Feminist Theology: A Reader

356 Pages·1991·95.871 MB·English

by  Ann Loades

d AEdDEA
Edited b~ Ann Loades
Karen Armstrong • Toni Craven • Mary Daly • Margaret A. Farley •
Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza • Daphne Hampson • Beverly Wildung Harrison •
Ursula King • Genevieve Lloyd • Sallie McFague • Eleanor McLaughlin •
Sara Maitland • Janet Morley • Ruth Page • Gail Ramshaw •
Sharon Ringe • Rosemary Radford Ruether • Letty M. Russell •
Nicola Slee • Phyllis Trible • Angela West • Merry Wiesner •
'
FEMINIST THEOLOGY
a reader

FEMINIST
~
THEOLOGY
a reader
Ann Loades
edited by
SPCK W/JKP
First published in Great Britain 1990
SPCK
Holy Trinity Church
Marylebone Road
London NWl 4DU
First published in the USA 1990
Westminster/John Knox Press
Louisville, Kentucky
Second impression 1991
Introduction, compilation and editorial matter© Ann ,Loades 1990
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Feminist theology: a reader
1. Christian feminism
I. Loades, Ann, 1938-
261.83442
ISBN 0-281-04450-3
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Feminist theory : a rei.'<ier / edited by Ann Loades.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-664-25129-3
I. Feminist theology. I. Loades, Ann.
BT83.SS.F45 1990
230' .082-dc20 89-77155
CIP
Typeset by Goodfellow and Egan, Cambridge
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Biddies Ltd, Guildford and King's Lynn
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Contributors xi
Introduction 1
PART ONE: Biblical Tradition and Interpretation 13
1 RUTH PAGE Elizabeth Cady Stanton's The Woman's
Bible 16
2 PHYLLIS TRIBLE Feminist Hermeneutics and Biblical
Studies 23
3 TONI CRAVEN Tradition and Convention in the Book of
Judith 29
4 NICOLA SLEE Parables and Women's Experience 41
S SHARON RINGE A Gentile Woman's Story 49
6 ELISABETH SCHUSSLER FIORENZA Missionaries,
Apostles, Co-workers: Romans 16 and the Reconstruction of
Women's Early Christian History 57
7 ANGELA WEST Sex and Salvation: A Christian Feminist
Bible Study on 1 Corinthians 6.12-7 .39 72
PART TWO: Christian History and Tradition 81
8 KAREN ARMSTRONG The Acts of Paul and Thecla 83
9 GENEVIEVE LLOYD Augustine and Aquinas 90
10 ELEANOR McLAUGHLIN Women, Power and the
Pursuit of Holiness in Medieval Christianity 99
11 MERRY WIESNER Luther and Women: The Death of Two
Marys 123
12 ROSEMARY RADFORD RUETHER The Liberation of
Christology from Patriarchy 138
13 SARA MAITLAND Ways of Relating 148
14 JANET MORLEY I Desire Her with My Whole Heart 158
15 GAIL RAMSHA W (i) Letters for God's Name-Q and W 165
(ii) The Gender of God 168
PART THREE: Practical Consequences 181
16 MARY DALY The Looking Glass Society 189
17 BEYERLY WILDU NG HARRISON The Power of Anger
in the Work of Love 194
18 DAPHNE HAMPSON Luther on the Self: A Feminist
Critique 215
19 LETTY M. RUSSELL Good Housekeeping 225
20 MARGARET A. FARLEY Feminist Theology and
Bioethics 238
21 SALLIE McFAGUE The Ethic of God as Mother, Lover and
Friend 255
22 URSULA KING Women in Dialogue: A New Vision of
Ecumenism 275
Notes 281
Bibliography 323
Select Index of Names 338
Acknowledgements
I am deeply grateful to a number of friends and colleagues for
drawing attention to material I might not have found myself.
I hope that the selections I have made from the vast range of
possibilities will provide stimulating reading and enable us to
engage for ourselves with the opportunities presented to us
by feminist theology. I am especially grateful to Philip Law
of SPCK who patiently endured the sorting out of the first
edition of this book, and contributed judiciously to the
decisions about what should and not be included. Any
remaining errors are of course my own.
Permission to reprint is acknowledged as follows:
• Some of my own writing is reworked from an essay, 'Feminist
Theology', in D. Ford (ed.) The Modern Theologians: An
Introduction to Christian Theology in the Twentieth Century, vol. 2
