Feminist theology

Author(s):  
Marjorie Suchocki

Feminist theology began as a reaction to the exclusion of women and women’s concerns from traditional Christian theology, but it soon incorporated constructive as well as critical elements. Originating ‘from the margins’ of women’s exclusion, it now is a major force within Christian theological thought. The issue it raised initially was the cultural and social suppositions that inform all theological thinking and that enter into theologies as ‘universals’. In response to such universals, a feminist ‘hermeneutic of suspicion’ seeks out the hidden norms and biases within religious texts. Feminist theology is diverse, but it is characterized by pervasive themes. Immanence is valued over transcendence, relation over substance, change over immutability, liberation over salvation, and ecological concerns over traditional Christian eschatological concerns. As could be expected from its hermeneutic of suspicion, feminist theology is also characterized by its insistence on the social location of all thinking. Feminist theologians uniformly use gender-inclusive language not only in reference to humanity, but also in reference to God. Finally, all feminist theologians manifest a concern for liberation from every type of oppression, environmental as well as social, and not just liberation from the oppression women have experienced.

Author(s):  
Elizabeth Ursic

Christian theology is the study of God and religious belief based on the Christian Bible and tradition. For over 2,000 years, Christian theologians have been primarily men writing from men’s perspectives and experiences. In the 1960s, women began to study to become theologians when the women’s rights movement opened doors to higher education for women. Beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, female theologians developed Christian feminist theology with a focus on women’s perspectives and experiences. Christian feminist theology seeks to empower women through their Christian faith and supports the equality of women and men based on Christian scripture. “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). The arts have an important role in Christian feminist theology because a significant way Christians learn about their faith is through the arts, and Christians engage the arts in the practice of their faith. Christian feminist theology in the visual arts can be found in paintings, sculptures, icons, and liturgical items such as processional crosses. Themes in visual expression include female and feminine imagery of God from the Bible as well as female leaders in the scriptures. Christian feminist theology in performing arts can be found in hymns, prayers, music, liturgies, and rituals. Performative expressions include inclusive language for humanity and God as well as expressions that celebrate Christian women and address women’s life experiences. The field of Christian feminist theology and the arts is vast in terms of types of arts represented and the variety of ways Christianity is practiced around the world. Representing Christian feminist theology with art serves to communicate both visually and performatively that all are one in Christ.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 236-242
Author(s):  
Barnokhon Kushakova ◽  

This article discusses the conditions, reasons and factors of characterization of religious style as a functional style in the field of linguistics. In addition, religious style and its main peculiarities, its importance in the social life, and the functional features of religious style are highlighted in the article. As a result of our investigation, the following results were obtained: a) the increase in the need for the creation and significance of religious language, particularly religious texts has been scientifically proved; b) the possibility of religious texts to represent the thoughts of the people, culture and world outlook has been verified; c) the specificity of religious language, religious texts has been revealed; d) the development of religious style as a functional style has been grounded.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-135
Author(s):  
Caroline Barros de Sales ◽  
Samara Sayonara Cândida da Silva ◽  
Lutiane Queiroz de Almeida

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo caracterizar o risco nas comunidades Mazagão 1 e José da Silva Sobral, a partir de indicadores sociais de vulnerabilidade e ambientais de perigo para movimentos de massa. Para isso, buscou-se inicialmente o levantamento bibliográfico, respaldando-se em autores que trabalham com as temáticas de riscos e vulnerabilidade, e foram realizadas atividades de campo, as quais possibilitaram a aplicação dos questionários de vulnerabilidade social e das fichas de exposição a movimentos de massa, além de permitir a realização de registros fotográficos. A partir da sistematização dos dados de vulnerabilidade social e de exposição, permitiu-se estabelecer as características mais presentes nas comunidades, indicando os elementos mais críticos, os quais colaboram para que haja risco de movimentos de massa, apontando então para a necessidade de pesquisas que venham a estudar profundamente a situação, podendo vir a propor medidas mitigadoras diretamente aplicáveis à área de risco.Palavras-chave: Vulnerabilidade; Perigo; Desastre. ABSTRACTThe present work aims to characterize the risk in the communities Mazagão 1 and José da Silva Sobral, considering social indicators of vulnerability and environmental indicators of danger to mass movements. In order to do this, a bibliographical survey was sought, supported by authors working on the themes of risk and vulnerability, and field activities were carried out, which made possible the application of the social vulnerability questionnaires and the exposure sheets to mass movements, besides allowing the realization of photographic records. Systematizing social vulnerability and exposure data, the most present characteristics in the communities were established, indicating the most critical elements, which contribute to the risk of mass movements, pointing to the need for research that will deeply study the situation, and may propose mitigating measures directly applicable to the area of risk.Keywords: Vulnerability; Danger; Disaster. RESUMENEste trabajo tiene como objetivo caracterizar el riesgo en las comunidades Mazagão 1 y José da Silva Sobral, con base en indicadores sociales de vulnerabilidad y peligro ambiental para los movimientos de masas. Para ello, se buscó inicialmente la investigación bibliográfica, apoyada por autores que trabajan con los temas de riesgos y vulnerabilidad, y se llevaron a cabo actividades de campo, que permitieron la aplicación de cuestionarios de vulnerabilidad social y hojas de exposición al movimiento, además de permitir la realización de registros fotográficos. A partir de la sistematización de datos sobre vulnerabilidad social y exposición, fue posible establecer las características más comunes en las comunidades, indicando los elementos más críticos, que contribuyen al riesgo de movimientos masivos, señalando la necesidad de una investigación que Estudie la situación en profundidad y proponga medidas de mitigación directamente aplicables al área de riesgo.Palabras Claves: Vulnerabilidad; Peligro; Desastre.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Wigg-Stevenson

