Contextual Theologies — Module 2
Feminist Theology
From Tertullian's silencing to Schüssler Fiorenza's professorships, feminist theology has reformulated fundamental questions about God, Christ, Scripture, and Church. A century of radical theological reconstruction from the place of women.
Definitions and Stakes
Feminist theology is an academic discipline that examines religious traditions through the critique of gender domination structures, and reconstructs theology in a way that does justice to women's experiences, voice, and full humanity. It is plural — we now speak of feminist theologies in the plural, according to confessional traditions, cultural contexts, and intersectionalities of class, race, and sexuality. It is not reducible to a demand for social equality: it engages fundamental questions about God, Christ, Spirit, Scripture, authority, and Church.
1. Precursors and First Voices (19th — early 20th century)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) publishes The Woman's Bible (1895-1898), the first systematic attempt at feminist biblical reading. She identifies texts used to legitimize the subordination of women and proposes alternative interpretations. Ignored by the academic theology of her time, she anticipates Schüssler Fiorenza's methods a century later. Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825-1921), first woman ordained in the United States (Congregationalist, 1853), refutes Pauline arguments against women in Exegesis of 1 Corinthians XIV and 1 Timothy II (1849).
2. Academic Feminist Theology (1960s-1980s)
Valerie Saiving Goldstein (1921-1992) publishes in 1960 the founding article "The Human Situation: A Feminine View" (Journal of Religion, 40/2): she demonstrates that the definition of sin as pride and self-assertion (Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich) is constructed from male experience. For women, whose socialization tends to produce self-dissolution, humility is not a virtue but a potential vice. This article inaugurates the feminist critique of systematic theology.
Mary Daly (1928-2010), Catholic philosopher at Boston College, publishes The Church and the Second Sex (1968) — an internal Catholic critique of institutional misogyny. She radicalizes in Beyond God the Father (1973): the patriarchal God must be abandoned. Rosemary Radford Ruether (b. 1936) is the central figure of progressive Catholic feminist theology. Her Sexism and God-Talk (Boston: Beacon, 1983) is the first complete systematic manual. She identifies the "prophetic-liberating principle" as the hermeneutical norm: throughout the Gospels, prophets, and the Church's critical tradition, a voice always rises for the marginalized.
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza (b. 1938), German-born Catholic New Testament scholar, is the leading feminist NT exegete. Her In Memory of Her (New York: Crossroad, 1983) revolutionizes the study of Christian origins: women (Mary Magdalene, Priscilla, Lydia, Phoebe) were leaders, theologians, and community founders in the primitive movement, rendered invisible by subsequent patriarchal redaction. Her fourfold hermeneutic: (1) suspicion — all canonical texts must be suspected of androcentric bias; (2) remembrance — recovering erased women; (3) proclamation — which texts can be proclaimed liberatingly?; (4) creative re-integration — imaginatively reconstructing the original context.
Central Debates
3. The Ordination of Women
| Tradition | Position | Arguments | Key Texts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reformed / Presbyterian | Ordination granted (Scotland 1966; France 1966; US 1956) | Galatians 3:28 (no longer male and female); Spirit's charismas given to all; Mary Magdalene as first apostle | Gal 3:28; Rom 16:1-7 (Phoebe deaconess; Junia apostle); Acts 2:17-18 |
| Lutheran | Ordination granted (Sweden 1960; Germany 1976; USA 1970 — ELCA) | Same arguments as Reformed; Pauline texts interpreted as contextually conditioned | 1 Tim 2:11-15 (interpreted as circumstantial); Gal 3:28 |
| Anglican | Division: ordination granted in 1992 (CofE); some bishops refuse | Via media; full employment of charisms; 'icon of Christ' argument contested | Lambeth Report 1988; 1992 Synodal Motion |
| Catholic | Definitive refusal: Inter insigniores (1976); Ordinatio sacerdotalis (1994) | Tradition of Christ choosing only men among the Twelve; the priest acts in persona Christi — as icon of the male Christ; Magisterium declared 'definitive' | CIC can. 1024; OS (1994, "in a definitive way"); CDF Responsum 1995 |
| Orthodox | Refusal of priesthood; debate on women's diaconate | Immemorial tradition; eucharistic masculinity of Christ; but: several Orthodox synods discuss women's diaconate (Constantinople 2017) | Kallistos Ware; Synaxis of Constantinople 2017 |
4. Language about God — The Problem of Divine Gender
Mary Daly formulates the problem tersely: "If God is male, the male is God." Exclusively masculine language about God — Father, Son, Lord, King, Judge — has real social effects: it legitimizes male domination as divinely ordered. Sallie McFague (1933-2019) develops in Models of God (1987) alternative theological models: God as Mother, Lover, Friend. Elizabeth Johnson (b. 1941), Catholic theologian, publishes She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse (New York: Crossroad, 1992): a systematic re-reading of the doctrine of God using the feminine without abandoning the apophatic tradition. Scripture itself uses feminine images for God (Is 49:15; 66:13; Ps 22:9-10; Lk 15:8-10).
