ipl-logo

Feminist Theology

2671 Words11 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Gender and politics

Femenist theology has been in the spotlight of recent global movements, gaining supporters all around the world from grass roots movements to a national scale. In today’s society with people becoming more connected than ever through the use of the internet, telephones, and fast plane travel the feminist movement has aquired the ability to reach and help women from every corner of the earth. The evolution of the feminist movement has now turned into one of the most successful movements today, tackling many hard issues such as rights, women’s education, and equality. Femenists all over the world have banded together with one thought in mind and that is public policy. Though the movement has had many setbacks they were able to overcome borders, …show more content…

The church was practicing the same values and thought of patriarchal theology, women were excluded from leadership in the church and society. This exclusion was based on the argument “women’s exclusion from ministry are application of the general theology of male headship and female subordination” (195 sexism). Women in early Christianity have long been stereotyped with the role of procreation, house keeping, inferior mental ability, and inferior soul. For these reasons the church has perpetuate the thinking that women should listen and receive ministry rather than give it. Early interpretations of biblical texts by believers in Kyriarchal and patriarchal theology believed that the bible prohibited equal right and liberation of women. Early feminist biblical interpretation had to interpret the bible in their own way using a corrective approach “corrective approach asserts that the bible does not prohibit but rather authorizes the equal rights and liberation of wo/men” (137 wisdom). Women had to teach biblical knowledge and preach the importance of women in the bible. Women had to re-translate texts and undo the kyriocentric translations that were being perpetuated. Early feminism had viewed the church as a institution that simply translated the bible in a skewed kyriarchal view. Women had uncover the true meaning of biblical …show more content…

Churches today are now becoming beacons of equality and inclusion as more ideals of feminism are being preached by male and female ministers. The church is a community within society, through this church community liberation ideals are being spread throughout. Although there has been much progress with the feminist movement within the church today, “The difficulty with such a top-down transformation is that the clergy are seldom willing to let go of their own clerical prerogatives” (203 sexism). The future of the church is really up to historical church leader’s, the feminist movement has made significant progress with liberating some church institutions. It is the job of historical institutionalized churches to preach this, the small liberation churches may have impact but none as large as the historical institutions. Once the church fully accepts the ideas of feminist liberation and accepts that God blesses men and women equally we might be able to fully realize the goal of feminism in the church system. God does not discriminate due to race and definitely does not discriminate on gender, the historical churches need to adopt this way of thinking in order to have a complete understand of Christianity. Feminist theology views offer the Church inclusion, with adoption of

Show More
Related
411 Words | 2 Pages

The changes in gender roles weren’t making everyone happy for examples in the story of The Kingdom of Matthias, Robert Matthews started a religious cult in New York during the 1830’s he came to believe that he was indeed not Robert Matthews, but instead he was Matthias, Prophet of the God of the Jews. Matthias was not happy with any of the changes that was happening in the roles of women, and he was not going to support any of it. His wife Margaret was suffering from the person he had become, he was extremely controlling and once told her that, “She had no God, that the husband was the savior of the wife, that as man was not whole without woman” (Johnson and Wilentz 80). Matthias was bitter because the women of this time had changed into

Read More
648 Words | 3 Pages

In this week’s reading the author, Karen Jo Torjesen,”When Women Were Priest”, discussed the struggles of women in leadership from several religious backgrounds’. The author demonstrates how women had to fight for their rights to be accepted in a world where they believed that they were called by God to preach, teach and lead other to Christ. Women were not seen as equal to men leaders within the church. Though women have been ordained, their title held little weight or power at all unlike the men leaders of the church.

Read More
746 Words | 3 Pages

“The Cry of Tamar” effectively breaks down how society has become desensitized to the treatment and objectifying of women. It was shocking to learn that 39% of all women have experienced some level of abuse or sexual assault during their lifetime (Cooper-White, 2012). When it comes to the church’s past response to violence against women, they have failed miserably to address the issue and have even contributed to the oppression by denying the woman her voice. Cooper-White discussed the efforts for gender justice and explains some of the common women stereotypes. Some of the “stereotype-bearing myths” about women

Read More
531 Words | 3 Pages

Always being told the men in the bibles and the biblical stories were the heroes or the good people, while she was also always told that the more inferior and weaker ones were the women such as Eve, who bit into the apple, who was the “first sinner”. In Society around that time and even many years ago, It was extremely common practice in the church and society that the belief was that men were on the top, the strongest, wisest and smartest. And that women were in second place, inferiors, weaker and submissive to all. Almost all feminine figures in the church were seen as inferior to the men, seen as whores, seen as only mothers and wives. So to only see and hear these kinds of things keeps you in this place where all you believe is that you as a woman are inferior to men and others, that you have no place besides being a wife and mother.

Read More
652 Words | 3 Pages

On March 9th, I went to the convocation event titled “Representations of Women and Children in the Bible and the Ancient Near East,” lead by Kristine Garroway. This lecture provided an insight on the women and children in the Bible. Garroway started off by saying that this type of emphasis is a new and growing field that is just beginning to be explored. She labeled it two ways: Child-Centered Interpretation and Childist theory. This theory’s intent is to find the silent voice by reinterpreting previous findings of Israel.

