FEMINIST
CHRISTOLOGY
Can
a Male Savior Be the Savior of All?
Many feminist thinkers
insists that the personification of God as Father is a form of patriarchy and
makes mechanism for the oppression of women appear justified; from this grows
male dominance. The symbol of divine fatherhood has been the source of the
misuse of power for violence, rape and war, it is true that language not only
reflects reality but also constructs it.
Gregory of Nazianzus
ridiculed his opponents who thought that God was male because God is called
Father, or that deity is feminine because of the gender of the word, to that of
the Spirit is neuter because it does not have personal names. Gregory insisted
that God’s fatherhood has nothing to do with marriage, pregnancy, midwifery or
sexuality. God is not male, even though we call God him. It is just a
conventional way of using language. Christian theology believes that none of
the divine Person as a gender. But in the action in humanity and the world.
Each person is manifested under names borrowed from the genders.
Sallie McFague has
tried to escape the problem of sexist talk about God with the help of
metaphorical talk. She suggests piling up metaphors to relativize the Father
symbol and provide room for complementary symbols, such as God as mother,
lover, or friend. Elizabeth Johnson’s approach share many similarities with
that of Mc Fague. Johnson argues in her book She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist
Theology that we need to envision and speak of the mystery of God with female
images and metaphors in order to free women from a subordination imposed by the
patriarchal imagine of God. Her own preference is “She Who Is.”
The
Experience of Women
Women experience vary
from culture to culture and context to context, there are some uniting
features; three of which seems to be the most important. First, Women from
different situations have experienced their embodiments as something negative
in many Christian traditions. Second, Women from different contexts have
experience oppression. Pattern of domination and submission vary, but they are
present worldwide. Third, interrelatedness of experienced women. Women have
traditionally found identity in relation to others as mothers, wives, sister,
and daughters.
One could also express
the core of feminist ecclesiology by describing the church as “connective”; in
it there is a living dynamic connection between men and women and between God
and human beings. “If the table is spread by God and hoisted by Christ, it must
be a table with many connection.”
Searching
for Inclusive Images of Christ
Ellen Leonard suggest
five ways of referring to Christ as inclusive of both men and women:
- Envision Christ’s humanity in female terms, as “Women Christ”
- Envision Christ’s as the incarnate of female divinity
- Beginning from the Jesus of History as prototype
- Beginning from the Jesus of history as iconoclastic prophet
- Relocating Christology in the community
There are also references
to the writings of Early fathers to Christ as mothers in the writings of
Clement, Origen, Irenaeus, John Chrysostom, Ambrose and Augustine, as well as
medieval theologians such as Bernard of Clairvaux and Anselm of Canterbury.
Especially, in medieval times, female image of Christ were popular. Divinity
was associated with maleness, humanity with femaleness. Julian of Norwich in
the fourteen century spoke of Christ as “our true Mother Jesus” who “alone
bears our joy and endless life.”
Another way of highlighting
female aspects in Jesus is the use of the female image Sophia (Wisdom) as an
image of Jesus. Jewish traditions personified the wisdom of God as female. Some
feminist thinkers have claimed Jesus and the praxis of the earliest church as a
prototype rather than an archetype. This means that the biblical
tradition of a male Jesus addressing his male Father is not an exclusive source
but re-source for thinking about Jesus. Yet another way of addressing Jesus in
feministic thoughts is to depict the Christ of the Gospels as an iconoclastic
prophet speaking on behalf of the marginalized and despised groups of society
and challenging the social and religious hierarchical structures of his day.
Women in the Gospel often represent the lowly, the last who will be first in
the reign of God. Some feminist thinkers look at Jesus maleness from this
perspective and speak of the kenosis (self-emptying) of patriarchy.
The last image
suggested by Leonard is that of Christ/Community. Some feminist theologians
highlights the role of Jesus in co-creating liberation and enhancing community,
they prefer to refer Christ with the female term Christa rather than with the masculine Christ. The female
theologians point to the role of the unnamed women in the Gospel Christ traditions
who anointed Jesus. This woman, as a women, represents the revelatory and
healing power of heart. She becomes prophet and healer by her as
representatives of the Christa/community that would survive Jesus death and
witness his resurrection.
Black
Women’s Liberating Christology
Emerging black feminist
Christology share the overall concern of black theology: to liberate from white
oppression and to cry for freedom and self-fulfillment. They also share the
general aim of feministic thought: to set women free from patriarchal and male
dominance. An important corollary to
black feminism is the longing for a holistic theology and Christology that
integrate into a single theological vision all aspects of human life. African-American
cultures, as most two-thirds world cultures, lean towards holism more than do
most dualistic Western worldviews. Black women so theology out of their
tri-dimensional experience of racism/sexism/classism.
Jesus
Christ, the Savior
Feminist theologians
recognize salvation as holistic shalom,
social and physical wholeness and harmony. In liberation and feminist
theologies, there are two overlapping motifs of shalom- liberation and blessing
as God’s intention for the full humanity of women together with men for the
healing of all creation. The larger meaning of salvation as shalom includes not
only blessing and liberation but also justice and righteousness.
An even wider
perspective on the feminist theology of salvation in Christ is provided by the
emerging “eco-feminist” thought in which the concerns of creation and ecology
are merged with theology. Ecofeminist theology sees it task as seeking a new
wholeness, a new community of equals. Ecofeminist theology emphasizes unity
between nature and people, between women and men, between us and our bodies,
and so looks favorably toward “kinship models” of thought that emphasize that
emphasize interrelatedness and community.
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