Works Cited Daggers, Jenny jenny2@daggers68 freeserve co uk. The Prodigal Daughter: Orthodoxy Revisited. Etzioni, Amitai 1.

Religion and the State. Finca, Bongani Blessin. The Decade: A Man's View. Hanna, James K., et al. Letters. Harrison, Victoria S. V Harrison@philosophy arts gla ac uk. Modern Women, Traditional Abrahamic Religions and Interpreting Sacred Texts. Hutchens, S. M. 1. A Maid to Order Bible. Lichtman, Judith 1, and Holly Fechner. Almost there. The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew--Three Women Search for Understanding. Walker, Bridget 1 bwalker@oxfam org uk. Christianity, Development, and Women's Liberation. Wallace, Ruth A. 1. Joseph H. Fichter's Contributions to Feminism.

Title:LETTERS.Authors:Hanna, James K. Favret, Andrew G. McHale, Jack Butera, Charles Washburn, Sussane Pace, RosemarieSource:National Catholic Reporter; 2/23/2007, Vol. 43 Issue 17, p20-21, 2pDocument Type:LetterSubject Terms:*ARMED Forces -- Officers *LETTERS to the editor *NATIONALISM -- Religious aspects *ORDINATION of women *WOMEN & religionAbstract:Several letters to the editor are presented in response to articles in previous issues including "Ethics, Orders and the Fog of War," by Paul Winner in the January 12, 2007 issue, "Ministering 'Where the Girls Are," by Karen O'Brien in the January 19, 2007 issue and "Kingdom Coming The Rise of Christian Nationalism," by Michelle Goldberg in the January 26, 2007 issue.ISSN:0027-8939Accession Number:24331933Database: Academic Search Premier

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Title:Joseph H. Fichter's Contributions to Feminism.Authors:Wallace, Ruth A.1Source:Sociology of Religion; Winter96, Vol. 57 Issue 4, p359-366, 8pDocument Type:ArticleSubject Terms:*CATHOLIC Church *EQUAL rights amendments *FEMINISM *SOCIOLOGISTS *WOMEN'S rights *GENDER inequalityPeople:FICHTER, Joseph H.Abstract:The article comments on the contributions of Joseph H. Fichter to feminism. Although the bulk of Fichter's feminist writings and activities concentrated on women in the Catholic Church, he was also concerned about gender inequality in other religious groups, and in American society in particular. In addition to women, Fichter was an advocate for racial and ethnic groups that suffer discrimination in our country, in particular African Americans and Mexican migrant workers. He also documented the opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment of many Catholic bishops and Catholic organizations such as the National Council of Catholic Women, the Knights of Columbus, the Holy Name Society, and Catholic Daughters, all of whom passed resolutions against the Equal Rights Amendment. Fichter's feminist activities also included memberships in several organizations dedicated to gender equality. He was a member of Sociologists for Women in Society. He encouraged scholarship and activity on the part of women of many religious persuasions, and he was an activist on the Equal Rights Amendment.Author Affiliations:1George Washington University.ISSN:10694404Accession Number:9707065308Database: Academic Search Premier

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Title:Modern Women, Traditional Abrahamic Religions and Interpreting Sacred Texts.Authors:Harrison, Victoria S. V.Harrison@philosophy.arts.gla.ac.ukSource:Feminist Theology: The Journal of the Britain & Ireland School of Feminist Theology; Jan2007, Vol. 15 Issue 2, p145-159, 15pDocument Type:ArticleSubject Terms:*CHRISTIANITY *FEMINIST theology *ISLAM *JUDAISM *WOMEN & religion *FEMINISM & religionAuthor-Supplied Keywords:Feminist interpretation Judaism Christianity IslamAbstract:This article surveys some of the ways in which certain representative feminists from each of the Abrahamic religions have argued that patriarchal religious traditions have systematically excluded women from contributing to traditionally accepted interpretations of their sacred texts. It shows how, in response to this exclusion, feminist theologians from each of these religions have observed a need to interpret the scriptures of their traditions from the standpoint provided by their own experience as women-thus offering new interpretations which they perceive to constitute a powerful tool with which to mount a critique of the theological traditions that had excluded them. The article concludes that, as women achieve greater opportunities for assessing their sacred texts themselves, this will have a growing effect on how the texts are read, on the religious institutions that claim to be justified by them and on the core religious concepts, such as 'God', that lie at the heart of those texts, whether their tradition be Jewish, Christian or Islamic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Feminist Theology: The Journal of the Britain & Ireland School of Feminist Theology is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts)ISSN:0966-7350DOI:10.1177/0966735007072020Accession Number:24052528Database: Academic Search Premier

FEMINIST THEOLOGY
Copyright 2007 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks CA and New Delhi) bttp:/ / FTH.sagepub.com Vol. 15(2): 145-159 DOI: 10.1177/0966735007072020

Modern Women, Traditional Abrahamic Religions and Interpreting Sacred Texts Victoria S. Harrison
V. i-larrison@philosophy. arts. gla. ac. ui<

