Academic Engagements With Course Materials
What are the major issues in Letty Russell's Introduction?
In Letty M. Russell's Introduction to the series of theological essays in Liberating the Word
, she expresses a need for a discussion of ways in which women and men can "liberate the word to speak the gospel in the midst of the oppressive situations of our time." Engaging in such a discussion, she writes, will provide "fresh insights" into ways to find "nonsexist interpretations" of Biblical passages and stories. This discussion is needed she believes, because feminist scholars have found "a bias in all Biblical interpretation" and those scholars call for "clear advocacy of those who are in the greatest need of God's mercy and help: the dominated victims of society."
And so, it is clear in the first few pages that Russell -- and the material to follow -- take issues with the Bible, but she is fully aware of the fact that it was written "in the context of patriarchal cultures." And moreover, Russell's Introduction alerts the reader to what is also to be found in the book, controversy vis-a-vis the Bible, as the pages turn.
What are the major issues for Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza?
Fiorenza begins her essay ("The Will to Choose or to Reject: Continuing Our Critical Work"
) with a poem by Emily Dickinson -- in which the poet show "great pride and self-confirmation" in terms of "transcending the patriarchal condition" and moving "from unconsciousness to consciousness" (p. 125). This poem, and her interpretation of it, is a prelude for Fiorenza's view that some women ("as self-identified women") have no choice but to "leave behind" the "patriarchal biblical religion" and instead create "a new feminist religion" on the fringe of "patriarchal religion and theology."
In portraying the best of all worlds for women and their need for religion, Fiorenza utilizes the word "ekklesia" (Greek for "public gathering" where citizens are free to choose their own "communal well-being"), which can also be translated as "women-church," or, as a "political-oppositional term to patriarchy" (p. 126).
And what does "patriarchy" mean to Fiorenza? She insists that it isn't just a word to define (and protest against) male power over females. She wants readers to know she isn't she isn't just writing about "male oppressors and female oppressed." Rather, her view of "patriarchy" is as a basic descriptive model for "feminist analysis" and encompasses not only "sexism but also racism and property-class relationships" (p. 127).
For example, in a patriarchal religion, "all women are bound into a system of male privilege and domination" -- that's a given, in her definition. And she doesn't seem overly angry about that fact, though it clearly needs addressing, in her view, beyond what has been said and thought about it in the recent past.
But beyond that view, she writes that "impoverished Third World women constitute the bottom of the oppressive patriarchal pyramid." She sees her feminism in terms of a universal view, in which it is important for women to "identify as women" and therefore overcome the arbitrary separation between white women and black women, rich and poor women, Jewish and Christian women, and so-forth.
That having been said, on page 129 she launches into what appears to be an attack on the Bible; the original focus or concern of feminists, with reference to the Bible, she says, is that "the Bible was used to halt the emancipation of women and slaves." And today, the "political Right" carries on that crusade against progress for women by attacking feminists in the "political, economic, reproductive, intellectual, and religious spheres" -- and they do it by quoting the bible in order to lobby against shelters for battered women, among other things.
What are the options suggested by Fiorenza; what do I think of her viewpoints?
Fiorenza offers four points in terms of suggestions for women: one, that women who love the Bible can't be written off as "un-liberated," and there are stories in the Bible that don't promote raw male authority over women; two, there should be careful review of Biblical texts, a test, to determine which have "feminist liberating content" and which do not; three, a new theology needs to be created, in which the Bible in order to fight back against conservatives using Scripture against the women's movement; four, text must be found and embraced which keeps alive the victories of biblical women who "acted in the power of the spirit"; and five, the Bible should be understood as a "structuring prototype of women-church, rather than as a definite archetype."
My thought is that Fiorenze has given a great deal of time...
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