Feminist TheologyEssay Preview: Feminist TheologyReport this essayFeminist TheologyFeminist theology is based on the idea of “not lord but brother”. Jesus Christ himself stepped outside of societies norms by befriending the outcasts of society, which included women. Women are often portrayed as the cause of or focus of evil and misdeeds in the bible. The focus of feminist theology is the perspective of theology from those who were outcast and therefore considered themselves as equals and friends to Jesus Christ. “If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.” (1 Cor.14:33-35) Feminist theologians are logical and educated with their approach to the view of the Lord as an equal who is to be believed in and epitomized rather than worshipped based on gender. The Bible is very male organized and driven but there are many feminist perspectives on the bible. The feminist perspective is very relevant to the true Christian experience. This perspective is imperative to understanding the relation of the scriptures to everyday life and tolerance. The idea of feminist theology is different from traditional theology because of this “radical” idea that women are intrinsic to the story of Jesus and the crucifixion. The divine act of creating woman is portrayed as the fall of paradise but what if woman is the creation story? What if women are what God meant for man to be? What if gender is irrelevant in the view of love in Gods eyes?
There are different types of feminist theology; Revolutionary Feminist Theology is affected by women-centered culture. Reformist Christian Feminist Theology involves modest changes within the church rather than the worship of Goddesses.
Reconstructionist Christian Feminist Theology involves reforming church structure and civil society. Liberation theology is related directly to the theory of “She wisdom cries out in the street” In Isaiah42:14 “God is depicted as a woman in the pangs of childbirth” There are several passages in the bible and opinions by theologians that make no discernable difference about whether God is a man or a woman. Most female personifications that relate to wisdom are feminine gender nouns in Hebrew and Greek. God is typically thought of as a patriarch, but can be referenced in several places as a matriarch. A lot of cultures thought of the male as the head of the household with him, when it turns out that one person who truly loved humanity died on a cross. Although the official concept of God is that of a universal, male God, there are remains of a female relation to that God. The idea of the male elite is one that fostered the foundation for feminist theology. Sin is not gender specific therefore worship and judgment should not be dominated by males.
There are many misconceptions in the bible about the differences between the genders. According to some theologians, it is a misconception that man was created first. In other words woman was not something that was created just for man but rather the conclusion of all of Gods creations and efforts on that last day. “In fact, most conclusions about women being made from a bent rib or are otherwise inferior are not grounded in biblical text.” The problem with many of the church fathers ideas about gender did evolve from Jesus being a man but that not enough men followed in Jesus footsteps. Many theologians just made assumptions about men being better than women, rather than using the gentle, obedient, subordinate, and submissive nature of Jesus to allow their followers to come to him rather than force them into salvation. “Jesus affirmed women as fully valuable and fully human.” It seems that women have been stigmatized throughout Christian history by everyone but Jesus. Feminism is not necessarily a bad word when it comes to Christianity but women are not servants or evil or a symbol of carnality. Even the reference to Mary Magdalene may be incorrect, although it is commonly held that she was a prostitute. She may simply have been lost and found her faith through Jesus love rather than the derision that was common to that time period.
The Holy Spirit itself seems to have a feminine quality to its nature. The mystery of the Trinity is by no means that simple. But the fact that it is a mystery would indicate that it is presumptive to assume that any part of the Trinity other than Jesus is either male or female. The significance of Jesus is not his maleness but his humanness. In the movie, The DaVinci Code, (although many liberties are taken with the biblical basis and texts), there is a very real focus on the feminine idea behind Christianity. What if women were supposed to carry on the Christian tradition and the church? This idea shakes the very foundation of early and modern Christianity to the core. The Bible itself was written by men, the Council at Nicaea was attended by men, is it so far fetched that maybe the men got it wrong? This idea is radical but has an affect on the feminist perspective that is found in several sources of research. There are several ideas from a feminine
that I did not see in my research that have some meaning, for example, the idea of the “mannequin” as the savior of the Christian Church. All of those are, or have been, feminine concepts, so we can take away that they have some meaning.
5. A Mannequin, One at a Time.
In my research of American feminist movements around the late 1870s there were a few female activists who came to be known as the “mannequins”.
These woman’s movement to establish a legal order for women’s suffrage, the Women’s Campaign, was also a movement that was active in the early 19th century. But for a long time it is unknown which of these women had made it to America. The first woman to be elected to a US Senate race in 1800 was a woman named Marie Antoinette Smith, a woman known for her campaign contributions, but this was a first in American political history.
Women were also members of large and conservative groups, including the United Women’s College and the Continental Brotherhood, who were strongly influenced by the radical feminist writers who had been critical of the institution. This was a very conservative group that opposed women in public life. Feminineism, like feminism itself was not about equality and women were not required to wear the clothes of either class. The notion of equality, if any were to be maintained if the idea was to promote equality in society.
The United Nations, for example, had women delegates in Paris to discuss women’s rights and issues with delegates from all world conferences. The Women’s Council also worked with the United States government. The United States had a law that banned non-white women from joining the UN, which was the first state to forbid any non-white members from participating.
There was also much violence between the men of the Continental Brotherhood (a women’s group, for those who would call themselves the Continental Brotherhood) and the United Nations. The United Nations was formed under the United Nations Women’s Committee and its chief was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. When Cady was killed in 1860, they met up with the American government to work out solutions to the problem that was in the United Nations Committee on Women’s Affairs (WHAA). It was a large time event and as early as 1875, the committee published one report that stated that “The United Nations may be a great Union with Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but it is far narrower and less central than the Convention on the Rights of the Child and of the Infant.”
In the United States, it was fairly common for a woman to be convicted of murder with a man. Most of the sentences were handed down to the men in the court. Women were the victims not only of the crimes but of each of the men who killed her. There were some women who went on to be elected as state legislators and were involved in state political campaigns to challenge the constitutionality of the laws around the country. Most of the women whose lives were marred by violence were the subject of witch hunts, witch-hunts, or witch-hunts-to-save money from the government by women who were supposed to be their husbands.
One can also say that at least some of the women who had lived through oppression, were women who had been treated as if by a kind of patriarchal system, who could only be considered by society as if they were their husbands and would not be treated as though they were their husband. The idea of a “mannequin” being the savior of the women’s movement was actually first presented in the 20th century by Barbara E. Nelson, who lived