ABSTRACT

This article surveys some of the ways in which certain representative feminists from each of the Abrahamic religions have argued that patriarchal religious traditions have systematically excluded women from contributing to traditionally accepted interpretations of their sacred texts. It shows how, in response to this exclusion, feminist theologians from each of these religions have observed a need to interpret the scriptures of their traditions from the standpoint provided by their own experience as women thus offering new interpretations which they perceive to constitute a powerful tool with which to mount a critique of the theological traditions that had excluded them. The article concludes that, as women achieve greater opportunities for assessing their sacred texts themselves, this will have a growing effect on how the texts are read, on the religious institutions that claim to be justified by them and on the core religious concepts, such as 'God', that lie at the heart of those texts, whether their tradition be Jewish, Christian or Islamic. Keywords: Feminist interpretation. Scriptures, Judaism, Christianity, Islam

The confrontation between the ideas of modern women and the beliefs and practises of traditional Judaism, Christianity and Islam has not, for the most part, been experienced as a challenge coming from outside each tradition. Rather, the challenge has come from within, as Jewish, Christian and Muslim women have become increasingly conscious of what they perceive as sexism within their respective traditions. And because this challenge comes from within, it is perhaps the most difficult one for traditionally inclined religious adherents to ignore. Moreover, modern women challenge traditional religions on a number of fronts, which penetrate deeply into all aspects of those religions: time146
Feminist Theology

honoured interpretations of important scriptural texts have not been left undisturbed; religious institutions, laws, customs and practises have been critically analysed; and even the concept 'God' has been probed, stretched, and, in some cases, rejected. This assault on traditional religion gathered pace and momentum as it swept through Europe and North America during the twentieth century.^ The first signs, however, that the challenge of women to traditional religion was set to become a mass movement are seen at the close of the nineteenth century in the work of the North American feminist Matilda Joslyn Gage, who foresaw that the coming conflict between male and female within the Church would 'shatter the foundations of religious belief.^ Today, we can easily see that no religion bas escaped

the impact of the increased public prominence and empowerment of women, witb religious doctrines nowadays being routinely blamed for promoting derogatory views of women. For in seeking the same social recognition, economic opportunities and political rights as men typically enjoy, women bave often found that the greatest stumbling blocks are establisbed religious traditions and the seemingly misogynist religious antbropologies upon wbicb they are premised. Increased access to education in the twentieth century undoubtedly belped many women to identify wbat they took to be a systematic link between their social, economic and political oppression, on the one band, and the way that they were de-valued by traditional religion, on the other. Many women came to perceive the extent to wbicb religious views bad been, and continued to be, sbaped by wbat they came to identify as patriarcby. Moreover, certain religious views clearly exacerbated women's inequality witb men. Women responded to their growing awareness of tbis in different ways. But one response was to analyse their religious traditions from the various perspectives offered by the feminist movement. Women scrutinized the origins and development of their religious traditions, and examined the role of these traditions in underpinning the state legislation that institutionalized the oppression of women. Examples of such legislation are the property laws in Europe wbicb, until the twentietb century, forbade married women to own property, or the Islamic divorce laws wbicb, in many Muslim countries even today, make it mucb easier for a man to divorce
1. A similar movement was simultaneously gathering force in much of the Arab world, particularly in Egypt and Turkey. For some of the core texts of the Arab feminist movement, see Margot Badran and Miriam Cooke (eds.), Opening the Gates: A Century of Arab Feminist Writing (London: Virago Press, 1992). 2. Matilda Joslyn Gage, Women, Church and State: A Historical Account of the Status of Woman through the Christian Ages: With Reminiscences ofthe Matriarchate (Watertown, MA: Persephone Press, 1980), p. 544. The work was first published in 1893.

Harrison Modern Women 147 a woman than it is for a woman to divorce a man. In both cases, this discriminatory legislation can be traced back to the derogatory views of women that have been sanctioned by religion. II Matilda Joslyn Gage is a neglected figure in women's studies in religion. This is particularly surprising given that she was a groundbreaking figure, not only because she campaigned for women's equality with men in public life but also because she exposed a systematic link between women's social, economic and political oppression and traditional Christianity the faith which had dominated her culture. She saw clearly that many of the features of public life that women found oppressivethe laws regarding inheritance, marriage, or birth control, for example stemmed from Christian beliefs. Recognizing that these beliefs had evolved through the centuries, she argued that in many cases their evolution had been manipulated by men for their benefit as opposed to that of women. Moreover, Gage was convinced

that some of the central doctrines of Christianity were directly responsible for the persecution and oppression of women in the Christian era. Indeed, Gage's seminal importance lies in her explicitly linking this oppression to the direct influence of Christian beliefs particularly the belief that women were not created equal to men. Interestingly, despite her attempt at a devastating exposure of sexism, patriarchy and androcentricity within Christianity, Gage did not regard herself as opposed to religion. Rather, she declared herself to be opposed to the usurpation of Christianity by those men who had deployed certain religious beliefs in order to further their own interests. She clearly believed that if purged of male distortions, Christianity could regain its original value. Consequently, she remained a committed Presbyterian; respecting what she called 'true religion' as opposed to 'theology'.^ In this continued allegiance to her religious tradition, she broke a path that has been followed by many subsequent religious feminists. Gage argues that what she regards as the negative view of marriage promoted by traditional Christianity was combined with the view that woman not only was created inferior to man but also was ultimately responsible for the Fall. According to traditional Christian doctrine, because of one woman's purported role in the Fall, all women are in the process of undergoing God's punishment. One aspect of this supposed punishment is the pain of childbirth; the other is marriage, where each
3. Gage, Women, Church and State, p. 11.

