The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology

The word 'dogmatic' may seem an odd choice for the title of this consideration of feminist theology. It could fairly be argued that feminists have themselves not been particularly favourable towards things dogmatic, sharing with the wider ethos of Western thought a modern suspicion of that which is handed down from some other place than here, and which does not bear thinking about but is only to be taken as read. Not only have feminists participated happily in the shredding of previously reputable dogmas with the use of critical reason, but many of their writings also reveal a hesitancy about being dogmatic in turn, an apology for what might appear to be so, even a self-effacement from making what might be taken as dogmatic claims. Nevertheless there is an important sense in which feminist theology undertaken by Christian women has been and continues to be dogmatic. It is to investigate the senses in which this is so that this chapter is written.