3C Feminist Theology and the Changing Role of Men and Women

EDUQAS women: The contribution of Mary Daly and Rosemary Radford Ruether to feminist theology. The changing role of men and women with reference to the issue of the ordination of women priests and bishops; the impact on the lives of believers and communities within Christianity today.

Feminist Theology

Examines the patriarchal biases in the Scripture and tradition
Looks at the ways religion has contributed to women's oppression

Reuther on Feminist Theology+Sexism

-Focuses on the reformation of Christianity (especially the language, rituals and 4) 2 theology of Christianity and a commitment to the wellbeing of women)

-Maintains that there is something more authentic in Christianity than sexism

-Jesus and the Bible can be interpreted in a feminist way and therefore Christianity has the potential to be compatible with feminism.

-Christianity can be viewed as sexist BECAUSE of patriarchalisation.

-Blames the sin of idolatry for imago dei (males are closer to God) + redemption by Christ

-Cites 1976 Vatican (which claims male genitalia is essential prerequisite to represent Christ) as evid for gender stereotyping

-Our societies def of maleness+femaleness is based on reproductive roles+manifest dif culturally defined traits BUT our nature is androgynous

Golden Thread + Scriptural support of it

RRR

Theme of liberation in Christianity
Eg freeing Jews in Exodus and Jesus' treatment of marginalised people, golden rule

RRR argues it means Christianity is redeemable by separating the thread of patriarchy

BUT there is also a thread of sexism

Can’t both be gods authentic vision (incompatible) must be separated

SO the rest is influenced by the patriarchy, the golden thread is how we decipher what should be rejected

The patriarchy is a form of idolatry

Reuther’s golden thread depends on plausible reading of Jesus’ actions is that they were aimed at liberating of women from the unjust social order:

The adulterous woman (John 8) JC is shown to agree with feminists and be against the control of the sexual behaviour of females through violence, imprisoning her within marriage and reproduction

BUT Jesus was against capital punishment for adultery. He still tells the woman not to sin again

Jesus said to Martha (Luke 10) that she should not prepare food in the kitchen but join everyone else to listen to his sermon. This could suggest that Jesus was against the traditional social gender roles where women’s job is to prepare food in the kitchen.

BUT that his teachings/sermon was more important than preparations in the kitchen – but this doesn’t mean that women’s place overall isn’t in the kitchen.

Galatians. “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ”. Galatians 3:28.

BUT There are nonpolitical ways of reading these passages, his actions and moral teachings might sometimes appear to challenge social order/structure, but that might just be because he treated everyone as spiritually equal.

RRR on Jesus

-If Christianity is reevaluated Christ saving us is no longer problematic-JC's portrayal in the gospels > later doctrines change with the influence of patriarchy

-Patriarchy suggests as Messiah Jesus was a warrior RRR messiah is 'expected to win, not suffer and die'

-Jesus instead, served his people, instead of ruling them

-She sees feminist theology as part of the prophetic tradition (they fight against oppression) and JC fitting with itIn the prophetic tradition:

Gods defence and vindication of oppressed

critiques dominant systems

new age of no reign of God

critique of the religious ideology

-We should reclaim JC's maleness as unimportant (+possessing a feminine wisdom>gender inclusive)

> Sally Mcfague (could have been reincarnated into a fem body, Gods gender is irrelevant)

-If we view him as gender inclusive its reformed

BUT

Daly whether or not he is gender inclusive is irrelevant, he still enforces the patriarchy

Androcentrism

putting men at the center of history+culture
women are outsiders in society

Patriarchalisation

the process whereby misogynistic views take over and dominate

Sexism in scripture (Greek>medieval)

-Greek philosophers had views on women and their inferiority to men which influenced medieval theologians

-Greek philosophers women represent emotional side of humanity which is inferior to the rational nature of men.

-Aristotle characterised women as 'misbegotten males' and should be ruled by those dedicated to reason i.e. men

> Influenced medieval theologists (Aquinas+Augustine) to a male female hierarchy (enforced by sin and the god created natural order)

-Many argue that the ‘decisive step in the patriarchalisation of Christology’ was when Christianity was established as the religion of the Roman Empire.

EVIDENCE

-Eve, came from man, temptress, responsible for sin entering the world

-Male pronouns for God

-Women are to be subject + follow Mary’s example (gentle, obedient, virginal>against sex)

-Created imago dei (males are closer to God) + redeemed by Christ (RRR sin of idolatry)

Sexism in modern church

-Women excluded from ordination due to inferior mind+soul
(RRR cites 1976 Vatican (which claims male genitalia is essential prerequisite to represent Christ) as evid for gender stereotyping)

-Mulieris Dignitatum Pope John Paul II wrote it to defend the church against sexism (and defend trad gender and divinely designed biological essentialism)

1 Motherhood is a woman’s telos, natrurally disposed to motherhood both physically and mentally, fulfilment for a woman comes from motherhood and virginity

(Womb, natural compassion)

-BUT Feminists view the attempts to embed gender roles in telos as equal to biblical patriarchy in perpetuating male dominance (cultural invention to encourage passivity from women, allows male over rep in public sphere)

Anthropology has found human civilisations with variation in gender roles

-Satre (existentialist) rejected telos on bases that objective telos is impossible because “existence precedes essence”

> psychological argument that humans fear intense freedom and creating purpose

(makes us feel abandoned by god, anguish over responsibilities, and despair over inability to act as we want) > easier to accept objective purpose

2 There are important valued women in Christian history/theology many female saints, JC only possible with VM, holds women in too high a regard to be sexist

Simone de Beauvoir argues Christians value Marty for being a man’s “docile servant” as opposed to for her own merits

Mary Daly takes it further, Mary is portrayed as a passive empty ‘void waiting to be made by the male’.