148 Feminist Theology

woman is subjected to a man, whose task it is to punish her for her responsibility for the Fall.* Moreover, an 'explanation' is provided in the book of Genesis for why it was the woman, and not the man, who first succumbed to temptation. This purported explanation is to be found in one account of the creation of Adam and Eve, where Eve is portrayed as derived from one of Adam's ribs.^ Each of the Abrahamic traditions has developed this legend, reinforcing the impression it gives of woman having been created inferior to man. Muslim tradition, for example, ascribes to Muhammad the following saying: 'Be friendly to women for womankind was created from a rib, but the bent part of the rib, high up, if you try to straighten it you will break it; if you do nothing, she will continue to be bent'.^ This version of the creation myth has long been taken to imply that, as woman was created out of man, she must be inferior to him. Furthermore, the rest of the story underscores the idea that woman was created in order to fulfil a need in man: namely, to be his helper and his wife. Gage was perhaps the first to observe that the important role ascribed in the Judaeo-Christian tradition to the creation myth is responsible for the widespread perception that the human race can be neatly divided into two groups along gender lines, and that one group is innately inferior to the other.

Although one cannot hold later religious thinkers responsible for the presence of such passages in their sacred writings, one can, as Gage chides, reproach them for choosing to give continued prominence to them and for thereby condoning the gender inequalities they seem to endorse. And according to Gage's interpretation of the history of Christianity, St Paul is indeed blameworthy for precisely this. To be precise, Paul's 'teaching that Adam, first created, was not first in sin, divided the unity of the human race in the assumption that woman was not part of the original creative idea but a secondary thought, an
4. 'To the woman [the Lord] said, "I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you"' (Genesis 3.16 NRSV). For a Muslim account of women's ongoing punishment for Eve's misbehaviour, see Al-Ghazali's list of its eighteen forms in his Book of Council for Kings, cited in Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not a Muslim (New York: Prometheus Books, 1995), p. 300. 5. See Genesis 2.7 and 21-23. 6. Cited in Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not a Muslim, p. 295. Many misogynistic hadiths, such as this one, are regarded as authentic by traditional Muslims. However, Fatima Mernissi challenges the reliability of some of them in her book Tlie Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam (trans. Mary Jo Lakeland; Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1991).

Harrison Modern Women 149 inferior being brought into existence as an appendage to man'.'' And in Gage's view, it is this deeply misogynistic and dualist theological anthropology that has been the cause of much of the suffering endured by women throughout the Christian era. This particular anthropology, which became enshrined in the teaching of the Christian Church, was subsequently used to justify the formulation of different rights for women and for men in both Church and state. It was also used to justify the existence of two moral codes: one code for women and another for men. Thus, Cage argues that the nineteenth-century social order was built on these religiously dubious patriarchal theories; and she concludes that once this is recognized, then women's struggle for social and political equality with men will be considerably easier.^ Moreover, Gage, in going straight to what many later religious feminists, such as Mary Daly, would take to be the heart of the problem, proceeds to criticize the exclusively male conception of God that dominates Christianity. As she writes: 'To the theory of "God the Father",... shorn of the divine attribute of motherhood, is the world beholden for its most degrading beliefs, its most infamous practices'.^ And in Cage's analysis, one of the most serious consequences of the concept 'God the Father' is that it has led to the exclusion of women from leadership roles within the Christian Church. As she points out, during the early Christian centuries women occupied prominent and important roles in the Christian community, and it took several hundred years before they were totally ousted, before their capacity to repriesent God was denied, and before the all-male priesthood was ensconced." Furthermore, in Gage's view, the persecution of those suspected of witchcraft was to be explained by the widely-held belief that women

were inherently wicked. In other words, it was yet another result of the core Christian convictions that women were created inferior to men and that a woman was the first to sin. So, the persecution of witches had the same basic cause as the legal inequalities that still plagued women in Gage's time. And these legal inequalities were considerable: 'even in this year 1892, within eight years of the Twentieth Christian century, we find the largest proportion of the United States still giving the husband custody of the wife's person; the exclusive control of the children of the marriage; of the wife's personal and real estate; the absolute right to her
7. Gage, Womnn, Church and State, p. 54. 8. Gage, Woman, Church nnd State pp. 62-63. 9. Gage, Woman, Church and State, p. 69. 10. On the process of the marginalization of women within the early Christian community, see Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins (New York: Crossroads, 1983).

