Gender And Theology Flashcards
(43 cards)
1
Q
Liberation theology
A
The movement in christianity that focuses first and foremost on problems of poverty and injustice
2
Q
Praxis
A
The process through which reflection on theory leads to action
3
Q
Transvaluation
A
A change of values (often radical)
4
Q
Phyllis Trible
A
‘To reclaim the image of God as female is to become aware of the male idolatry that has long infested faith’
- the bible needs to be challenged by feminism
5
Q
Phyllis trible - examples of feminist approaches
A
- textual evidence for the inferiority and abuse of women
- accent on the female texts. Female imagery underlying the patriarchal narratives (emphasis the significant of women)
- re-telling of ‘biblical stories of terror in memoriam’ - using a range of techniques to re-interpret and find relevance for today
6
Q
churches approach to sexism and patriarchy
A
- methodists tradition - include women in leadership
- catholicism - priesthood is limited to celibate males
7
Q
Who is rosemary radford ruether
A
a reformist Catholic feminist theologian
8
Q
Reuther’s view
A
- feminism should not make excuses for patriarchy
- ‘it is to be denounced, not cleaned up or explained away’
- her aim is to change christianity from within
- you need to reinterpret biblical texts to accentuate the feminine
9
Q
The male warrior-messiah expectation
A
- the messiah was to liberate them and bring about a time of peace
- this would come about by war
- the messiah would fight to destroy God’s enemies
- the messiah must be male
10
Q
Ruether’s view on the warrior messiah
A
- draws on Jesus fighting in a different way
- you need to focus on the virtues of Jesus
- main point that in order to be messiah Jesus did not need to be male
- this means that catholic church priests did not need to be male
- this makes it easier fro women to feel connected with Jesus
11
Q
Catholic church view on priests
A
The priests take on the role of christ spiritually and so must be of the same gender as christ
12
Q
God and wisdom
A
- his wisdom is described in human form and in a feminine way
- wisdom is linked with the divine source of knowledge and the source of life
- the wisdom of Solomon (Catholic old testament) talks of wisdom as feminine
- the theology of wisdom was also used to describe Jesus
13
Q
Ruether on God and wisdom
A
- the maleness of God is not fundamental to who God is
- there are both male and female aspects to God
- Jesus as God-made-human was as much as incarnation of the feminine wisdom principle
- Jesus was biologically male but essentially not just male
14
Q
Feminists thought can inspire change in christianity
A
- Jesus maleness is not essential to his nature leading to God being not essentially male
- faith becomes more accessible to women
- priests do not need to be male so there can be greater female leadership in the church
- counter-cultural nature of Jesus spending time will women showing a non-patriarchal opportunity within christianity
15
Q
Feminist thought cannot inspire change in Christianity
A
- what is found on a theological level is not important to believers who are not theologically trained
- Jesus maleness becomes an obstacle in faith
- there is decline in faith even when women are able to lead
- there is too much historical patriarchy to overcome so Christianity should be abandoned
- we can’t rewrite the whole bible - maybe better to change society as a whole
16
Q
Daly’s view
A
- wants to draw attention to the marginalisation of women
- there is too much inherent sexism and patriarchy for there to be any reform
- she saw the church as abusing women
17
Q
Daly’s view on re-claiming archaic language
A
- wants to change language to rid it of the patriarchy and the way words have become derogatory
- spinsters - changing the word to make women realise that they can ‘spin society’ to transform it and to free it from the christian patriarchy
18
Q
Daly on God’s maleness
A
‘if God is male then the male is God’
- the understanding of God as male came out of an image drawn up by men in order to favour men
- she rejected the idea feminists starting to think of God in female terms, all you are going is portraying the same God in different words
- christianity needs to be reevaluated and transformed using a new starting point
19
Q
Dalys influence
A
- Nietzsche who in declaring that God is dead, saw hope for a new way of thinking to emerge
20
Q
Dalys view on women
A
- only women can fully access the creative side of human nature so only women can move on from the false ideas in society
- God should be replaced with a ‘be-ing’ - the essence of the spiritual
21
Q
Spirituality experienced through nature
A
- Daly advocated for a rediscovery of the ancient pagan nature religions
- women must take control of society and men must learn to listen to women
- by focusing on the be-ing people can continue on with the discovery of all that nature gives with no fixed goals
22
Q
Christianity should be abandoned
A
- patriarchy is too deeply rooted for there to be reform
- the divine is greater than organised religion and people should seek other ways to express spirituality
- Daly’s focus on nature demonstrates the essential aspect of the world better than an objective deity
- daly’s use of language engages a shift in consciousness
- we need to realise a significant change needs to be made
23
Q
Christianity should not be abandoned
A
- daly’s approach runs the risk of becoming as dangerous as the patriarchy - she only considers it from people like her
- daly’s teachings could be based on a hatred of men
- ‘he’ pronouns used to describe God are simply linguistic and not a true description of God
- daly is as bad as the patriarchy - she has moved from having men at the centre to women - there is no balance which is what is needed
24
Q
Ruether - Goddess theology
A
- polytheistic religions are less sexist than monotheistic
