Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Gender and Theology - Coggle Diagram
Gender and Theology
Rosemary Radford Reuther
EVALUATION
(+) In Matthew 20:25 Jesus warns his disciples about lording power over others, so it could be said that Jesus is against a patriarchal or matriarchal society or any form of religious institutions exerting power and control
(-) Simon Chan, you can't rewrite Christianity to give women more prominence because it is the story itself that shapes Christian identity.
He recognizes that there are female descriptions of God but called him mother would be wrong as using female characteristics for God does not make a society less patriarchal.
"Even today many societies devoted to Goddess worshipremain oppresive towards women. Devotion to the Hindu Goddess Kali has never resulted in better treatment of women"
(-) 20th Century Catholicism emphasises the traditional doctrine that God is beyond gender, meaning that he is neither male nor female.
The classic understanding of God of 'God the Father' is an old male. However, we know hat God isn't 'old' in the same way that humans are old, as he is metaphysical, nor is he a father in the same sense of being a male parent of one's son.
BIOGRAPHY
-
central message has been lost by a patriarchal society and can be found by seeing Jesus in more feminine terms.
Goddess Theology
Sophia is greek for wisdom, God is associated with wisdom which is female.
Early Christians continued to refer to 'Sophia' as divine wisdom. The idea of female wisdom has become obscured behind the patriarchal veil of the male messiah Jesus.
Divine wisdom is closely linked to Christ and wisdom is referred to in female terms. The messah is therefore not simply a male part of God but the incarnation of wisdom, which is female
1 Corintians 1:23-24,"Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God"
Reuther then argues from this that "divine wisdom" is the same theologically speaking as the son of God.
-
"God is not a 'being' removed from creating, ruling it from outside in the manner of a patriarchal ruler", Reuther
Is Christianity sexist?
(+) Mary Daly, due to the Bible and oppresion within the Church christianity is sexist as men have, throughout history, sought to oppress women, religion is used as a tool to enforce this oppression. Unholy trinity rape, genocide & war – female oppression is a product of the cultural and historical impact of Christianity’s unholy trinity. Thought the idea of ‘God the father’ was inadequate and the maleness of God should be ‘castrated’. "If God is male then male is God"
(+) Judges 24 - Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish.
(-) Christian teaching of agape and treating others as you want to be treated yourself. Jesus' emphasis on acting in kind loving ways to everyone regardless of sex highlights how the Christian message is not a sexist one. Jesus refuses to stone a woman guilty of committing adultery in John 7-8, shows his respect for women.
(+) Numbers 31 - kill every girl who has slept with a man but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man
(-) Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Christians read the bible through different lenses whilst there are sexist passages in the Bible that are reflective historical and cultural context there are also anti-sexist verses too. Galatians 3 'There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female for you are all one in Christ Jesus.' Jesus also breaks social norms at the time by touching women in Matthew 26 and talking to them in John 4.
(+) 1 Corinthians 11:3-9 - the head of the woman is man...For man did not come from woman, but woman from man, neither man was created for woman, but woman for man
(-) This stems from Genesis where women were created from men. However, if we mix up Genesis so that men were created from women we can still argue that men are superior to women as they were created to be an improvement upon women. Equally if we leave Genesis as it is, we could also interpret that men not good enough and needed women to be created. This leads credence to the idea that Christians interpret the bible through different lenses.
(+) Augustine does describe Eve as being ontologically inferior to her husband, arguing that Eve was not as rational as Adam, having been created from his rib. Daly viewed this as the combination of sexism both in the Bible and the Church
(-) However, Augustine was a man of his time, he was born in a time when the social subordination of women to men was taken for granted by everybody, by women as well as men. So Augustine's sexist views are merely a product of the society at when he lived.
(-) Simon Chen, male language in reference to God such as the father the son and the holy spirit refers more to a symbolism of unity rather than an expression of repression.
(-) Mulleris Dignitatum, men and women have different, complimentary characteristics given to them by God and a women's role as a Christian is a role that is to be respected. Mary freely chose to take on the role of mother of the Son of God emphasising. Motherhood is the fruit of the marriage union of man and woman. A women's personality is such that she is more capable of attending to the needs of others. Childbirth pain is due to original sin but also to feel some of the suffering of Christ.
(+) Daphne Hampson, argues that motherhood is a tool of husbands to restrict their lives, it forces women to "crush their personalities and tend to others". Mothers do have to halt their social lives and jobs to tend to their children while men get no negative impact. The view that the purpose of women is to reproduce undermines those who are unfertile or who have no want or means or have children.
as god is infinite and human language is not, all language referring to god must be based in the apophatic assumption that god is beyond language and gender. but it may act as analogy or symbol of how humans experience god.
-
-
(+) Mary Daly, believes that due to the Bible and oppression within the Church Christianity is sexist as men have, throughout history, sought to oppress women, religion is used as a tool to enforce this oppression. Unholy trinity rape, genocide & war – female oppression is a product of the cultural and historical impact of Christianity’s unholy trinity. Thought the idea of ‘God the father’ was inadequate and the maleness of God should be ‘castrated’. "If God is male then male is God"
(-) Reuther argues that God is not actually male, but it is actually the patriarchy which has come from the culture at the time that has caused God to be viewd in male terms. Goddes theology..... Therefore since Jesus' and be continuation God's maleness is not necessary, therefore the christian message is not one of sexism.
However, it still could be argued that although the Christian message and God may not be male and therefore sexist but it is still arguable that the dogma and traditions of the church are also sexist as well as biblical scripture. Additionally it could also been seen that Christianity's apparent sexism is determined from you viewpoint.
(-) Mulleris Dignitatum, men and women have different, complimentary characteristics given to them by God and a women's role as a Christian is a role that is to be respected. Mary freely chose to take on the role of mother of the Son of God emphasising. Motherhood is the fruit of the marriage union of man and woman. A women's personality is such that she is more capable of attending to the needs of others. Childbirth pain is due to original sin but also to feel some of the suffering of Christ.
(+) Daphne Hampson, argues that motherhood is a tool of husbands to restrict their lives, it forces women to "crush their personalities and tend to others". Mothers do have to halt their social lives and jobs to tend to their children while men get no negative impact. The view that the purpose of women is to reproduce undermines those who are unfertile or who have no want or means or have children.
(+) 1 Corinthians 11:3-9 - the head of the woman is man...For man did not come from woman, but woman from man, neither man was created for woman, but woman for man.
(-) This stems from Genesis where women were created from men. However, if we mix up Genesis so that men were created from women we can still argue that men are superior to women as they were created to be an improvement upon women. Equally if we leave Genesis as it is, we could also interpret that men not good enough and needed women to be created. This leads credence to the idea that Christians interpret the bible through different lenses.
+) Numbers 31 - kill every girl who has slept with a man but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man
(+) Judges 24 - Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish.
(-) Elisabeth Fiorenza, Christians read the bible through different lenses whilst there are sexist passages in the Bible that are reflective historical and cultural context there are also anti-sexist verses too. Galatians 3 'There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female for you are all one in Christ Jesus.' Jesus also breaks social norms at the time by touching women in Matthew 26 and talking to them in John 4.
-