Feminist Christology

Feminist Christologies focus almost exclusively on the human person of Jesus, whom Aldredge-Clanton portrays as a male whose ministry is open to women. this itself is a reduction of who Christ is, a male person in the most prominent position within the social-symbolic order of Christian theology. At the same time, it is a critique of much traditional Christology, which focuses on the divinity of Christ and uses his maleness as a theological and political tool to oppressed women and to perpetuate their abuse at the hands of men and male dominated social and ecclesial structures.

1. Can a male Savior Save Women?

Rosemary Radford Ruether, one of the earliest feminist theologians as Christ-question, formulates it as- Can a male savior save women?  Two issues are raised by his provocative way of putting it: (i) What is the significance of the maleness of Christ and (ii) What is salvation? In other words: Who and what saves us and what do we need saving from? Ruether treats as a soteriological problem as it is first and foremost a male humanity represented in the incarnation of the Son. Ruether states that Christ has been understood as a male human as well as the Son of a patriarchal God. Her solution to the problem, of the male savior, is the person of Jesus Christ as the kenosis of the patriarchy. The person of Jesus Christ then gives us an understanding of what is truly divine, which is not necessarily patriarchal.

The significance of the maleness of Christ has been one of the most central issues for feminist reconsideration of Christology. Elizabeth A. Johnson identifies three areas in which the maleness of Christ is abused to the detriment of women within traditional Christianity:

            (i) Christ maleness is understood as an essential characteristic of God’s revelation and for its divinity. So, it must be male, and members of the male must be closer to the divine than female.

            (ii) Christ became incarnate as male, male understand themselves as christomorphic because they bear physical resemblance to Christ.

            (iii) Traditionally Christology is understood as dualistic form-divine and male flesh.

Feminist theologian criticize is the ideological abuse of one particular aspect of the humanity of Jesus as theologically determinative of his identity. Christology in a feminist theology paradigm challenges an understanding of the incarnation and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus that is too spiritualize and ignores the realities of women’s lives. Leonardo Boof developed the concept of Jesus Christ as Liberator and applies it to the particular situation of women. Rosemary Radford Ruerther views that Jesus of the synoptic gospels as the prototype of liberated humanity. Jeus Christ can only be the liberator of women if we move beyond an individualistic concept of personal salvation to Christology.

Edwina Sandys portrayed the crucified Christ as a woman. To portray Christ as a crucified woman is experienced by women as Christ identifying with their pain and thereby freeing them from the belief that, female are guilty of original sin, they deserve to be raped or battered. Carter Heyward also uses the idea of the Christa, which moves away from focusing on the actual historical person of Christ and she speaks about the Christa as Christic power in relation. Heyward understands Christa as an embodied energy that will change the world. Many feminist moved away from the person of Christ as a male human being and focused more on the relationships of power transformed into love that are realized through the community of Christ.

2. Understanding Jesus Movement and the “Discipleship of Equals” in the Bible

A Discipleship of Equals is coined by Elisabeth Scussler Fiorenza. It was founded on the notion that all human beings, despite their differences of gender, race, intelligence, and so on, are equal because God created each one. Everyone is made in the image and likeness of God. We are all God’s children, loved by God despite our diverse traits of personality, beauty, genius, quirks, and frailties. Christians share a further equality insofar as we are all baptized.

Lalrinawmi Ralte argues that it is important in the church because it becomes one of the criteria of rejecting women for ordination, and a barrier of partnership between men and women in the Church. She reiterates that the call of discipleship by Jesus is inclusive, irrespective of sex, race and class. Elizabeth S. Malbon says that “disciples are ordinary people, imperfect, faulty, weak, uneducated, who do not hold position in the society and the call to discipleship is both open-ended and demanding; following is neither exclusive nor easy.

Ralte opines that the true meaning of discipleship begin to liberate the oppressive text of the Bible into feminist liberating interpretation and admire the women characters depicted as followers of Jesus and women are the disciples of Jesus Christ in his ministry, because discipleship refers to the service rendered to Jesus by his followers, both a male and female.

3. Jesus Christ - The Theological Basis and Principle for gender Justice

According to Judith Soares, Gender Justice thus implies equality and respect for all human beings irrespective of their sexual orientation, ethnicity, race and position in the society in the society. In other words, both women and men have the same rights and the same value, that all have the same opportunities, rights and obligations within all key areas of life.

Unlocking Jewish culture is important for the theological basis and principle for gender justice. The Jewish society reflects a very negative attitude towards women. Women were treated as subordinates and non-entities. They were only valued for their duties which were to care for the husband and children. Since they were the property of the husband, women could not own property. According to Rabbinic traditions, “to teach the law to a woman was to cast pearls to the Swine.” The Jewish law addressed only men. In the same manner, women were denied any access to the law. Jewish women underwent inequality and subordination at all fronts, not because of their inadequacies, but due to prescribed traditions enacted and enforced by men.