150 Feminist Theology

labor and the products of her industry'." Consonant with her analysis. Gage found that the most vigorous opposition to women's claims to be granted equal rights came from the clergy, who, more than most, were committed to the dogma of women having been created inferior to men. Consider a sermon preached in 1880 by an English clergyman to a largely female audience in Philadelphia:
God made himself to be born of woman to sanctify the virtue of endurance; loving submission is an attribute of woman; men are logical, but women lacking this quality, have an intricacy of thought. There are those who think that women can be taught logic; this is a mistake, they can never by any power of education arrive at the same mental status as that enjoyed by man, but they have a quickness of apprehension, which is usually called leaping at conclusions, that is astonishing. There, then, we have distinctive traits of a woman, namely: endurance, loving submission and quickness of apprehension. Wifehood is the crowning glory of a woman. In it she is bound for all time. To her husband she owes the duty of unqualified obedience. There is no crime which a man can commit which justifies his wife leaving him or applying for that monstrous thing, divorce. It is her duty to subject herself to him always, and no crime that he can commit can justify her lack of obedience. If he be a bad or wicked man, she may gently remonstrate with him, but refuse him, never."

Gage observes that while this sermon was preached during 'the full blaze of the nineteenth century', which saw itself as so progressive, the view of women it expresses is drawn directly from the dark ages." Incredibly, this kind of argument was still being deployed well into the twentieth century in order to deny women equal rights. As is wellknown, many Christians nowadays cultivate an image that projects the power for liberation within the Christian message. But at the end of the nineteenth century, the Church could hardly be viewed as standing out as a power for the liberation of women. Summing up her conclusions, Gage declares:
From all these incontrovertible facts in church and state, we see that both religion and government are essentially masculine in their present forms and development. All the evils that have resulted from dignifying one sex and degrading the other may be traced to one central error, a belief in a trinity of masculine gods, in one from which the feminine element is wholly eliminated."

And yet, continues Gage, this happened despite a scriptural account of creation in which male and female were declared to be created equal.
11. Gage, Woman, Church and State, p. 329. 12. Quoted in Gage, Woman, Church and State, pp. 492-93. 13. Gage, Woman, Church and State, p. 493. 14. Gage, Woman, Church and State, pp. 521-22.

Harrison Modern Women 151 III Gage bequeathed twentieth-century religious feminists a penetrating diagnosis of the problem traditional religion posed to modern women. However, it was left to later feminists to develop solutions to this problem. One popular strategy was to reclaim sacred texts from what they took to be the gendered interpretations placed on them by men. Even at the beginning of the twentieth-first century, Christian and Jewish women still frequently have to remind their co-religionists that there are two creation stories in the Hebrew Scriptures. The first to appear, although not the most ancient, is found in Gen. 1.1-2.3.^^ Within this alternative account can be found the following description of how God created humans:
Then God said, 'Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness...' So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created

In contrast to the now more famous creation story, the noteworthy feature of this version of the myth is that both male and female are declared to be created in the image of God. This might be taken to suggest that there is some sense in which God is both male and female. Consequently, this particular text cannot be so easily used to support an anthropology that portrays women and men as intrinsically unequal. Jewish and Christian feminists, therefore, argue that this account, which they have taken to emphasize gender equality, ought to be given priority within their traditions. This attempt to take control of sacred texts is typical of what happened in the twentieth century when, for the first time, large numbers of women began to read the texts for themselves, and to read them critically. Once they were no longer dependent upon males for an interpretation of the sacred texts, women claimed to notice a selective bias lying behind the choice of texts emphasized within their traditions. In the Christian Scriptures, for example, God is depicted by a rich array of metaphors and parables. Yet only a small selection of these have been adopted by the Christian tradition and allowed to play a significant role in the way that Christians conceptualize God. Feminists have pointed out that those metaphors and parables that have been selected
15. Genesis 1.1-2.3 is dated at about 400 BCE; while Genesis 2.4-3.24, which provides the better-known account, is dated at approximately 900 BCE.
16. Genesis 1.26a and 27 (NRSV).

152 Feminist Theology

for extensive use are invariably ones drawn from male rather than female experience. In the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 15, for instance, two

parables are presented: the parable of the lost sheep; and the parable of the woman and the lost coin. Each attempts to illustrate the joy felt by God over a sinner's repentance. The Christian tradition, however, has given a central place to only one of these parablesthat of the shepherd and the lost sheep. This parable is based on the male figure of the shepherd, and it is this which has entered into the Christian imagination as can be seen from the many works of Christian art depicting the scene. The parable of the woman and the lost coin, by contrast, has not been elaborated by the tradition, and does not have any extensive body of painting representing it. One aim of feminist readings of scripture is to identify such neglected texts, and to begin building a tradition of interpretation around them. Indeed, the twentieth century witnessed the burgeoning of a whole industry of feminist interpretations of the sacred texts. Jewish feminists, in contrast to their Christian counterparts, have devoted considerable attention to Exod. 19.15, in which Moses gives this warning to his people: 'Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman'. This verse has troubled many Jewish women, for 'the third day' is when the Israelites are scheduled to receive the covenant. As Judith Piaskow writes, this text is particularly disturbing:
at the very moment that the Jewish people stand at Sinai ready to receive the covenantnot now the covenant with individual patriarchs but with the people as a whole at the very moment when Israel stands trembling waiting for God's presence to descend upon the mountain, Moses addressed the community only as men.... At the central moment of Jewish history, women are invisible. Whether they too stood there trembling in fear and expectation, what they heard when the men heard these words of Moses, we do not know. It was not their experience that interested the chronicler or that informed and shaped the Torah.'''

