#feminist theology

[femalethink]

Love. Love is always crucial in effecting the allegiance of women. The Right offers women a concept of love based on order and stability, with formal areas of mutual accountability. A woman is loved for fulfilling her female functions: obedience is an expression of love and so are sexual submission and childbearing. In return, the man is supposed to be responsible for the material and emotional well-being of the woman. And, increasingly, to redeem the cruel inadequacies of mortal men, the Right offers women the love of Jesus, beautiful brother, tender lover, compassionate friend, perfect healer of sorrow and resentment, the one male to whom one can submit absolutely—be Woman as it were—without being sexually violated or psychologically abused.

It is important and fascinating, of course, to note that women never, no matter how deluded or needy or desperate, worship Jesus as the perfect son. No faith is that blind. There is no religious or cultural palliative to deaden the raw pain of the son's betrayal of the mother: only her own obedience to the same father, the sacrifice of her own life on the same cross, her own body nailed and bleeding, can enable her to accept that her son, like Jesus, has come to do his Father's work. Feminist Leah Fritz, in Thinking Like a Woman, described the excruciating predicament of women who try to find worth in Christian submission: "Unloved, unrespected, unnoticed by the Heavenly Father, condescended to by the Son, and fucked by the Holy Ghost, western woman spends her entire life trying to please."

—Andrea Dworkin, "Last Days at Hot Slit."

#andrea dworkin #feminism #radical feminism #radblr #marxist feminism #feminist theology

[cath-lick]

#ejaculatory prayer #jesus fandom #feminist theology #sex positive christian #gay jesus

[canary-prince]

Really wish Christian feminists would stop pining after Lilith when Eve is literally right there

#feminist theology #the monster speaks

[givemearmstopraywith]

Rosemary Radford Ruether. 1974.

#rosemary radford ruether #p #theology #feminist theology #she is everything!!!!!

[haggishlyhagging]

In the light of cultural anthropology, it appears to be no accident that those churches which have a sacramental priesthood resist most strongly the ordination of women to the priesthood. The Christian sacraments are all rites which convey life. Baptism is a rebirth to a new everlasting life, the eucharist is the "bread of life," catechesis and proclamation are compared to "mothermilk and solid food." The sacrament of reconciliation restores life to its fullness. The sacrament of marriage protects and sanctifies the source of natural life. The sacraments, as rituals of birthing and nurturing, appear to imitate the female power of giving birth and of nurturing the growth of life. One would think that, therefore, women would be the ideal administrators of the sacrament. Yet there appears to exist a deep fear in men that women's powers would become so overwhelming if they were admitted to the priesthood and the sacramental ritual, that men would be relegated to insignificance. The demand of women to be admitted to the sacramental priesthood is, therefore, often not perceived as a genuine desire of women to live their Christian vocation and to serve the people of God, but as an attempt completely to "overtake" the church. What men are often afraid of is that the change in role and position will not mean a mere shift in the relationship between men and women but a complete destruction of any relationship or a fatal reversal of the patriarchal relationship.

-Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Feminist Spirituality, Christian Identity, and Catholic Vision

#Christianity and women #feminist theology #patriarchal religion #female oppression #womanspirit rising

[magpiecollectingknowledge]

if canva has zero users i am dead

canva is my favourite way to make studying more pretty because i have a short attention span and i also love colours

this is one i made for my contemporary biblical perspectives class, i went for autumn vibes lmao <33

#studyblr #studying #study #studygram #study aesthetic #study space #studyinspo #studyspo #study tips #notes #feminism #feminist #no terfs #feminist theology #terfs go fuck urselves <3

[fierysword]

The pain of childbirth in a wanted, successful pregnancy is accompanied by a powerful sense of creativity and issues in the joy that a new child, one’s own, is born... Mercy Oduyoye observes...“the chaos and darkness, the screams, sweat, swearing and the piercing cries are given a new quality... A living being in the image of God has emerged.” Labor and delivery offers a superb metaphor for Sophia-God’s struggle to birth a new people, even a new heaven and a new earth. One biblical text makes this explicit as God says: "...I will cry out like a woman in labor. I will gasp and pant." (Is 42:14) The loud birthing cries evoke a God who is in hard labor, sweating, pushing with all her might to bring forth justice, the fruit of her love. Intense suffering as an ingredient in intense creative power marks the depth of divine involvement in the process. And it is not over yet; only eschatologically will the delivery take place. In the course of history, human beings are partners with Holy Wisdom in the birthing process, sharing in the labor of liberating life for a new future. Those who are suffering cry out in pain; but “the cry comes first from God, who is the champion and companion of the oppressed, who promises a new order in which the first shall be last and the last shall be first. The cry goes out to the people of God, compelling them to follow, to work together toward the new age.”

She Who Is by Elizabeth Johnson

I would add that it's not only humans sharing in God's birthing process, but creation in general, as Romans 8:18-23 describes.

#feminist theology #liberation theology #divine mother #creation spirituality #solidarity #all shall be well #suffering of God #t

[olameni]

Last night

Text: Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology

Notebook: Midori MD

Utensils: Retro 51 Corona and Platinum 3776 in Soft Fine with J. Herbin Poussiere de Lune ink (unpictured)

#black dark academia #dark academia #poc dark academia #noir library #journaling #books #bibliophile #studyinspo #study #studyblr #sexism and god talk #Rosemary Radford Ruether #theology #feminist theology #retro 51 #platinum 3776 #midori md notebook #notebook #stationery

[aris3shin3]

Our Mother who art in heaven...