This article constructs and deploys a set of autoethnographic narratives from the author’s experience as a Baptist minister to critically retrieve the category of ‘women’s experience’ for feminist theological construction. Autoethnography, as a response to the crisis of representation in the Humanities, uses personal narratives of the self to reveal, critique and transform wider cultural trends. It therefore provides helpful tools for analysing, critiquing and transforming theological thought and practice. Following the article’s methodological sections, the constructive sections use the crafted autoethnographies to re-frame Rowan Williams’s vision for how church and world co-constitute each other towards God’s just ends. Whereas Williams argues that this co-constitution occurs through processes of interactive transformative judgment, the feminist theological understanding argued for here founds the process instead on interactive, transformative grace.


2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 363-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick F. Wherry

This article extends both Viviana Zelizer's discussion of the social meaning of money and Charles Smith's proposal that pricing is a definitional practice to the under-theorized realm of the social meanings generated in the pricing system. Individuals are attributed with calculating or not calculating whether an object or service is “worth” its price, but these attributions differ according to the individual's social location as being near to or far from a societal reference point rather than by the inherent qualities of the object or service purchased. Prices offer seemingly objective (quantitative) proof of the individual's “logic of appropriateness”—in other words, people like that pay prices such as those. This article sketches a preliminary but nonexhaustive typology of the social characterizations of individuals within the pricing system; these ideal types—the fool, the faithful, the frugal, and the frivolous—and their components offer a systematic approach to understanding prices as embedded in and constituents of social meaning systems.


Exchange ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-182
Author(s):  
K. Chinedu Nweke ◽  
Rowland Onyenali

Abstract There is an increasing acceptance that every theology is contextual. There is an equally commensurate rising concerns whether contextualization in theology is not undermining Christianity and devaluing the concept of ‘the Truth’. Among the reasons for this problem are the consequence of a blemished Christian history, the eternal truth of God in an ephemeral world, and the upsurge of pluralistic theologies with the ‘de-westernization’ of Christian theology. These have thematized contextualization in contemporary theology as important and at the same time, problematic. This work rather argues that contextualization has been part of Christianity in the interpretation and propagation of Christ’s message, and that as far as it is an indispensable aspect of Christian theologies, it must neither devalue Christian religiosity nor suggest that the eternal God who happened in history can be subjected to historicity. Through the exposé of the social-territorial, political, religious and economic contexts, and the analysis of the doctrinal, exegetical and missiological historicity of Christianity, this work reflects contextualization in different phases of Christian developments, and its relevance in the present time. It tries to establish that Christianity happened in context, and that it continues to happen in context to every person, group or culture it meets. Contextualization is a strength of Christianity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-215
Author(s):  
Yun Zhou

Abstract Amid debates and discussions on the institution of the family in Republican China, foreign missionaries and Chinese Christians played an active role in promoting an ideal Christian family. This article investigates the three waves of prominent theological thinking that underpinned changing ideals of the Christian family throughout the Republican period: Chinese society’s encounter with the gendered ethics of the Christian community in the early Republican period, discussions of domesticity by Chinese Christians amid the social gospel movements of the 1920s, and discussions of domesticity during the National Christianizing the Home Movement. An exploration of Christian publications on domesticity points to a gendered perspective on women’s domestic roles as well as a male-dominated theological construct that attempted to reconfigure the notion of the Chinese Christian family. The discourse on the ideal Chinese Christian family had both secular and spiritual dimensions, shaped by the dynamic transnational flow of ideas and the development of local theological thinking.


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