Traditional Jewish identity is intimately bound to a consciousness of membership within a community that is unique in having entered into a covenant with God. Many Jews regard the experience of living within this covenant as the core religious experience of Judaism. Piaskow, however, observes that from the beginnings of the tradition, this experience has been presented as available only to menas women were not included in the official account of the giving and receiving of the covenant. Moreover, she charges that this exclusion of women from the original covenant:
17. Judith Piaskow, Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective (New York: Harper Collins, 1990), p. 25.

Harrison Modern Women 153

sets forth a pattern recapitulated again and again in Jewish sources. Women's invisibility at the moment of entry into the covenant is reflected in the content of the covenant which, in both grammar and substance, addresses the community as male heads of households. It is perpetuated by the later tradition, which in its comments and codifications takes women as objects of concern or legislation but rarely sees them as shapers of tradition and actors in their own lives."

Plaskow's observations seem warranted, as any survey of the trajectory of Jewish tradition from its earliest days to the present appears to confirm. When the rabbis codified halakah (Jewish law), they legislated

as if the requirements of the covenant rested principally on the male members of the community. The majority of the 613 commandments, which the covenant requires Jews to keep, are only binding on adult males. Many Jewish feminists now claim that if women are to participate fully in Judaism, then it is essential for halakah to be reformed." It is also significant that the commandments which women are typically not required to fulfil are those that concern public religious worship and study. In addition, the tradition appears to suffer from an overwhelming tendency to portray women as less than persons.^" All of this has led some Jewish women to question seriously whether they are actually included in the covenant with God. 'Are women Jews?', asks Rachel Adler.^^ Nevertheless, Plaskow speaks for many Jewish feminists when she asserts that
[t]o accept our absence from Sinai would be to allow the male text to define us and our connection to Judaism. To stand on the ground of our experience, on the other hand, to start with the certainty of our membership in our own people is to be forced to re-member and recreate its history, to reshape Torah. It is to move from anger at the tradition, through anger to empowerment. It is to begin the journey toward the creation of a feminist Judaism.^

In Plaskow's analysis, then, a key aim of Jewish feminism is 'to reshape Torah'. Within the Jewish tradition this is the issue for which the challenge of modem women to traditional religion is at its most intense.
18. Judith Plaskow, Standing Again at Sinai, pp. 25-26. 19. Rachel Adier attempts precisely such a reformation in Engendering Judaism (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1997). 20. For a comprehensive study of the status of women in traditional Judaism, see Judith Romney Wegner, Chattel or Person? The Status of Women in the Mishnah (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988). 21. Rachel Adler, 'I've Had Nothing Yet So 1 Can't Take More', Moment 8 (September 1983), p. 22. 22. Plaskow, Standing Again at Sinai, pp. 27-28.

154 Feminist Theology

Plaskow is aware that there will be a great deal of resistance to the claim that the reshaping of Torah is a legitimate intention. Torah is traditionally regarded as the product of a direct revelation from God, providing the blueprint for a divinely sanctioned lifestyle, which is thought to be valid for all time. Any Jew who wants to participate in the feminist project must reject this traditional view of Torah. But, as Plaskow also counsels, rejecting the traditional view is not enough; if the feminist wishes to remain within the Jewish tradition, then she must provide an alternative conception of the link between Torah and revelation. Plaskow looks for an alternative in the ancient Jewish kabbalistic tradition. There, she finds a distinction between the primordial Torah, which is identified with God's essence, and the incomplete and partial expression of this, which has been codified by men. It is a short step to the idea that each person, through study and prayer, can gain a unique perspective on the primordial Torah. However, declares Plaskow, as she presses this kabbalistic idea into the service of Jewish feminism,
this image of the relation between hidden and manifest Torah reminds us that half the souls of Israel have not left for us the Torah they have seen. Insofar as we can begin to recover women's experience of God, insofar

as we can restore a part of their history and vision, we have more of the primordial Torah, the divine fullness, of which the present Torah is only a fragment and

This view of the original Torah as transcending the seemingly androcentric document that has been passed down through the generations and enshrined in the tradition gives Jewish feminists a new freedom to challenge and re-shape the text. This new freedom in dealing with the written form has converged with the rising tide of scepticism regarding any insistence that the scriptures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam are a literal record of God's direct speech. Over the course of the twentieth century, areas of scholarship as diverse as palaeontology, particle physics and biblical criticism have made it increasingly difficult for educated moderns to regard the scriptures of the various traditions as literally true. Serious doubts have been cast on the historical veracity of the Sinai narrative, and few well-educated people today regard the creation stories as literal accounts of what happened. Consequently, debates about the interpretation of scripture can no longer be settled simply by appealing to a purportedly neutral reading of the text, as ostensibly offered by traditional rabbis, priests, or mullas. Feminists from all three Abrahamic faiths have been claiming the right to interpret sacred texts for themselves.
23. Plaskow, Standing Again at Sinai, p. 34.

