If you Google "Feminist Theology" the site for Wikipedia pops up first. On that site a debate is raging... you can find it here
Or, more briefly, here is how Wikipedia descibes Feminist Theology...Feminist theology is a movement, generally in Christianity and Judaism, to reconsider the traditions, practices, scriptures, and theologies of their religion from a feminist perspective. Some of the goals of feminist theology include increasing the role of women among the clergy and religious authorities, reinterpreting male-dominated imagery and language about God, determining women's place in relation to career and motherhood, and studying images of women in the religion's sacred texts.
Feminists have attempted to counter perceptions of women as morally or spiritually inferior to men; as a source of sexual temptation; as dedicated to childbearing, their homes, and husbands; and as having a lesser role in religious ritual or leadership because of such inferiority or dedication....
Methodology
Feminist theology attempts to consider every aspect of religious practice and thought. Some of the questions feminist theologians ask are:
How do we do theology? The basic question of how theologians may go about creating systems of thought is being reinterpreted by feminist theologians. Many feminist theologians assert that personal experience can be an important component of insight into the divine, along with the more traditional sources of holy books or received tradition. (The relevance of personal experience to the policies of groups of people is a familiar notion to veterans of the feminist movement.)
Who is God? Feminist theologians have introduced the use of non- or multi-gendered language for God, arguing that language powerfully impacts belief about the behavior and essence of God.
Where are women in religious history? Feminist historical theologians study the roles of women in periods throughout history that have impacted religion: the Biblical period, the early Christian era, medieval Europe, and any period of import to a particular religion. They study individual women who influenced their religion or whose religious faith led them to impact their culture. The work of these scholars has helped feminist theologians claim historical figures as their predecessors in feminist theology. For example, Sojourner Truth's "Ar'n't I a Woman?" speech pointed out, "Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with him!" Elizabeth Cady Stanton produced the "Woman's Bible," excising the traditional Christian text of all references she thought contradicted the positions of women's
5 comments:
I hope others will be willing to add thoughts and posts for us to read. At the very least I hope folks are willing to leave comments....
Sounds like a much-needed forum. I'm happy to read/listen and to contribute!
Thanks for setting up the blog as well!
i'm excited about your blog, mompriest!
we had quite the conversation in one of our classes recently about "feminism" persay but at question was feminist theology--to which no one could come up with an adequate answer.
this was very interesting.
this is great-- hope everyone will click on. Kim Robey
Hi5 is an on-line community much like Face Page or My Space. It has a Christian group with 20,000 members. This group seems to be dominated by fundamentalists and Pentecostals. So many of the members are anti-female, even the women. We need more mainline Protestants to join, such as are in this group, in order to give a more balanced perspective. Please join. It is free.
Post a Comment