(Oxford, Blackwell, 1989), pp. 235-52.
• Ruth Page's essay first appeared as 'Re-Review: Elizabeth Cady
Stanton's The Woman'sBible' inMC(TheJoumalofthe
Modern Churchpeople's Union) 29:4 (1987), pp. 37-41 and is
reprinted by permission of the editor.
• Phyllis Trible's essay, 'Feminist Hermeneutics and Biblical
Studies', is reprinted from The Christian Century, 3-10 February
1982, pp. 116-18, by permission of The Christian Century.
Copyright© 1982 The Christian Century Foundation.
• Toni Craven's essay, 'Tradition and Interpretation in the Book
of Judith', is reprinted from M.A. Tolbert (ed.), The Bible and
Feminist Hermeneutics (a special number of Semeia; Atlanta,
Scholars Press, 1983), pp. 49-61, by permission of Scholars
Press.
• Nicola Slee's essay, 'Parables and Women's Experience', is
reprinted from MC 26:2 (1984), pp. 20-31 by permission of the
editor.
• Sharon Ringe's essay, 'A Gentile Woman's Story', is reprinted
from L.M. Russell (ed.) Feminist Interpretation oft he Bible
(Oxford, Blackwell; Philadelphia, Westminster, 1985),
pp. 65-72, by permission of Blackwell and Westminster Press.
• Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza's essay, 'Missionaries, Apostles,
Co-workers: Romans 16 and the Reconstruction of Women's
Early Christian History', is reprinted from Word and World 6:4
(1986), pp. 420-33 by permission of Professor Schussler
Fiorenza and the editor.
viii Acknowledgements
• Angela West's essay, 'Sex and Salvation: a Christian Feminist
Bible Study on 1 Cor. 6, 12-7, 39', is reprinted from MC 39:3
(1987), pp. 17-24 by permission of the editor.
• Karen Armstrong's treatment of 'The Acts of Paul and Thecla'
was first published in her book, The Gospel According to Woman
(London, Elm Tree, 1986; New York, Anchor Pr., Doubleday,
1987), pp. 125-30, copyright© 1986 by Karen Armstrong, and
is reprinted by permission of Hamish Hamilton Ltd and
Doubleday, a division of Bantam, Doubleday, Dell Publishing
Group Inc.
• The material by Genevieve Lloyd is reprinted from the chapter,
'The Divided Soul: Manliness and Effeminacy' in her The Man
ofR eason: 'Male' and 'Fem.ale' in Western Philosophy
(Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1984), pp. 28-37,
copyright© 1984 by Genevieve Lloyd, by permission of the
University of Minnesota Press and Methuen and Co.
• Eleanor McLaughlin's essay, 'Women, Power and the Pursuit of
Holiness in Medieval Christianity', is reprinted from R.R.
Ruether and E. McLaughlin (eds.), Women ofS pirit: Female
Leadership in the Jewish and Christian Traditions (New York,
Simon & Schuster, 1979), pp. 99-130, copyright© 1979 by
Rosemary Radford Ruether and Eleanor McLaughlin, by
permission of Simon & Schuster Inc.
• Merry Wiesner's essay, 'Luther and Women: The Death of Two
Marys', is reprinted from Jim Obelkevich, Lyndal Roper and
Raphael Samuel (eds.), Disciplines ofF aith: Studies in Religi.on,
Politics and Patriarchy (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul,
1987), pp. 245-308 by permission of Routledge and the History
Workshop Centre for Social History.
• Rosemary Radford Ruether's essay, 'The Liberation of
Christology from Patriarchy', is reprinted from New Blackfriars
66 (1985), pp. 324-35 and 67 (1986), pp. 92-3 by permission of
Professor Radford Ruether and the editor.
• Sara Maitland's essay, 'Ways of Relating' is reprinted from The
Way, 26:2 (1986), pp. 124-33 by permission of Sara Maitland
and the editors.
• Janet Morley's essay, 'I Desire Her with My Whole Heart', is
reprinted from The Month 21:2 (1988), pp. 541-4 by permission
of Janet Morley and the editor.
• Gail Ramshaw-Schmidt's 'Letters for God's Name: "Q" and
"W"' are reprinted from Letters for God's Name, (Minneapolis,
Seabury/Winston Press New York, Harper & Row, 1984),
pp. 51-3, copyright© 1984 by Gail Ramshaw-Schmidt, by
permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.). Her Essay 'De
Divinis Nominibus: the Gender of God' (which is published by