Mary is a ‘rape victim’ because ‘physical rape is not necessary when the mind/will/spirit has already been invaded’, consent was not given and the power difference would devalue it

Jesus’ mother Mary is indeed put on a pedestal by Christianity, but only to encourage women to become passive, submissive and obedient so that women would all the better become the sexual property of men.

when the catholic church say they like and respect Mary – that’s just like a slave owner saying they like and respect the subservient obedient slaves.

Mary Daly Feminist Theology (+critics)

-Sexism too embedded for reformation
-Should separate from Church+redefine God > 'if God is male male is God' makes it seem unchallengeable

-The goal of life is free growth+fulfillment BUT patriarchy forces women into 'non-being'

-solution: “God” as a verb. concept of God needed to be castrated + changing the meaning from a noun to a verb (‘be-ing’ rather than ‘a being’)

verbs are beyond the gender+shifts view of universe+structural oppression

> a process that depends on choice and submission for its continued being not fixed, static, the way things are (deflect critique)

-She cites a number of passages, Eve, and the unholy trinity as evidence of its irdeemability

BUT Liberals encourage symbolic readings (understanding it was influenced by Patri context) and view it as reddemable

BUT Daly still influences Christians

Daphne Hampson rejects idea that liberal Christianity is sufficiently divorced from tradition, the sexist paradigms still subconsciously affect them

-Proposes a sisterhood of feminism to replace the church and fulfill traditional spiritual functions, it will be an anti church in which women can heal from the patriarchy that ‘feeds on the bodies and minds of women’ and stunts their growth and superior sPirituality (not confined by patriarchy)

BUT Some argue that Daly is advocating female supremacy, which is just as sexist as male and anti-feminist because it is not about equality.

Separation between men and women is radical, impractical and too similar to segregationism which has been associated throughout history with bigotry.

BUT

Daly thought female spirituality was superior because men were stuck in patriarchy and true equality could be achieved, if it ended. She argued that females needed their own space to heal

BUT

. To many it seems better for men and women to work out their issues together, rather than to separate.

Ordination

When an individual is given a rank within the church

The process isn’t specifically referred to in the bible

Examples of Ranked women in the Bible

Mary Magdalene functions as an apostle

Julia, St Paul “prominent among apostles”

Thecla and Nino were holy women described as apostles

Sexism in scripture

1 Corinthians 14:34 “The women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says”.

1 Timothy 2:12 “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one who was deceived, it was the woman … But women will be saved through childbearing”.

Ephesians 5:22-33 ‘Wives, submit to your own husbands as you do the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church” (links male to divinity)

Eve as the source of sin has been used to oppress women and trigger internalised feelings of guilt and inferiority (recognising this is the first step to liberation)

The unholy trinity of rape, genocide and war are the result of a patriarchal world and legitimised male dominance resulting in the unholy trinity(Christianity is complicit)

They are expressions of phallocentric power against those viewed as objects (nouns) and broken when women are empowered

Eg in Numbers Moses “So kill all the male children. Kill also the women who have slept with a man. Spare the lives only of the young girls who have not slept with a man, and take them for yourselves.”(Numbers 31:17-18).

1 Timothy 3:11

‘In the same way, the women are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything’

Possibly deacon wives or women who are deacons (are ordained)

Acts 21:9

‘He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied’

Women can have an individual connection to God and can be prophetesses

Why are the Church against female ordination

-It was rare to find women as leaders (contributed to by Junia being mistranslated as Junius (and reflects its ridiculousness))

WHY

-God chose to be incarnate into a man

-Jesus appointed male apostles

-Ordaining women would destroy the unity of the Church as there has only been the ordination of men

-Scripture is strongly against the leadership of women

BUT

Jesus didn’t restrict his message and taught women

Jesus’ incarnation into a male body is arguable coincidence and doesn’t reflect the nature of God

Women ordination timeline

1970: women’s ordination becoming a standard practice

1988: Mulieris Dignitatum

1992: Church of England passing a vote to ordain women

1993: C of E create an amendment that congregations can opt out of accepting women

1994: 1,500 women are ordained in the C of E. As a result, 470 men left to the RC church in protest.

Mulieris Dignitatum

-on the dignity of women

-letter written in 1988 by Pope John Paul II

-It was a response to the accusation that Christianity was sexist.

-The argument was that men and women had different qualities/abilities which were designed by God. Both are still valuable.

-1 Motherhood is a woman’s telos, natrurally disposed to motherhood both physically and mentally, fulfilment for a woman comes from motherhood and virginity

(Womb, natural compassion)

-BUT Feminists view the attempts to embed gender roles in telos as equal to biblical patriarchy in perpetuating male dominance (cultural invention to encourage passivity from women, allows male over rep in public sphere)

Anthropology has found human civilisations with variation in gender roles

-Stare (existentialist) rejected telos on bases that objective telos is impossible because “existence precedes essence”

> psychological argument that humans fear intense freedom and creating purpose

(makes us feel abandoned by god, anguish over responsibilities, and despair over inability to act as we want) > easier to accept objective purpose

2 There are important valued women in Christian history/theology many female saints, JC only possible with VM, holds women in too high a regard to be sexist

Simone de Beauvoir argues Christians value Marty for being a man’s “docile servant” as opposed to for her own merits

Mary Daly takes it further, Mary is portrayed as a passive empty ‘void waiting to be made by the male’.

Mary is a ‘rape victim’ because ‘physical rape is not necessary when the mind/will/spirit has already been invaded’, consent was not given and the power difference would devalue it

Jesus’ mother Mary is indeed put on a pedestal by Christianity, but only to encourage women to become passive, submissive and obedient so that women would all the better become the sexual property of men.

when the catholic church say they like and respect Mary – that’s just like a slave owner saying they like and respect the subservient obedient slaves.