God, whose Wisdom takes form as the woman Sophia. God, who is all merciful – all “womb-like” in Hebrew. God, who in the parable rejoices upon recovering her lost coin. God, by whom we are adopted and in whom re-born as God’s children.

Our tradition is imbued with these feminine ideas of the Divine, and yet the masculine images dominate. Father. Son. Lord. King. Prince.

We are aware that all our God-language, including gendered language, is metaphorical. A finger pointing to the moon. Grasping at a Mystery which surpasses all understanding.

Yet, as feminist theologian Elizabeth Johnson puts it, “the symbol of God functions.” We inevitably shape our ideas of God around the language we use to name God.

Tradition is an important part of our faith. We connect with our forebears when we name the Trinity “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” When we call Jesus “Lord.” He is Lord, and Caesar is not.

Let’s remember, though, that feminine images of God are part of our tradition as well. That when we speak of God as exclusively male, we make God less divine. We make God human. And, luckily, there's no need to make God human ourselves – that has already been done for us.

#episcopalian #affirming christian #thoughts #lgbt christian #feminist theology #anglo catholic #theology

[carmillacantarella]

Pls read the making of biblical womanhood it’s very good

#the making of biblical womanhood #beth allison barr #christianity #progressive christianity #feminist theology #bible

[revmeg]

Christian mystics throughout the centuries have savored the feminine in Christ and have affirmed it as the Divine Mother working within the person of Jesus Christ.... ...thirteenth-century French nun Marguerite of Oingt spoke ecstatically of Christ's mothering: 'Are you not my mother and more than my mother? The mother who bore me labored in delivering me for one day or one night, but You, my sweet and lovely Lord, labored for me than thirty years.' And in the twelfth-century, St. Bernard de Clairvaux made a most magical and graphic invitation into the Divine Mothering of Christ when he wrote: 'Suck not so much the wounds as the breasts of the Crucified.'

from God Is a Black Woman by Christena Cleveland, p. 30-31

#God Is a Black Woman #Christena Cleveland #theology #Christianity #mysticism #divine feminine #feminist theology

[femalethink]

Male reproductive consciousness is derived from several sources. At a purely psychological level, the act of procreation is a profoundly alienating experience for men. Whereas pregnant women live with their fetuses for nine months and feed their young from their own bodies for up to three years, men play their part in procreation in a momentary instance of passion when, by other human standards, they are totally out of control. They might never know whether or not their "seed" took the form of another human being, whether they were fathers of particular children, or whether they themselves would have continuity in the future.

Indeed, the philosopher Mary O'Brien argues that the foundation of patriarchy rests upon the insecurity involved in the "alienation of the male seed in the copulative act," an insecurity that has to be constantly placated by means of rituals, political structures, and control of the main forces of ideology. Whereas the relationship between a mother and her child is, in its initial stages, physiological, the establishment of paternity is essentially a social act. The development of the idea of paternity represents a "real triumph over the ambiguities of nature." Firmly establishing paternity is a concern of Irish legal, mythological, and ecclesiastical literature.

Paternity is essentially a cultural construct that, although making use of biological metaphors, is not primarily biological. Rather, this is the way men have translated the uncertainty of their own fatherhood into the cultural structures of patriarchy and is a compensatory activity for the many inadequacies of physical paternity. Unlike maternity, biological paternity cannot finally be proven. Paternity is not constant but depends on tenuous factors. Impotence or uncontrollable women may all intervene to wipe out the male contribution to biological existence. Paternity itself is in a highly precarious position.

—Mary Condren, "The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion and Power in Celtic Ireland".

#mary condren #radical feminism #feminism #radblr #patriarchy #womb envy #feminist theology #radfem #the serpent and the goddess

[leehallfae]

“the concept of transgender may also be a much more fruitful way to think about god than simply adding female images to the overwhelmingly male language of tradition. using male and female imagery for god, as do some new prayerbooks and feminist liturgies, tends to reify and reinforce stereotypically masculine and feminine qualities. imagining a transgender god builds on the feminist project of recovering the female aspects of god but highlights the shifting nature of the divine gender and the ultimately problematic nature of gender categories. it incorporates the idea of multiplicity and fluidity as well as insistence on the inadequacy of male metaphors.”

— judith plaskow, “remapping the road from sinai: a conversation between rabbi elliot kukla & judith plaskow”

#my reading #judith plaskow #running up that hill #theology #transgender #trans #queer theology #feminist theology #god tag

[bethetiesthatbind]

Gloria Steinem, (forward) on how the traditional design of churches resemble vaginas: 

“Thus there is an outer and inner entrance, labia majora and labia minora; a central vaginal aisle toward the altar, two curved ovarian structures on either side and then in the sacred center, the altar womb, where the miracle takes place--where males give birth.”

#Vagina Monologues #Gloria Steinem #Churches #Yonic #Feminist Theology #Theology

[givemearmstopraywith]

Rosemary Radford Ruether. 1984.

#rosemary radford ruether #theology #feminist theology #p

[apilgrimsprogress]

As Christians we are called to be different from the world. Yet in our treatment of women, we often look just like everyone else. Ironically, complementarian theology claims it is defending a plain and natural interpretation of the Bible while really defending an interpretation that has been corrupted by our sinful human drive to dominate others and build hierarchies of power and oppression.

Beth Allison Barr, The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth

#o #beth allison barr #the making of biblical womanhood #feminist theology