- in Judaism - God suffering for the people like a mother , here the goddess is the source of life
- if early judaism does not have strict monotheism then this has been passed over into christianity and the understanding of the trinity with Jesus as the feminine aspect of God
25
Daly - Christianity’s ‘unholy trinity’
- christinaity’s sexism is traced to the fact that the christian God encourages patriarchal thought
- christianity exists to destroy women and encourage men
- Mary is a victim of rape - ‘total victim of rape’
26
The unholy trinity
1) rape
2) genocide
3) war
27
The unholy trinity - rape
- portraying women as entirely passive, they are raped both literally and metaphorically
- men commit ‘armchair rape’ when they enjoy porn
- rape is seen as ‘normal’ in the bible
28
The unholy trinity - genocide
- the idea that one group can have power over and destroy another group is part of societies conditioning
- rape leads to genocide because to make people feel power over the object
- it is seen in the catholic church banning abortion
29
The unholy trinity - war
- war comes from male - dominated approaches to life and decision making
- war is a male, violent act and comes from a phallic mentality
- war in the bible normalises his an in the modern day world the church accepts war
- but it does condemn abortion
30
Christianity is essentially sexist
- the male hierarchy is fundamental to Christianity and so is the sexism
- sexism is seen in male priests and the language of texts
- sexism comes from 2,000 years of tradition
- the unholy trinity shows how engrained sexism is in christianity and so should be abandoned as we should start again
31
Christianity is not sexist
- at the root of faith is a goddess and wisdom tradition that shows that the male hierarchy is imposed by humans later on
- biblical texts are products of society that they come from - christians do not need to be sexist as there society is becoming less sexist
- Jesus was not sexist as he he interacted with women (not what was done in his society)
32
Spirituality in christianity
- the ability to be holy
- the ability to have a relationship with God through Jesus and the holy spirit
- the ability to live a life of prayer
33
A male saviour can save women
- Jesus gender is not essential to his nature as God-incarnate so it doesn’t matter what gender he was
- there are feminine aspects to Jesus which makes salvation open to both genders
- Jesus showed how he brought salvation to all who desired it there was no relevance to gender
- accepting women’s ministry brings equality to all levels between men and women
34
A male saviour cannot save women
- daly - Jesus on the cross is a symbol of the male enjoyment of pain over women because his death only served to save men
- Jesus being the perfect ideal of a person indicates that perfect people are men so women cannot achieve salvation
- daly - women should stand against the church and everything that it stands for
- first stage of being saved is prayer with God through Jesus, women may struggle to have this relationship with a man
35
Only women can develop a genuine spirituality
- only women can fully access the creative aspect of human nature which is the way to the be-ing
- as spinsters women can spin a new narrative in world
- women tend to make deeper and more meaningful relationships so it is more likely that women develop genuine spirituality
36
Both men and women can develop a genuine spirituality
- there is a rich tradition of female mystical writers in Christianity who have achieved as much as male mystical writers
- if women and men see the world differently it is possible to say that their route to spirituality is different but that does not make one inferior to the other
- catholic church says both men and women have ‘perfections’ that reflect ‘something of the infinite perfection of God’ - thus both can access a spiritual unity with God
37
The christian God can be presented in female terms
- ruether - the christian God can be presented in female terms so as to put behind us the historical patriarchy
- the Jewish God had female aspects such as wisdom - it is normal to think of God both in female and male terms
- the language already exists to talk about God with female terms it just needs to be rediscovered
- the more we understand the nature of Jesus, not as a warrior messiah but as a liberator that we can see the female
38
The christian God cannot be presented in female
- priests must be male in the catholic church so Christ’s maleness is is essential (you can’t change the terms)
- the christian God is a male object - if you use female terms you are re-defining female words to fit masculine characteristics
- too many traditions or the christian God as male
- there is too much patriarchy
- everything about God is gendered
- God cannot be presented in male or female terms because God is beyond gender
39
Weaknesses of ruether
- makes Jesus appear too revolutionary
- she is very selective about which biblical texts and movements
- including goddess language and other religions could undermine the unity of God
- Ruether disregards the natural order of creation and that men are women are created equal but different
40
Strengths of ruether
- her theology is inclusive
- it es expressed in Jesus teachings and actions
- it underlies all expressions of nature and society
41
Strengths of Daly
- gives radical insight into the flaws of human relationship and society
- she has re-envisioned the Christian view of humanity
42
Weaknesses of Daly
- she was become too exclusive
- it alienates both men and other women
- it is dismissive of other spiritual movements
43
Scholars on daly
- Chan argues that the OT view of the qualities of God are not exclusively male and they are include a creative element
- fiorenza argues that biblical texts challenge social, patriarchal norms
