Gender and theology Flashcards
(24 cards)
Rosemary Radford Ruether Background
a feminist thinker and Catholic theologian. She wrote a very influential book in 1983 called Sexism and God-Talk.
Jesus’ maleness
Ruether challenges the idea that the maleness of Jesus is basic to how we should understand him. She argues that Jesus’ maleness is not the most important factor in how he is viewed.
She argues that there are more female interpretations of Jesus Christ which have been ignored or marginalised by the Church.
Male warrior messiah expectation
When Jesus was alive, many people were expecting a military-style leader that could save them from Roman rule and oppression. Jesus was certainly not the type of Messiah that was expected.
Jesus’ life and preaching focused on the oppressed and marginalised and he is presented as being on the side of women on a number of occasions.
Challenge to the expectation
Jesus is often with the poor and the downtrodden rather than with the rich and successful.
His desire to help the oppressed seems far away from the stereotypical male image of the powerful warrior.
God as the female wisdom principle
God is wise. In the Old Testament, God’s wisdom is often personified.
When this happens, the wisdom of God is described and treated as a female.Wisdom (Sophia) is seen as a feminine, creative, nurturing, and powerful aspect of God. While traditional Christian doctrine doesn’t declare God female, these texts offer a counterbalance to masculine imagery, and show how the divine feminine has always been present in the sacred texts.
Female language in Proverbs 8
Does not wisdom call out? / Does not understanding raise her voice? / At the highest point along the way, / where the paths meet, she takes her stand; / beside the gate leading into the city, / at the entrance, she cries aloud: / “To you, O people, I call out; / I raise my voice to all mankind.’
Ruether’s conclusions
concludes from this that the male image of God (as father, as King, as Warrior…etc) should not be seen as defining who God is.
God can be seen as female as well as male.
Femininity, Ruether argues, has as much right to be seen as an aspect of God’s identity as maleness. Jesus is said to be the incarnation of God and if God can be seen to be female or have female aspects, then surely Jesus must also.
Mary Daly
a radical American feminist theologian.
The ‘unholy trinity’
Daly argued that the idea of a patriarchal, fatherly God is the foundation of a sexist culture of unfair criticism and violence towards women and an unholy trinity of rape, genocide and war.
Daly suggested that the ‘unholy trinity’ of rape, genocide and war naturally exist in a world in which ‘phallocentric power’ is celebrated.
Beliefs about God
Daly believed that Christianity had failed and that God should be castrated because Christianity has reinforced rather than opposed male superiority, as can be seen in many Bible passages.
Identify systemic acts of rape
Daly did not view rape only in theoretical terms.
She identified systematic acts of physical violence towards women: rape, genital mutilation, foot binding, widow burning and hysterectomy.
Link: rape and war
Daly argued there is a connection between the mentality of rape and the phenomenon of war.
Daly pointed to the link between rape and war in the Bible, where Moses is enraged after a campaign against Midian because the commanders had spared the lives of all women: “Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.”
Beliefs about genocide
Daly believes that the current hierarchical structures place men over women in the same way that genocide sets one group over another.
Beliefs about war
war is an inevitable result of the male-dominated politics of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The horrors of war are associated with manly and adventurous virtues - men doing courageous and powerful acts of violence to defeat the enemy.
The language of violence is hidden by technical language; phrases like ‘collateral damage’ used to cover up the fact that the lives of innocent people are expendable.
Overturning maleness of God
Daly believes that the maleness of God needs to be overturned.
Traditional holy places were built and managed by men. For this reason, they should not be used anymore.
Daly vs Ruether - core of sexism
Daly accuses Christianity of being fundamentally sexist, meaning it needs to be abandoned.
According to Ruether, change must come from within.
Daly vs Ruether on sexism
Daly argues that much of Christianity is deeply and inherently sexist. She argues that Christian images and language about God are male-dominated and serve the interests of patriarchy.
Ruether argues that there are female directions in the interpretation of Christ that have been ignored or marginalised by the Church. Ruether does not interpret Christianity as being as sexist as Daly does.
Ruether on presentation of Jesus
Ruether argues that Jesus is presented in the Bible as being on the side of the marginalised and oppressed. Jesus is often with the poor and the downtrodden rather than with the rich and successful.
This emphasis on the less fortunate and the oppressed seems far away from the stereotypical male image of the powerful warrior.
Daly on male-dominated society
Daly thinks that male-dominated Christian imagery has violent results. She thinks it is responsible for what she calls the ‘unholy trinity’ of rape, genocide and war.
Daly thinks that a male-dominated society promotes what she calls a phallic (penis-centred) morality, where values such as competition, rivalry, aggression, sexual virility, and ruthlessness are celebrated amongst men.
Daly argues that this male-dominated imagery is clear in the Old Testament.
Ruether argues that Jesus Christ/Christianity cannot save women
because Jesus is historically male, as is the Word/Logos of God, and Jesus is deemed the perfect example of what it means to be human.
If Jesus is the perfect human and Jesus is male, then it’s implied that men are superior and only men can be saved.
Catholic view genderless God
The Catholic Church talks about how God is genderless because God is presented in both male and female ways.
Daly: male-dominated language
Daly states that our language about God is male-dominated.
We habitually use the male pronouns: ‘He’, ‘Him’, and ‘His.’
When we talk about God, we also use male imagery: He is the King. He is the Lord. He is traditionally seen as ‘Our Father in Heaven’ .
The biblical and popular image of God as a great patriarch in heaven has dominated the imagination of millions over thousands of years.
Daly’s view that Christianity is inherently male-dominated
n Christianity, women are blamed for the fall.
The main idea in Christianity is of God becoming Man. Christianity insists that God was incarnated into a male body.
Surely, says Daly, this is the very epitome of sexist ideology. It is not enough then to just reform the Church – women must stand against the Church and form an ‘Antichurch’ which is also ‘Antichrist’.
Hosea shows God as potentially female
To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them
