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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
This essay clarifies the foundation for a discipleship of equals by bringing feminist scholarship to bear upon conflicting religious assumptions regarding women. To this end, it surveys significant scholars as well as issues: past, present, and future. It evaluates the outcome of the three phases of study in women's history (I); it urges present action in four areas which are essential for equality in the Church (II); and it speaks words of hope for difficult times to come (III).
1 Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schüissler, In Memory of Her (New York: Crossroad, 1983), p. 213.Google Scholar
2 See, for example, Lerner, Gerda, The Creation of Patriarchy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986);Google ScholarMahowald, Mary Briody, ed., Philosophy of Woman (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1978);Google ScholarRossi, Alice S., ed., The Feminist Papers (New York: Columbia University Press, 1973).Google Scholar
3 Ruether, Rosemary Radford, ed., Religion and Sexism (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1974), pp. 9–10.Google Scholar
4 St. Teresa of Avila, “The Book of Her Life,” in The Collected Works, 1, trans. Kavanaugh, Kieran O.C.D., and Rodriguez, Otilio O.C.D., (Washington, DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1976), 68–69.Google Scholar
5 Carr, Anne, “On Feminist Spirituality,” in Women's Spirituality: Resources for Christian Development, ed. Conn, Joann Wolski (New York: Paulist, 1986), pp. 53–55.Google Scholar
6 Lerner, , Creation of Patriarchy, p. 2.Google Scholar
7 Lerner, Gerda, The Majority Finds Its Past (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), pp. 145–59.Google Scholar
8 Bird, Phyllis, “Images of Women in the Old Testament,” in Religion and Sexism, ed. Ruether, , pp. 41–88.Google Scholar See, also, Trible, Phyllis, God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978).Google Scholar
9 Parvey, Constance, “Theology and Leadership of Women in the New Testament,” in Rleligion and Sexism, ed. Ruether, , pp. 117–49.Google Scholar See, also, Russell, Letty M., ed., Feminist Interpretation of the Bible (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1985).Google Scholar
10 Brooten, Bernadette J., “Paul's Views on the Nature of Women and Female Homoeroticism,” in Immaculate and Powerful, ed. Atkinson, Clarrisa W., Buchanan, Constance H., and Miles, Margaret R. (Boston: Beacon, 1985), pp. 61–87.Google Scholar
11 Ruether, Rosemary Radford, “Misogynism and Virginal Feminism in the Fathers of the Church,” in Religion and Sexism, ed. Ruether, , pp. 150–83.Google Scholar
12 Hauptman, Judith, “Images of Women in the Talmud,” in Religion and Sexism, ed. Ruether, , pp. 184–212.Google Scholar
13 McLaughlin, Eleanor Commo, “Equality of Souls, Inequality of Sexes: Woman in Medieval Theology,” in Religion and Sexism, ed. Ruether, , pp. 213–66.Google Scholar
14 Aquinas, Thomas, Summa Theologica, ed. English Dominican Province, 3 vols. (New York, 1947), II-II, 10, 1, ad 3Google Scholar, as referred to in McLaughlin, , “Equality of Souls,” p. 229.Google Scholar
15 de Fontette, Micheline, Les religieuses à l'âge classique du droit canon: Recherches sur les structures juridiques des branches feminines des ordres (Paris, 1967), p. 116Google Scholar, as referred to in McLaughlin, , “Equality of Souls,” p. 242.Google Scholar
16 Graef, Hilda, Mary, A History of Doctrine and Devotion (London, 1963), p. 317Google Scholar, as quoted in McLaughlin, , “Equality of Souls,” p. 249.Google Scholar
17 Potter, Mary, “Gender Equality and Gender Hierarchy in Calvin's Theology,” Signs 11 (Summer 1986), 725–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18 Outstanding examples include: Bynum, Carolyn Walker, Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982);Google ScholarRuether, Rosemary and McLaughlin, Eleanor, eds., Women of Spirit (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979);Google ScholarAndrews, William L., eds., Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women's Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986).Google Scholar
19 Atkinson, Clarissa W., Mystic and Pilgrim: The “Book” and the World of Margery Kempe (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983).Google Scholar
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21 Elizabeth Griffith, “Friends Indeed,” review of Mothers of Feminism by Bacon, Margaret Hope, New York Times, 1 February 1986, p. 28.Google Scholar
22 Lerner, , Creation of Patriarchy, p. 5.Google Scholar
23 Ibid., pp. 11-14. See, also, Kelly, Joan, Women, History, and Theory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984).Google Scholar
24 Ibid., pp. 123-230.
25 Schneiders, Sandra M. I.H.M., , New Wineskins (New York: Paulist, 1986), p. 11.Google Scholar
26 Weaver, Mary Jo, New Catholic Women (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986), pp. 105–06.Google Scholar
27 Schneiders, , New Wineskins, pp. 95–113.Google Scholar
28 Ibid., p. 263.
29 Weaver, , New Catholic Women, p. 107.Google Scholar
30 Ibid., pp. 118-27.
31 Ibid., pp. 127-36.
32 Klose, Kevin, Washington Post, 13 November 1983Google Scholar, as quoted in Weaver, , New Catholic Women, p. 133.Google Scholar
33 Ruether, Rosemary Radford, “Womanchurch Calls Men to Exodus from Patriarchy,” National Catholic Reporter, 23 March 1984, p. 16Google Scholar, as quoted in Weaver, , New Catholic Women, p. 133.Google Scholar
34 Weaver, , New Catholic Women, p. 134.Google Scholar
35 What follows is a paraphrase of Schneiders, Sandra M. I.H.M., , “New Skins: A Legacy for the Third Millennium,” Delta Epsilon Sigma Journal 31 (October 1986), 51–52.Google Scholar
36 This paragraph benefits from clarifications suggested by Gerard S. Sloyan, as do other sections of this essay.
37 This definition adapts Macquarrie, John, Principles of Christian Theology (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1966), p. 1Google Scholar, to a feminist perspective.
