Feminist Theology current issue

Editorial

Wootton, J. — 2009-08-04

Priest, Blood, Sacrifice: Re-Membering the Maternal Divine

Green, A. — 2009-08-04

The presence of the woman priest presiding at the Eucharist causes a `collision' with traditional phallocentric Christian rites, not least around blood sacrifice. Sociological, philosophical and psychological research has found this to be a male-only practice designed to control women. I argue that the woman priest brings new and recovered meanings and possibilities relating to the maternal divine that revivify and enrich old interpretations associated with the Eucharist. A doubly gendered priesthood symbolically connects bloodshed not only with violence and death but with birth and nurturing, with nature and with community. Women's priesthood calls for sexual difference to be acknowledged and celebrated within the Christian narrative in a way that allows both women and men to flourish as children of God.

`Presiding Like a Woman': Feminist Gestures for Christian Assembly

Burns, S. — 2009-08-04

Feminist engagement with liturgy has produced an abundance of new texts. This essay seeks to complement the production of feminist texts for prayer by considering ways in which feminist liturgy might more intentionally reflect on practices which mediate feminist liturgical principles— and especially the congruence of non-verbal aspects of liturgy with texts for and about feminist liturgy. The essay juxtaposes literature in feminist liturgy with literature in wider circles of liturgical theology. It draws a number of clues from the work of Nicola Slee and also considers contributions from Rosemary Radford Ruether, Letty Russell and Siobhan Garrigan.

Retrieving Humility: Rhetoric, Authority, and Divinization in Mechthild of Magdeburg

Roberts, M. V. — 2009-08-04

Can anything be reclaimed from the self-denigrating rhetoric of medieval women in the Christian tradition? This article investigates how feminists might retrieve the Christian virtue of humility by journeying through nine of its functions in the work of the thirteenth-century German beguine, Mechthild of Magdeburg. As a rhetorical strategy, authorizing tactic, and tool of moral formation, Mechthild's `sinking humility' retains a surprising relevance for feminist women and men today.

Redemption from Mother Nature to Our Father the Lord?* An Ecofeminist Analysis of Hymns in the Swedish Church Edition of Psalmer i 2000-talet

Samuelsson, M. J. — 2009-08-04

The feminist critical deconstruction of Western culture and theology written by Luce Irigaray could be said to represent a certain branch of ecofeminist perspectives on religion. The article analyses the symbolic structures of suppression of women, body and nature and the exaltation of spirit, culture and the androcentric God, inherent in four hymns included in the new supplement (2006) to the book of hymns in the Lutheran Church of Sweden. The analysis shows that these symbolic structures are visible also in these more recent hymns, even though they can be said to also consider and bring out women's experiences. Despite their `feminist' approach, they have not, on any deeper level, affected the subordination of women and the nature-given.

Her Blue Body*: A Pagan Reading of Alice Walker Womanism

Razak, A. — 2009-08-04

This essay explores the earth-based woman-centered paganism found in Alice Walker's womanist writings. It argues that Walker's visionary landscape is influenced by indigenous spirituality and woman-centered Goddess beliefs which place humans in a sacred web of life that includes plants, animals, elemental forces, the earth, the cosmos, and the living and the dead. In this landscape, humans are not stewards of creation, but members of the whole. A review of several of her visionary novels— including The Temple of My Familiar, By the Light of My Father's Smile and The Color Purple—suggest that Walker links women's erotic freedom, social and cultural liberation, and sexual and spiritual redemption. She rejects dualistic notions which oppose spirituality and sexuality, and through characters who embody transgressive sexuality, she suggests that a fully enjoyed and empowered female sexuality is a gateway to the perception of the divine as well as a path to healing, self-love and authenticity. A self-declared pagan, her holistic framework integrates the personal, sexual, spiritual, and cosmic with the needs of the earth and all sentient life.

`In Search of a Pneumatology: Chi and Spirit'

Kim, G. J.-S. — 2009-08-04

People today live within the context of a globalized world with people of many cultures and religions living together. This intermixing of peoples, cultures, societies and religions creates the opportunity for different religions and thoughts to combine into new perspectives and develop a more relevant Christianity. The basic tenets of Asian culture, religion and thought can instruct and develop theology so that theology can remain relevant to our modern world. In particular, the Asian understanding of Chi can nurture a stronger theological perspective of the Holy Spirit. This paper will examine Chi and illustrate the similarities it shares with the Holy Spirit to work towards a pneumatology which will encourage people to live harmoniously and peacefully with one another.