Feminist Theology – Thoughts?
Letty Russell, theologian and feminist
Reading through selections of Letty Russell, Feminist Interpretation of the Bible. It’s poignant, moving, and sad. Several of these scholars, having started from a Christian frame of reference, have eventually become so discouraged so as to have given up on the Bible entirely, concluding the chasm between the Bible (and thus, God) and feminism unbridgeable. They stand antagonized by a God who is male, oppressive, and dominant. But I find Letty Russell as a light in the sadness; while recognizing the oppression, she sees the End – eschatological fulfillment – as the reason to carry on. Maybe the Bible is sexist. Maybe we won’t see women treated fairly today, or for a long time. But a Day comes… and so she ends on a hopeful note. In the same volume, Phyllis Trible recognizes: Women as victims of the text, but refusing to let go w/o a blessing – tenaciously pouring over a male-oriented, male-interpreted Scripture, trying to find a light that will both be true to revelation and at the same time treat women as full persons and not just supplementary helpers. I find myself deeply reflective over these words, repentant, moved, and hitherto part of the dialogue. We’re going to comment respectfully and thoughtfully here (assuming there will be any comments). Anything slanderous / disrespectful will be deleted.
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I’m a little late on my reading, but this one really caught my eye and heart. I feel really sorry for women who cannot get past the age the Bible was written in, to the love and freedom that Daddy God adds to women.
I’ve never been on the feminist bandwagon; equality yes. I believe that women who become discouraged in their reading of the Bible are looking for an excuse to get out of commitment to His ways. As a new christian it was hard to learn to trust a ‘male’ God, a ‘male’ Savior, a ‘male’ Holy Spirit as my comforter. But, as our relationship developed I learned I could depend on them ‘Males’ over any other person in my life – then and now. As with letty, get through the text to the love of God for humanity.
There will always be sexism, racism and all the other ism’s = I, Self, Me. When we can get past that then we can move past focusing on just certain domineering passages, to the whole intent of deliverence from all types of bondage, even religious, male dominated sexism in the churches and society as a whole.
Jay, I am in agreement with you. I grew up in a home that culturally emphasized women as second class to men and not by my father, but by my mother. It was not religiously influenced as my mother is a non-believer (or at least has never confessed her faith to me or my family). In an effort to break away from those restraints, I wholeheartedly embraced the feminist movement. I went so far as to publicly tell my own parents that they were foolish to ever believe I’d marry and have children and that instead I plan to just jump on the career bandwagon.
Well, God really had other plans for me! After I married I met an incredible women, my mother in law, and she became to me a Titus 2 women. She taught me the new movement of women who seeked to embody the Proverb women. I believe that the bible actually holds women in high esteem, especially when you take the word in it’s context and original translation. Prior to becoming a “born again” Christian, I was a Catholic and am not well versed in my scriptures as I should, but I am seeking to find a biblical worldview. Here is a great link if you want to read more http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/sexism.html#iZbhWb2Ixn59.
This is not to say that women have not been mistreated in churches as I believe we are human and imperfect and therefore sin against each other. I hope this does not discourage women from knowing Christ’s love as it extends to EVERYONE!!!
Interesting. Sorry this post is late, I just found the website.
@WaynePark. I wish you had said more on the content of the book. You got my curiosity up. I too am in a place of reconciling feminism with my God and with Scripture….or more likely, with the present church.
@Jay Johnson.
Ouch. I want to know God and make God known, and I want to grow in intimacy in our relationship, so I read the Scripture. But why is my discouragement from poor translation (using cultural specific examples as inspired and timeless truths) of the Scripture necessitate that I am dodging my commitment to God?
@Meme.
I don’t think that feminism and Christianity are incompatable. I also don’t believe that feminism and marriage or raising children is incompatable. In response to your Proverbs and Titus examples, I humbly submit that you visit
http://www.cbeinternational.org/?q=content/free-articles
@ all and the book
I too would be exremely discouraged to find a “male” and “oppressive” God. But that is just it – where does God say God is male? If men and women are made in God’s image, doesn’t that mean that God transcends gender, that he has all of the stereotypical traits of men and women? Even John Eldredge and company espouse that view. We get “God = male” from “God the Father.” But what if it is really, “God as Father,” meaning that we can relate to God in a father/child relationship, not that God is male? But does God have a penis? (Ok, Jesus did, I am assuming). Or what makes God only “male”?
I think the church and bible translations have gotten in to trouble by equating God with male. Because that equates male with God. And where does that leave women?
Anyway. Those are my thoughts. More on the God/male stuff at http://eliseanne.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/open-discussion-gods-gender/
Peace.
Normally I would just let this simmer but I think you bring on some things deserving of sooner engagement.
Christ definitely had a penis. To grant him any less would be to deny the doctrine of the incarnation – he is not a halved being, or a percentile human, but fully man in all of our creatureliness.
But that brings on a great second point which I think you bring up: If both Father and Son are male, what share does the female gender have in the divine? This almost negates women’s being into a sub-state – a sub-being, an almost less than full humanity. But I am beginning to agree – that God transcends gender. My prof Provan says this, and I believe hearing Jurgen Moltmann say this as well. If this is true, the implications are profound for women; they are no longer sub-standard humans; rather they exemplify the human experience fully, and not just in a complementary fashion. To be woman is to be human.
Why do we call God by male terminology then? I’ll leave that to someone else to wrangle with.
@.elise.anne.
Letty Russell is great. She’s a via media between the far-left apostacy of Mary Daly and the far right conservative positions. As I understand, Russell concedes the bridge between feminism and Christianity / Scriptures un-reconcilable (not unlike theodicy – sovereignty and suffering), thus placing our hopes squarely on the eschaton – the second coming of Christ – to set all things aright. I think this is a thoroughly evangelical position, although she might not consider herself one.
God created Adam in His image and made woman from man’s rib. So in a sense, woman was created in God’s image as well. If Adam = God’s image and Eve = Adam’s image, then Eve = God’s image. Simple logic really
yes; except for women it involves the intermediary of a man… can women themselves have direct access to God without men? Or must men interpret God first for women?