5. Feminist Christology
The central question: can a male savior save women? Carter Heyward (b. 1945) develops a relational Christology: Jesus embodies the principle of mutuality and liberating relationship — this mutuality is accessible to women. Phyllis Trible (b. 1932), feminist OT exegete, identifies in God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality (1978) the feminine metaphors for God in the OT. Letty Russell (1929-2007), Reformed theologian, develops in Church in the Round (1993) a feminist "round table" ecclesiology: against hierarchical structures, an inclusive Church organized around the shared communion table.
Julian of Norwich (1342-ca. 1416) — Jesus as Mother
« So Jesus Christ who doeth good against evil is our very Mother. We have our Being of Him, where the ground of Motherhood beginneth, with all the sweet Keeping of Love that endlessly followeth. [...] As verily as God is our Father, so verily is God our Mother. » (Revelations of Divine Love, ch. 59.) Medieval mysticism thus provides pre-feminist resources for feminist Christology.
Feminist Theologies by Tradition
✟ Catholic
The CDF declared Ruether's and Schüssler Fiorenza's theology problematic (1994 notification). Johnson's Quest for the Living God (2007) was criticized by the US bishops' conference (USCCB, 2011). Ordinatio sacerdotalis (1994) closes the ordination debate definitively according to Rome. However, François's appointment of women to key positions (including Cardinal Fernández, prefect to whom he reports) signals a de facto evolution.
✠ Protestant
The Reformed, Lutheran, and Methodist churches have generally followed the egalitarian path on ordination (with earlier or later dates). Evangelical complementarianism (Grudem, Piper) remains significant. The WCC has supported feminist theology through the "Community of Women and Men in the Church" study (1983). Serene Jones and Beverly Gaventa represent Reformed feminist theology at the highest academic level.
☦ Orthodox
The most conservative tradition. The ordination of women to the priesthood is excluded. However, the question of the women's diaconate (attested in early Christianity) is actively debated: the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (Synaxis 2017) discussed restoring it. Kallistos Ware in his later writings showed openness.
📚 Pour aller plus loin
Primary Sources — Patristic and Medieval
Primary Sources — Feminist Theology
Magisterium Documents on Women
Complementarist and Conservative Responses
Reference Works and Companions
Method
What is Valerie Saiving Goldstein's central argument against defining sin as pride?
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Saiving demonstrates that defining sin as pride, self-assertion, and will to power (Niebuhr, Tillich) is constructed from male experience. For women, whose socialization produces self-dissolution (denying one's own needs for others), humility is not a virtue but a potential vice. Dominant systematic theology is androcentric.
Exegesis
What is Schüssler Fiorenza's hermeneutical method?
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Fourfold hermeneutic: (1) Suspicion — all canonical texts must be suspected of androcentric bias; (2) Remembrance — recovering erased women (Mary Magdalene, Priscilla, Phoebe); (3) Proclamation — which texts can be proclaimed liberatingly?; (4) Creative re-integration — imaginatively reconstructing the original context of early Christian women.
Language
What does Mary Daly mean by 'If God is male, the male is God'?
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Exclusively masculine language about God (Father, King, Lord) sacralizes male domination as divinely ordered. If God is represented as dominant male, all structures of male dominance appear divinely ordained. Daly's solution (post-Christian phase): abandon the patriarchal God. Johnson's solution: draw on Scripture's own feminine metaphors and classical apophaticism.
Ordination
What is the Catholic position on women's ordination and on what is it based?
