Feminist Theology in a Nutshell

Natalie K. Watson, Feminist Theology: Guide to Theology

According to Watson Feminist Theology is critical, contextual, constructive and creative. Two dimension of doing feminist theology is critical analysis and constructive re-reading and re-writing.

Feminist Theology is the critical, contextual, constructive and creative re-reading and re-writing of Christian theology. It regards women-and their bodies, perspectives and experiences- as relevant to the agenda of Christian theologians and advocates them as subjects of theological discourse and as full citizens of the church.

Feminist Theologian draws constant dialogue with Christian tradition. They try to reconcile Christianity and feminism by arguing that Christianity, read in a right way, advocates equality and justice in same way the feminism does. Leonard Swidler argues that “Jesus was a Feminist.” Virginia Ramey Mollenkott says the same. Feminist Theology and the Christian traditions are therefore means of mutual critique, enabling a more holistic form of doing theology for both women and men.

Feminist Theology advocates a radically new reading of Christian theology. This new reading understands women’s experiences and full humanity of women as the criterion by which all theology has to be judged. The search for “usable text” has to be extended beyond boundaries of Christianity itself. The most prominent writers of this group are Rosemary Radford Ruether and Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza. Fiorenza argues that “the Bible can no longer be understood as the authoritative source for women, as an archetype of Christian belief, but must rather be seen as a resource for women’s struggle for liberation. In other word, as a text the Bible portrays a movement of equality, justice, and liberation that can be seen as a prototype and inspiration for women today.

Rosemary Radford Ruether identifies five areas of such usable traditions: (i) Scripture, (ii) marginalized or heretical traditions within Christianity, (iii) the primary theological themes within the mainstream of Christian theology,  (iv) non-Christian Near-Eastern Greco-Roman religion and philosophy, and (v) critical post-Christian worldviews such as liberalism, romanticism, or Marxism.

It is important that feminist theologians do not necessarily have to be women. In fact, there are a number of male theologians who have taken on board feminist concerns, such as British hymn writer and theologian Brian Wren, and German theologian Jurgen Moltmann.

Feminist Ways of Reading Scripture

Feminist Theologians engage with the key sources of Christian theology such as scripture, the history of Christian thought, and traditional approaches to doing theology. Feminist theology is concerned with reading and interrelating Scripture and the tradition in the light of women’s experiences. The aim of re-reading is to uncover women’s absences as well as to discover women’s presence throughout the history of the Christian church and in those texts the Christian church considers relevant and normative.