Harrison Modern Women 155 The texts, however, present undeniable obstacles to women's efforts at interpreting them. Women can easily find themselves embroiled in a battle with the representatives of a tradition of interpretation that typically claims to hold a pedigree traceable back to the early days of the religious community. Some feel that this is a battle that women cannot win. As Ibn Warraq, for example, opines when commenting on the situation within Islam:
to do battle with the orthodox, the fanatics, and the mullas in the interpretation of these texts is to do battle on their...terms, on their ground. [For] every text that you produce they will adduce a dozen others contradicting yours. The reformists cannot win on these termswhatever mental gymnastics the reformists perform, they cannot escape the fact that Islam is deeply antifeminist. Islam is the fundamental cause of the repression of Muslim women and remains the major obstacle to the evolution of their position. Islam has always considered women as creatures inferior in every way: physically, intellectually, and morally. This negative vision is divinely sanctioned in the Koran, corroborated by the hadiths and perpetuated by the commentaries of the theologians.. .^^

Many religious feminists regardless of their particular faith would agree at least to a certain extentclaiming that a negative vision of women is ingrained not only in the Qur'an but in the sacred texts of each of the monotheisms. However, aware of the important place occupied by these texts within the so-called religions of the Book, they realize that they have no option if they want to remain within their traditions but to confront these texts. One of the main problems with the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam is the excessive and all-but-exclusive use of male images within their respective religious symbolism. This

problem is mitigated, however, once an obligation to interpret these texts literally is no longer felt. Many Jewish, Christian and Muslim women have thus been exercising a new sense of freedom in interpreting the texts of their scriptures noting that, as Fatima Mernissi remarks: '[d]epending on how it is used, the sacred text can be a threshold for escape or an insurmountable barrier. It can be that rare music that leads to dreaming or simply a dispiriting routine. It all depends on the person who invokes it'.^^ In accordance with this realization, there are abundant examples of creative re-writing of scriptures, prayer books and liturgies in order to give greater prominence to women.^^ For example, religious feminists
24. Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not a Muslim, p. 293. 25. Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite, p. 64. 26. An early example was the Woman's Bible by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, published in 1895. On the significance of this work, see Schlissler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her, pp. 7-14.

156 Feminist Theology

have striven to insert feminine imagery into these documents in an attempt to balance out the masculine. However, this strategy of altering the balance between male and female imagery within sacred texts is, of course, closed to all those within religious communities who are wedded to a literal interpretation of such texts, be they Jewish, Christian or Muslim. But excepting such religious literalists, throughout the twentieth century there has been a growing acceptance that all texts are interpreted to a greater or lesser extent. The question is: Who is responsible for the interpretation? Women have become increasingly aware that, due to many factors, perhaps chief among which is access to education, the interpretation of sacred texts has been the preserve of men. This has meant, according to many feminists, that the traditional interpretations of these texts are far from neutral or objective, but are, instead, gendered. For if the meaning of a text is not automatically provided by the words on the page, but is, rather, the result of a process whereby the text is interpreted through the lens of the reader's experience, and if the readers of the text are male, then the interpretation which is arrived at will likely be masculinist. One notable example of an attempt at re-interpreting a sacred text from a woman's perspective is that of Amina Wadud-Muhsin, an African-American Muslim feminist, who construes interpretation as a product which 'reflects, in part, the intentions of the text, as well as the "prior text"' of whoever performs the interpretation.^'' By 'prior text' she means the 'perspectives, circumstances, and background of the individual' interpreter.^^ On the basis of this understanding of what is involved in interpreting a text, she specifically aims to provide an interpretation of the Qur'an that will be 'meaningful to women living in the modern era'.^' In her view, traditional interpretations of the Qur'an are not meaningful to m^odern women precisely because they 'were generated without the participation and firsthand representation

of women'.^ Nevertheless, the exclusion of women from an interpretative role should not be equated with their exclusion from the message within the text, and Wadud-Muhsin proposes that women's 'voicelessness during critical periods of development in Qur'anic
27. Amina Wadud-Muhsin, Qur'an and Woman (Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Fajar Bakti, 1992), p. 1. 28. Wadud-Muhsin, Qur'an and Woman, p. 12 n. 1. 29. Wadud-Muhsin, Qur'an and Woman, p. 1. Wadud-Muhsin is not, of course, the only Muslim who reads the Qur'an from a critical feminist perspective. See also Asma Barlas, 'Believing Women' in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002). 30. Wadud-Muhsin, Qur'an and Woman, p. 2.