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Inter insigniores (CDF, 1976): the Church's constant tradition is to ordain only men; the priest acts in persona Christi — as icon of the male Christ. Ordinatio sacerdotalis (John Paul II, 1994): declared 'in a definitive way' not open to debate. Feminist critique: Christ became a 1st-century Palestinian Jew — his maleness is no more theologically determinative than his ethnicity.
Mujerista
What is Isasi-Díaz's mujerista theology?
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Theology of Latina women in the United States (from mujer, woman). Founded by Ada María Isasi-Díaz (1943-2012). Method: lo cotidiano as theological locus — Latinas' daily life, struggles, popular spirituality. Critiques double marginalization (woman + immigrant/Latina). Refuses to be subsumed under white feminism or Latin American liberation theology — the Latinas' experience is irreducible.
Asia
How does Kwok Pui-lan articulate feminism and theological post-colonialism?
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Kwok (Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology, 2005): Asian women read the Bible in a context where it was first a tool of colonial domination. Postcolonial feminist hermeneutic: (1) identify colonial uses of biblical texts (European missionaries); (2) reread from Asian women's perspective; (3) refuse Western interpretive hegemony.
Evangelical
What is the complementarist/egalitarian distinction in evangelical theology?
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Complementarianism (Grudem, Piper, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, 1991): God created male and female different and complementary, with distinct roles. Male leadership in family and Church is a creation gift, not an effect of the Fall. Women cannot exercise teaching authority over men (1 Tim 2:12). Egalitarianism (Groothuis, Bilezikian): Gal 3:28 transcends all gender hierarchy; 1 Tim 2:12 is contextually conditioned.
God-language
What does Elizabeth Johnson contribute with She Who Is (1992)?
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Johnson: classical apophaticism (God transcends all human language, a fortiori all gender) and Scripture itself provide the resources for feminine language about God. Is 49:15 (God as mother); Is 66:13; Ps 22:9-10 (God as midwife); Lk 15:8-10 (God as woman seeking her coin). Using feminine language is not an innovation but a recovery of scriptural and patristic richness.
The debate is simultaneously exegetical, theological, and ecclesial. Prohibitive texts: 1 Cor 14:34-35 ('let women be silent in the assemblies'), 1 Tim 2:11-15 ('I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man'), 1 Tim 3 and Tit 1 (masculine bishop qualifications). Liberating texts: Gal 3:28 ('neither male nor female... all one in Christ'), Rom 16:1-7 (Phoebe deaconess, Junia apostle), Jn 20:11-18 (Mary Magdalene as first commissioned witness of the resurrection).
The egalitarian position interprets prohibitive texts as circumstantial (linked to specific disorders in Corinth and Ephesus) and Gal 3:28 as a normative eschatological standard. The complementarist position (Grudem, Piper): 1 Tim and 1 Cor texts reflect the order of creation, not cultural accommodation.
Catholic dimension: Inter insigniores (1976) rests not on 1 Tim 2 but on Christ's constant practice (choosing only men among the Twelve) and the priest's in persona Christi. Feminist critique: Jesus chose only Jews, adults, Palestinians — those criteria are not retained. Ordinatio sacerdotalis (1994): declared 'in a definitive way.'
Schüssler Fiorenza, E. In Memory of Her. 1983. — CDF. Inter insigniores (1976); Ordinatio sacerdotalis (1994). — Grudem, W. and Piper, J. Recovering Biblical Manhood. 1991.
Daly (Beyond God the Father, 1973): exclusively masculine language about God sacralizes gender hierarchies. Radical solution: abandon the patriarchal God. Limit: total break with Christian tradition.
McFague (Models of God, 1987): God-language is always metaphorical — no language is literal. Father and King are useful but non-exclusive metaphors. Alternatives: God as Mother, Lover, Friend. Limit: risk of cultural projection.
Johnson (She Who Is, 1992): classical apophaticism affirms God transcends all gender. Scripture itself uses feminine images. Using the feminine is not innovation but recovery of scriptural richness. Conservative critics: The Son himself addressed God as Father — not an optional metaphor but a positive revelation.
LaCugna (God for Us, 1991): Trinitarian doctrine, properly understood, breaks with all patriarchal monarchism — the Triune God is a communion of distinct persons, none subordinate.
Daly, M. Beyond God the Father. 1973. — McFague, S. Models of God. 1987. — Johnson, E. She Who Is. 1992.