38 This next section of the essay is a digest of material from Weaver, , New Catholic Women, pp. 156–77.Google Scholar
39 See note 1.
40 Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schüssler, “Toward a Feminist Biblical Hermeneutics: Biblical Interpretation and Liberation Theology,” in The Challenge of Liberation Theology, ed. Mahan, Brian (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1981), p. 100Google Scholar, as referred to in Weaver, , New Catholic Women, p. 164.Google Scholar
41 Rosemary Radford Ruether, “Feminist Theology and Religion,” unpublished paper presented at Lilly Endowment Seminar, March, 1983, p. 23, as quoted in Weaver, p. 164.
42 Ruether, Rosemary Radford, “Of One Humanity,” Sojourners 13 (January 1984), 17Google Scholar, as quoted in Weaver, p. 165.
43 Ruether, Rosemary Radford, Sexism and God-Talk (Boston: Beacon, 1983).Google Scholar
44 Ruether, , “Of One Humanity,” p. 19Google Scholar, as quoted in Weaver, p. 170.
45 See, for example, Swidler, Leonard, Biblical Affirmations of Woman (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1979).Google Scholar
46 See, for example, Carmody, John, Holistic Spirituality (New York: Paulist, 1983)Google Scholar and The Progressive Pilgrim (Notre Dame, IN: Fides/Claretian, 1980);Google Scholar see, also, Carmody, Denise L. and Carmody, John T., Ways to the Center (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1981).Google Scholar
47 See, for example, Thompson, William M., The Jesus Debate (New York: Paulist, 1985);Google Scholar and Fox, Matthew, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation-Centered Spirituality (Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co., 1983).Google Scholar
48 See, for example, the use of St. Monica to reinforce stereotypical roles for women, as explained by Atkinson, Clarissa W., “‘Your Servant, My Mother’: The Figure of Saint Monica in the Ideology of Christian Motherhood,” in Immaculate and Powerful, ed. Atkinson, , et al., pp. 139–200.Google Scholar
49 See Conn, Joann Wolski, “Women's Spirituality: Restriction and Reconstruction,” in Women's Spirituality, ed. Conn, , p. 9;Google ScholarCarr, , “On Feminist Spirituality,” pp. 49–50.Google Scholar
50 See essays in my Women's Spirituality, pp. 3-5, 9-57.
51 See, for example, Cady, Susan, Ronan, Marian, and Taussig, Hal, Sophia: The Future of Feminist Spirituality (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986).Google Scholar The authors demonstrate how the image of God as Sophia (wisdom) is less likely to be coopted by the white race or the upper class.
52 Pertinent texts from Teresa and Catherine are reprinted in my Women's Spirituality, pp. 177-200.
53 Gilligan, Carol, In a Different Voice (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982).Google Scholar See, also, the critique of Gilligan by a panel of feminist scholars and Gilligan's, reply in Signs 11 (Winter 1986), 304–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
54 Kegan, Robert, The Evolving Self: Problem and Process in Human Development (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982).Google Scholar
55 Miller, Jean Baker, Toward a New Psychology of Women (Boston: Beacon, 1976).Google Scholar
56 Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, for example, developed an independent, original vision of holiness by struggling with spiritual darkness and reevaluating the tradition common in her nineteenth century French Carmel. See my “Thérèse of Lisieux from a Feminist Perspective,” Spiritual Life 28 (Winter 1982), 233–39.Google Scholar
57 This theme is developed in Constance FitzGerald, O.C.D., , “Impasse and Dark Night,” in Women's Spirituality, ed. Conn, , pp. 287–311.Google Scholar
58 See, for example, McCormick, Richard A. S.J., , “Dissent in Moral Theology and Its Implications,” Theological Studies 48 (March 1987), 87–105, esp. 104;CrossRefGoogle ScholarKolbenschlag, Madonna, Authority, Community and Conflict (Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward, 1986).Google Scholar
59 Schneiders, , “New Skins,” pp. 50–60.Google Scholar
60 Origins 14 (21 March 1985), 652–66;Google Scholar 15 (3 October 1985), 242-56. See, also, Callahan, Sidney, Cunneen, Sally, Hellwig, Monika, Brennan, Margaret, and Smith, Doris, “The Pastoral on Women: What Should the Bishops Say?” America, 18 May 1985, pp. 404–13.Google Scholar
61 See, for example, Carr, Anne, “Theological Anthropology and the Experience of Women,” Chicago Studies 19 (Summer 1980), 113–28;Google Scholar report of Donovan's, Mary Ann presentation on this theme in Proceedings of the Catholic Theological Society of America 41 (1986), 151–52;Google ScholarBuckley, Mary J., “The Rising of the Woman is the Rising of the Race,” Proceedings of the Catholic Theological Society of America 34 (1979), 48–63;Google ScholarHinsdale, Mary Ann, “Women's Experience and Christian Anthropology,” as reported in Proceedings of the Catholic Theological Society of America 42 (1987)Google Scholar, forthcoming.
62 See note 57.
63 Osiek, Carolyn R.S.C.J., , Beyond Anger: On Being a Feminist in the Church (New York: Paulist, 1986).Google Scholar
64 III Sententiae, d. 12, a. 3, q. 1, as noted in Osiek, , Beyond Anger, p. 91Google Scholar, footnote 2.
65 Atwood, Margaret, A Handmaid's Tale (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986).Google Scholar
66 Osiek, , Beyond Anger, pp. 73–74.Google Scholar
67 Ibid., pp. 75-76.