Read More
1129 Words | 5 Pages

However, when examining the letters written by Mary Paul in 1853, the limitations she suffered specifically because of her gender are exposed. In 1853, Mary Paul writes to her father asking his permission for her to join an association called “North American Phalanx”. In her letter, she lists the advantages of joining such association, which include, a better pay, less work, and the privilege to do whatever she sees as fit. Working conditions outside the association were dire, but according to Mary Paul, “at the ‘Phalanx’, it is different, all work there, and all are paid alike both men and women have the same pay and the same work [...] There is more equality in such things according to the work not the sex, you know that men often get more than double the pay for doing the same work that woman do -”

Read More
807 Words | 4 Pages

This is important as the change in education implemented the idea that educated women would divert from Christian values but a man strongly opposing the idea dismisses it, and lends a supportive perspective of educated women. However, something that is not showcased in this document is that women were taught theology, basic arithmetic, and language which limited them to their lives at home. Not being so educated in a vast variety of subjects like the men of their times eventually led to the downfall of women. They lost power and and didn’t have a very crucial role in shaping

Read More
1011 Words | 5 Pages

Arielle 517 Keener: Two Views on Women in Ministry Reading Worksheet Carefully read your assigned chapter and the responses to it then answer the following questions. Give page numbers in parentheses when referring to specific arguments. Be prepared to discuss your answers in class. 1) What were the author’s three strongest points? What makes them strong?

Read More
791 Words | 4 Pages

No little harm is done by this, as we witness every day in pitiful examples of ill-assorted unions; from the ease of contact and the close company kept over a period of time, there easily comes about something not thought possible… All of this would be eliminated if there were older women of learning … and instruction were passed down from one group to another. (Sor Juana 232-233) De Jesús’ writing aims to brings to light that ignoring the taboo of educating women could be the only way to break the oppressive cycle, and allow equally educated genders to become the norm. Juana Inés de la Cruz and Ursula de Jesús, both victims of an oppressive system, use religion to support equality. While de Jesús focuses on race and de la Cruz focuses on gender, their faith unites the two, defining an overall goal of equal opportunities for all in both the Church and the society

Read More
1396 Words | 6 Pages

Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him” (http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/sojtruth-woman.asp ) This quote explains the fact that women, not men, were used to create Christ Himself. So why are women being treated unfairly for doing this?

Read More
282 Words | 2 Pages

The Christian Century articles “Feminist Hermeneutics and Biblical Studies” by Phyllis Trible examines arguments made by feminist scholars about text in the bible that suggest mistreatment of women. Trible beings the article talking about the feminist movement and how they interpret and critique the bible. She states that the feminist’s argument focuses on how females were viewed unfairly and less desirable in the bible. Tribles then beings to focus on three perspectives of women in Scripture by mainly focusing on Hebrew Scriptures. She emphases a culture of patriarchy in Israel citing (Judg. 11:29-40), (II Sam. 13) and others to make the argument that there is evident of inferiority, subordination and abuse of women in Scripture.

Read More
1930 Words | 8 Pages

Instead of men and women being recognized as equals and having equal opportunities, women have been deemed as less holy, secondary, and subordinate to men within scripture. In fact, one of Jesus Christ’s apostles, Paul or Saint Paul, even declares how women are prohibited from teaching or having authority over men and are told to remain submissive, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet,” (Timothy 2:12). This rhetoric of asserting women as inferior to men is extremely impactful to how women are treated and valued within the Catholic Church. It is evident that scripture plays an enormous role in how women are treated within society and the church, a concept that feminist theologian Rosemary Ruether highlights within her analytical essay titled, “The Female Nature of G-d.” Ruether connects how the ways in which scripture portrays women directly correlates to how women are regarded in all aspects of society, as “women are regarded as relating to G-d only secondarily and through inclusion in the male as their ‘head,’”

Read More
91 Words | 1 Pages

approach to the text, could lead a person to accuse, God, Jesus, The Bible and its authors of misogyny. The fact is that the Bible’s inclusive treatment of women presents them as neither inferior nor superior to men, but as equals. God created man and women in his image, he created Eve to be helpmate not a stepping stool. Furthermore, God gave women the greatest gift of all which is to give life to the One who gives life, salvation, joy, and hope to many in the past and the future.

Read More
821 Words | 4 Pages

Additionally, religion is controlled by men. Women had a lesser role in religion. An example of this is in the text called “Chapter 7” “Women were necessary actors in ritual, but they often participated in ways that marked their inferior status within social and political hierarchies” (Hinsch, 146). Women had to perform religious rituals to her husband’s ancestors and not her own. Which showed that “A woman’s identity was grounded in the kinship system.

Read More
748 Words | 3 Pages

In the introduction and the first chapter of Introducing Feminist Theology, Anne Clifford explains multiple concepts regarding feminism, society and Christian theology. Throughout the chapter, Clifford discusses the coming about of feminism and how feminism lead to feminist liberation theology. Firstly, Clifford asserts that a patriarchal world is a white man’s world, oppressing women and people of color. Therefore, feminism came (in three waves) to liberate women from sexism and oppression. According to the author, patriarchy, with its dominance, creates a barrier between interdependence and equality.

Read More

More about Feminist Theology

Related Topics

Open Document