Fundamental contributions: (1) Epistemological: exposing the androcentric bias of classical academic theology — all theology has a social location; (2) Exegetical: recovering women erased from the biblical text — major contribution to the history of early Christianity; (3) Systematic: critique of God-language, Christology, ecclesiology, theological anthropology; (4) Ecclesial: women's ordination, female leadership, inclusive ecclesiology.
Internal limits and critiques: (1) Risk of ethnocentrism: dominant feminist theology is often white and North American — womanist and mujerista critique. (2) Risk of deconstructing without reconstructing — Daly's post-Christian phase. (3) Tension between loyalty to tradition and critique. (4) Question of universality: is women's experience sufficiently universal to ground a theological norm? Conservative critique: substituting experience for revelation; abandoning the normative Scripture.
Ruether, R.R. Sexism and God-Talk. 1983. — Jones, S. Feminist Theory and Christian Theology. 2000.
Quiz — Feminist Theology
8 questions
Q1/8
Valerie Saiving Goldstein's 1960 article critiques defining sin as pride because:
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Saiving (1960): Niebuhr and Tillich define sin as pride, self-assertion, will to dominance — typical male experience. For women, socialized to self-dissolution, the effacement of their own needs, and dependency, humility is not a virtue but a potential sin. Dominant systematic theology is androcentric.Q2/8
Schüssler Fiorenza's hermeneutic of suspicion means that:
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Schüssler Fiorenza: all biblical texts were written, selected, copied, and transmitted in a patriarchal context. The hermeneutic of suspicion recognizes this conditioning and reads texts seeking to identify erased traces of women, revealing silences, androcentric presuppositions. Not a rejection of Scripture but an informed critical reading.Q3/8
The argument of Ordinatio sacerdotalis (John Paul II, 1994) rests primarily on:
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Inter insigniores (1976) and Ordinatio sacerdotalis (1994): the principal argument is not 1 Tim 2:12 but Jesus's practice (exclusively masculine choice of the Twelve) and the immemorial tradition of the Church. The in persona Christi argument is secondary. The decision is declared 'in a definitive way' — not infallible ex cathedra but of the ordinary universal Magisterium.Q4/8
According to Elizabeth Johnson (She Who Is, 1992), the use of feminine metaphors for God is:
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Johnson: classical apophaticism and Scripture itself provide the resources. Is 49:15 (God as mother); Is 66:13 (God as comforting mother); Ps 22:9-10 (God as midwife); Lk 15:8-10 (God as woman seeking her coin). These metaphors are not new — they were occluded by the tradition's androcentric selection.Q5/8
Isasi-Díaz's mujerista theology distinguishes itself from white feminist theology primarily because:
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Isasi-Díaz: white feminist theology tends to universalize the experience of white, North American, educated, middle-class women. Latina women suffer double or triple marginalization (gender + ethnicity + class). Lo cotidiano (daily realities: home, family, popular spirituality, the struggle of immigration) is the mujerista theology's proper theological locus.Q6/8
The complementarist/egalitarian distinction in evangelical theology is primarily about:
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The complementarianism/egalitarianism debate is specifically evangelical and concerns: can women exercise a teaching and authority ministry over men in Church and family? Complementarianism (Grudem, Piper): No — male leadership is a creation order (1 Tim 2:12-13; 1 Cor 11:3). Egalitarianism (Groothuis, Bilezikian): Yes — Gal 3:28 transcends all gender hierarchy.Q7/8
Phyllis Trible in God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality (1978) demonstrates that:
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Trible: rhetorical exegesis of OT texts using the feminine for God. Deut 32:18 (God as a rock who bore you); Is 49:15 (can a mother forget her nursing child?); Is 66:13 (as a mother comforts her child); Ps 22:9-10 (it was you who brought me to birth). These metaphors are not marginal but participate in the very identity of Israel's God.Q8/8
Carter Heyward's feminist Christology is based on which central concept?
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Heyward (The Redemption of God, 1982): relational Christology. Jesus is not savior because of his male gender but because of his practice of liberating mutuality — equal, reciprocal, caring relationships. This mutuality is accessible to women, LGBTQ+ persons, any being living in just interdependence. Jesus's maleness is theologically non-determinative.Score
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