A Study Of Religion Through The Lens Of Mary Daly And Gayatri Spivak

In 1988, the Council for Biblic¬al Manhood and Womanhood published the Danvers Statement, affirming that "In the church, redemption in Christ gives men and women an equal share in the blessings of salvation; nevertheless, some governing and teaching roles within the church are restricted to men." I am hesitant to single out one organization for focused argument, but this statement accurately represents a sentiment within the faith that I find disturbing. In this paper, I will use the redemptive trend hermeneutic to deconstruct the CBMW's affirmation, while providing my own views on why I find both women in ministry and the redemptive trend hermeneutic as valid.

Throughout my selected text, Johnson focuses on the church along with the subsequent androcentric image of God, and how it impacts woman around the world. She explains that throughout history, with the help of the church’s patriarchal nature and society’s values as a whole, woman have been seen “as a ‘defective male’…that must live in obedience to her [male counterpart,]…[ and who are often also referred to as the] ‘second sex’” (Johnson 92). This

Feminist hermeneutics is the theory, practice and art of interpretation in the interest of women. It examines an extensive realm of aspects including the Bible and other theological texts to human acts and products, endeavouring to challenge and correct the impacts patriarchy had on them (Encyclopedia.com, 2016). Feminist hermeneutics allows experiences experienced by women the major source for the hermeneutic process. From the theological point of view, women are able to engage in the development of sacred meaning in aspects that relate to the whole of women’s experiences, specifically those of conflict with the dehumanization in relation to patriarchy.

The church has ever opposed the progress of woman on the ground that her freedom would lead to immorality. We ask the church to have more confidence in women. We ask the opponents of this movement to reverse the methods of the church, which aims to keep women moral by keeping them in fear and in ignorance, and to inculcate into them a

In Saiving’s article, The Human Situation: A Feminist View, she exemplifies the issues of viewing religion through a male-only lens. Saiving brings to light what oversights are made to women’s issues when theology is only focused on the male perspective. In Plaskow’s article, Setting the Problem, Laying the Ground, she similarly points out problems she finds in the male perspective of theology and how we should fix them. Both authors focus a great deal on unearthing women’s experiences and valuing women has fully human, rather than simple objects in men’ narratives.

It seems remarkable that such sexism can pervade the very churches where women seem to be the staunchest supporters. After all, it’s not pure coincidence that every small town seems to need both a church and a bar, now is it?

Religion is powerful in that it controls followers’ behaviours and beliefs throughout their entire lives; it is a form of social control. Catholicism is one of the most widely known religions influencing more than 2 billion people around the world (Ross). Within Catholicism not everyone are seen as equals; men have greater privilege than women. The bible and church are from a male’s point of view (Christ 86) and passages within the bible are used to enforce a sexual hierarchy. In fact, the oppression of women begins with the first story in Genesis about creation, which portrays females as being inferior to men and even of an evil nature. This one passage is the main source of justification of oppression of woman in the church (Daly 13).

"The Role of Women in the Orthodox Church." Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.

How does power get distributed within religion? This essay we will not only answer that question, but also present a couple of examples, though North American Christianity, of both the presence of gender inequality and androcentrism within religion. We will also learn what androcentrism is, and what gender really means. It is imperative that we know what gender is because it is a key contributor in determining the roles in which men and women are given in religions that have an androcentric nature. To explain how androcentrism is relevant to religion and how power gets distributed within religion, we will be using North American Christianity as a reference.

Hildegard’s gender is of course not an accident. Throughout history, we have claimed Hildegard as the first Christian thinkers to deal seriously and positively with feminine issues, as well as the challenges posed by and for women in a patriarchal society. She formulated her thoughts within the traditional framework of christian symbols, through the great reflection on the great feminine representations and essence of Eve, Mary, and Mother church. In our current struggles of spirituality and gender, Hildegard can be a guide. Her visionary forms fade into one another, but within all of them and behind them all, shines neither women nor man, but the living light. By using Hildegard of Bingen as a central figure in 12th century religious practice, we can then use Chritianity as an example to compare and contrast women’s experiences in religious practice in the 12th century and the 21st century.

“Introduction to The Woman’s Bible”, discusses how women are religiously oppressed; the bible teaching of women bringing sin and death to the world, how marriage is bondage for women, and the role of being dependent of men bounty. According to Stanton, religion has been so perverted and dominate over women life, that the very thing is preventing the continuation of women’s independence. For example, in the nineteenth century, women protested against the civil and political degradation, which they referred to the bible for answers. But as they protest against their unequal position in church, the bible was the answer. Which led to the critical study of the Scriptures; causing the separation of women, the believer, non-believers, and the undecided. Women, who fetish the books, intensely believe themselves to be the veritable of the word of God; such as the interpretations of symbols, allegories, objects, and the liberal translations. Others saw the bible as resemblance of the Mosaic code, the Canon Law, and the old English law. Others baffled with their doubts and fears came to no conclusion: clergymen told individuals that they own everything, such as freedom and blessing to the bible. While on the other hand, the demands of political and civil rights are irreligious to home, the state and church. This is the reason, why majority of women stood still and with bowed, because appeals and members of church took no part in the women suffrage and anti-slavery movement.

Issues that are related to gender, heritage, sexuality and religion have been some of the leading controversies of Catholicism for decades. Whether it is the sexualization of women, the overuse of power by men, or the stereotypical gender roles, the problems we see in the readings from the bible are problems that we often can relate to even in the 21st century. The three passages from the New Testament that I will examine in this paper all contain examples of how the bible has influenced and shaped our world and the Catholic Church today.

The concept of the Christian church is more than just a physical building of worship, reflection, and prayer, it a body of believers that welcomes all with outstretched arms. This welcoming ecclesiology is what Letty M. Russell describes to be a feminist interpretation of the church; the church as a sanctuary is a safe place for the marginal and the weak (Russell, 48). While the hope is that the church is a sanctuary, there are times where the church is not a safe space. “Hot-house ecclesiology,” the extended welcome to all of humanity, is used by Russell to represent a feminist ecclesiology.

When we explore Christianity it is one of the more broadminded and gradually developing religions, especially concerning gender roles. However this can mainly be seen within western cultures as recently women within the church of England are able to become bishops whereas many other socities still remain in past ideologies as stated by Hans King that “negative attitude to contraception, abortion and divorce”(Hans King, 1995, page 1) are still noticeable opinions and judgements which exist in both the east ans west. This inequality which exists within the church is often debated as within the following of the bible and Jesus’s own belief that all people are equal. Thus begging the question as to how this patriarchal system was created. There is the belief that if god is male then this provides a right of status for a hierarchy structure. This may continue into Catholisism where contraception is highly frowned upon and abortion is rejecting gods gift of life which once again results in an awkwards and uncomfortable situation for women of this faith.

By rejecting the “predictable eighteenth-century style of chapter-and-verse preaching,” Willard and Wells, as feminist orators, opened a wider space for the “feminization of American religion” (56-58), which broadened and changed views on the nature of race and gender in the social order. Prothero locates this feminization of religion in the context of a feminized Jesus, arguing that women “made him [Jesus] over in the light of Victorian ideals of the feminine” (59). This not only demonstrated the strength in those feminine characteristics, but also stressed the radical nature of Jesus’ rhetoric, which feminist orators like Willard and Wells believed advocated equality. Moreover, although the social gospel movement emerged in the early twentieth century as an institutionalized form of Christian socialism, it can be argued that its radical social Christian roots