Harrison Modern Women 157 interpretation has...been mistakenly equated with voicelessness in the text itself'.''I Wadud-Muhsin clearly believes that present within the Qur'an, and waiting to be deployed, are the resources for an interpretation that will prove liberatory for modem women. As a Muslim wanting to reclaim rather than abandon her religion, she emphasizes the importance of the relationship between the core text-namely, the Qur'anand her own liberatory interpretation of it. Most importantly, it is not, in her view, the core text nor the principles which it propounds that change, but only the 'prior text' that is, the 'perspectives, circumstances, and background of the individual' interpreter. The onus, then, is on each historically and culturally located individual to assimilate the revelation contained in the Qur'an. Such assimilation will involve developing new interpretations that allow the core principles of the Qur'anic revelation to be expressed in a manner appropriate to each particular time and place. Indeed, WadudMuhsin goes so far as to accuse Muslims who deny the necessity for developing new Qur'anic interpretations of contradicting Islam's claim to be a universal religion. For, in her view, Islam succeeds in being universal not by having a single, canonical formulation but by being capable of assimilation in different ways by different cultures. Having made the case for the legitimacy, indeed necessity, of a variety of interpretations of the Qur'an, Wadud-Muhsin proceeds to argue that the interpreter's specific conception of gender-difference will be part of her or his 'prior text'. In other words, how any particular person views the differences between women and men is not, in her view, an essential component of the message contained in the Qur'an. And this implies that it is perfectly acceptable to interpret the text from the standpoint offered by an alternative perspective on gender say, a feminist one. Wadud-Muhsin's argument thus has far-reaching implications, for it challenges the religious anthropology that many Muslims have taken to be fundamental to Islam. According to this traditional anthropology, there are essential differences between men and women. These differences are often expressed in claims regarding women falling short of men in important respects: they are weaker; less intelligent; more prone to evil; and spiritually inferior. Moreover, these differences are thought

to have been deliberately created by Allah. Hence, they are taken to justify the de-valuing of women which, many accuse, is endemic within traditional forms of Muslim society. This religious anthropology has also been used in an attempt to justify a denial of basic freedoms to Muslim women, such as the freedom to choose whom to marry, to obtain an education, to pursue a career, or even to leave the house.
31. Wadud-Muhsin, Qur'an and Woman, p. 2.

158 Feminist Theology

But if an androcentric anthropology is external to the essential revelation, and is, instead, a product of the cultural background of those who have interpreted it, then, as Wadud-Muhsin argues, Islam could, in principle, escape the burden of misogyny. For if she is right, then the only reason why Islam and the Qur'an have been perceived to be androcentric and patriarchal is that those who claimed for themselves the exclusive right to interpret the text, and thus shape the tradition, were imbued with the vice of misogyny. But not everyone need be so prejudiced. WadudMuhsin would, therefore, no doubt agree with this heartfelt exclamation from Nazira Zein-ed-Din, a Muslim feminist active in the 1920s:
I only wish that those who pretend to protect Islam and raise its banners would look in the same way as I do and see what I see. I wish they did not look at Islam through the narrow vision of commentaries and interpretations which interpret Islam in ways they want to see it. Islam is far beyond that. It is much greater.'^

IV Feminists from each of the Abrahamic religions are united in their claim that (what they denounce as) patriarchal religious traditions have systematically excluded women from contributing to traditionally accepted interpretations of the sacred texts. As we have noted, feminist theologians faced with this situation have attempted to interpret the scriptures of their traditions from the standpoint provided by their own experience as women.^^ And twentieth-century religious feminists were quick to realize that once women began to interpret sacred texts for themselves they would have a powerful tool with which to mount a critique of the theological traditions that had excluded them. For example, writing within a Christian context, Rosemary Radford Ruether one of the first twentieth-century religious feminists to produce a 'feminist theology' makes a point of expressing the radical potential of using the experience of women as a source of scriptural interpretation and theology:
32. Nazira Zein-ed-Din, 'Removing the Veil and Veiling: Towards Women's Liberation and Social Reform', translated by Salah-Dine Hammoud in Women's Studies International Forum 5.2 (1982), pp. 223-26. 33. Early feminists tended to refer to 'women's experience'. Late twentieth-century feminists, however, came to feel that 'women's experience' is an overly abstract concept. Consequently, later feminist works emphasize that the experience of women is not homogenous but richly varied, being dependent upon factors such as social status and ethnic background. Distinctive forms of theology have developed from this recognition of difference, one of the most prominent being 'womanist theology', which draws on the experience of black American women Christians.

Harrison Modern Women 159

The use of women's experience in feminist theology...explodes as a

critical force, exposing classical theology, including its codified traditions, as based on male experience rather than on universal human experience. Feminist theology makes the sociology of theological knowledge visible, no longer hidden behind mystifications of objectified divine and universal authority.-^

Feminists have therefore argued that, even today, Judaism, Christianity and Islam depend upon a background theological framework that is inherently patriarchal. What all this seems to suggest is that when women's experience is applied to their religious texts, a new interpretation seems to be demanded, regardless of whether the religious text is within the Jewish, Christian or Islamic traditions. And this further suggests that as women achieve greater opportunities for assessing their sacred texts themselves, this will have a growing effect on how the texts are read, on the religious institutions that claim to be justified by them and on the core religious concepts, such as 'God', that lie at the heart of those texts. Thus, as Daphne Hampson succinctly observes with respect to Christian religious thought: 'theology, as we have known it, has been the creation of men; indeed men living within a patriarchal society. As women come into their own, theology will take a different shape'.^^ We might add: and so will the religious texts upon which theology is premised, whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim.
34. Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sexism and God-Talk: Towards a Feminist Theology (London: SCM Press, 1983), p. 13. 35. Daphne Hampson, Theology and Feminism (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990), p. 1.

