary Daly (1928- 2010): cont'd

  • calling God 'Father was oppression and showed male supremacy
  • rejected substituting female terminology for God
  • feminist liturgies were futile attempts to be seen as equal
  • Religion made women submissive - the virgin Mary
  • women to rule over men as compensation
  • religion should make women angry
• Feminist Theology issues:

  • justification of male dominance and female subordination within theology
  • exclusive use of male language for God
  • view that men are more like God than women
  • view that only men can represent God as leaders in church and society
  • view that women were created to be subordinate to men and if they reject this then they are sinning
• Daley cont'd:

  • wrong to suggest that a male saviour can represent the eternal being
  • Jesus was not God but Human
  • idea of a male saviour legitimises male superiority
  • eve used as a scapegoat by men
  • Augustine + Aquinas - misogynists as they deny the potential of women
  • Mary Magdalene - fallen women
  • women need to move towards the spirit of quintessence - found in nature
• Mary Daly:

  • female oppression is a product of the Unholy Trinity - Rape, Genocide and War
  • distortion as divinity is linked to maleness
  • women blamed for the fall
  • women need to find new spirituality
• What was a key part of what Daly said?

  If God is male, then male is God
• Pope Pius XII

  liberation and the role of Christian women was found in mother hood
• Unholy Trinity: Rape

  • culture of rape
  • leaders of society (sovereigns of sado-society) uses culture, religion, politics, professions and media to erase female power and imprison women
  • divided against each other and forgotten the gross of inequality - GENOCIDE
  • physical violence of women
  • mentality of rape was a product of war
  • old testament bible verses
• Unholy Trinity: Genocide

  • sexual case system gave men more power
  • consent of the victims as well as a dominant sex through sex-role socialisation
  • conditioning begins at birth and is reinforced
  • rape and genocide -- raped makes the raped person the objective victim of the rapist, raped person becomes a part of the group of raped people
  • Groupthink of Nazis and Jews collective focus on the sameness in contrast to other groups
• Unholy Trinity: war

  • war is an inevitable result of male-dominated politics - fault of men
  • associated with manly and adventurous virtues
  • language of violence hidden by technical language - collateral damage
  • corrupt to call death of unborn - phallic morality
  • liberation of women requires the rejection of all moral standards
  • Incarnation -- symbolic legitimation of the rape of all women and all matter
• The Church and the Second Sex:

  • Daly's first book - critique of the Roman Catholic Church
  • 'an illusion of equality and idealises theoretical women but not actual women'
  • misogynistic teachings in the Bible -- anti women
  • 'women asking for equality in the church would be comparable to a black person's demanding equality in the KKK'
• his is now bone of my bones    and flesh of my flesh;she shall be called ‘woman,’    for she was taken out of man.

  Genesis 2 shows that women were made subservient to men
• Women should remain silent in the churches

  1 Corinthians 14 - women subservient
• 'Look, here is my virgin daughter and his concubine, I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish'

  Judges 19: 24 - used by Daly
• 'Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering'

  Mark 5: 25 - 34 --> woman who was bleeding for 12 years
• Spirituality experienced through nature:

  • Daly - maleness of God needs to be overturned
  • mens club of male mothers (priests) -- control the spiritual movements of life through religious authority - keep women down and should be shattered
  • turning away from the maleness of God
  • quintessence - damaged/blocked by pornography and poverty
  • 1970s - Daly women should connect with their wild side
  • eco feminism - robbed by colonists from natives
• Critics of Daly: Simon Chan

  • wrote "Why we call God 'Father'"
  • Christian idea of Fatherhood - embodied in the Trinity
  • relational concept is quite different from a simple God is male
  • creative element - God as a creator
  • Daly might be right with the right about it influencing the patriarchy
  • heavenly father for all - doesn't create masculine qualities
• Critics of Daly: Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza

  • Daly's interpretation of scripture is limited and points to Jesus breaking of societal norms - woman anoints Jesus with oil and the woman who bled for 11 years
• Rosemary Radford Reuther: 1936-2022

  • reform feminist theologian
  • Christianity became distorted by Patriarchal ideas -- and needs to be reformed
  • She describes herself as an eco-feminist
  • supports women ordination of in the Catholic
  • change the view on abortion
  • distorted by the Patriarchy
• Ruether Challenge to the male warrior - messiah:

  • Old Testament - Messiah is God's chosen one- future king son of David -- restore Israel
  • liberates people
  • messiah is the son of God chosen by God and the son of Man is man's representative to God
  • Ruether - maleness associated with the Davidic Messiah
  • Kingdom that Jesus brings is not through military victory
  • Jesus rejects the nationalist-revenge mythology of the Davidic Messiah
• The messiah can only be imagines as a male

  He is expected to win, not to suffer and die

  Ruether- Sexism and God talk
• The Government on his shoulders

  Isaiah 9:1 -7-- hope in the Messiah
• bringing justice to the nations

  Isaiah 42: 1-4 -- The Future King
• By becoming a servant of God one is freed from bondage to all human masters

  Ruether 'Sexism and God talk'
• Challenging Reuther:

  • Simon Chan -- cannot rewrite Christian stories to give prominence to women as they shape the identity of Christianity
  • Trinity is central to the idea of Christianity
  • 'almighty Father' -- part of Catholicism
  • resist the temptation to abandon the male language for God
  • many of the Goddess worshipping culture were still patriarchal - Egypt