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Title:The Prodigal Daughter: Orthodoxy Revisited.Authors:Daggers, Jenny jenny2@daggers68.freeserve.co.ukSource:Feminist Theology: The Journal of the Britain & Ireland School of Feminist Theology; Jan2007, Vol. 15 Issue 2, p186-201, 16pDocument Type:ArticleSubject Terms:*FEMINIST theology *FEMINISTS *LIBERATION theology *ORTHODOX Eastern Church *WOMEN & religion *ORTHODOX Christianity *FEMINISM & religionAuthor-Supplied Keywords:Prodigal orthodox neo-orthodox imagination feminist theology reimaginationAbstract:The article argues on behalf of a neglected tradition of feminist engagement with orthodox Christian theological themes, which deserves recognition as an aspect of feminist theology. As a preface to this argument, the heritage and current vibrancy of feminist liberation theology as a struggle for justice is first affirmed, then Christian theological currents are mapped by means of crosscutting coordinates. Evidence of feminist engagement across this theological map, and of the map operating within feminist theology, is presented to show that feminist theology exceeds its mainstream identity as a liberation theology, and to reject the notion of liberation theology as a successor theology. The core of the article begins with Woodhead's neo-orthodox critique of feminist theology and responds in two ways: by identifying an existing feminist engagement with orthodoxy which is ignored by Woodhead; and by reading the texts she criticizes as imaginative revisitings of core Christian themes. The creative potential of imaginative revisiting of orthodox themes is further explored, concluding with a parable of the prodigal daughter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Feminist Theology: The Journal of the Britain & Ireland School of Feminist Theology is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts)ISSN:0966-7350DOI:10.1177/0966735007072030Accession Number:24052531Database: Academic Search Premier

FEMINIST THEOLOGY
Copyright 2007 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks CA and New Delhi) http://FTH.sagepub.com Vol. 15(2): 186-201 DOI: 10.1177/0966735007072030

The Prodigal Daughter: Orthodoxy Revisited^ Jenny Daggers

jenny2@daggers68.treesen/e.co.uk
ABSTRACT

The article argues on behalf of a neglected tradition of feminist engagement with orthodox Christian theological themes, which deserves recognition as an aspect of feminist theology. As a preface to this argument, the heritage and current vibrancy of feminist liberation theology as a struggle for justice is first affirmed, then Christian theological currents are mapped by means of crosscutting coordinates. Evidence of feminist engagement across this theological map, and of the map operating within feminist theology, is presented to show that feminist theology exceeds its mainstream identity as a liberation theology, and to reject the notion of liberation theology as a successor theology. The core of the article begins with Woodhead's neo-orthodox critique of feminist theology and responds in two ways: by identifying an existing feminist engagement with orthodoxy which is ignored by Woodhead; and by reading the texts she criticizes as imaginative revisitings of core Christian themes. The creative potential of imaginative revisiting of orthodox themes is further explored, concluding with a parable of the prodigal daughter. Keywords; Prodigal; orthodox; neo-orthodox; imagination; feminist theology; reimagination.

1.1. Introduction

I would like to thank Julie Clague for creating the occasion of a conference at the University of Glasgow on Reimagining Feminist Theologies, with its stimulation of the eponymous task, and for her kind invitation
1. This article is substantially revised, initially in response to points raised and general discussion during the conference Reimagining Feminist Theologies. I would like to express my appreciation of the quality of engagement with my paper, and of the liveliness of many individual conversations and plenary exchanges. I am also grateful for the comments and suggestions of anonymous readers of a first draft of this article, to which I have endeavoured to respond in this final reworking.

Daggers The Prodigal Daughter 187 to me to share my thinking. I welcome the opportunity offered to pause, take stock, and reflect on possible reimagined feminist theologies. The article begins by setting the scene with a familiar broad brush survey of the emergence of feminist theology as a diverse yet distinctive liberation theology, always engaged with secular feminism, which in recent years has been informed by an increasingly sophisticated body of feminist and cultural theory.
2.1. Feminist Liberation Theology

When speaking of feminist theology, we look back to a heritage of struggle for justice for women, which, while it may be traced back to a starting point in Valerie Saiving's article, crafted in the late 1950s, was fuelled by the 'second-wave' women's movement that was soon to burst upon the scene.^ As this tradition developed, one exciting aspect was the repeated rediscovery of earlier nineteenth and twentieth

century antecedents.' The chosen title of this conference, Reimngining Feminist Theologies, reminds us that feminist theology is plural, and has been so from its inception. One obvious early example of this plurality is Christ and Plaskow's classic 1979 text, Womanspirit Rising, which brought together contributors to the common enterprise of feminist theology from Jewish, Christian and post-Christian Coddess standpoints.'' However, Womanspirit Rising does not reflect the intercultural diversity of women's theology from Latin America, Africa and Asia, which has kept company with Western feminist theology from its early days.^ Feminist liberation theologies embrace the work of women from both the countries of the 'South' Latin America, Africa and Asia and of the 'North', that is. Western Europe and North America.*
2. Valerie Saiving, 'The Human Situation: A Feminine View', in Carol Christ and Judith Plaskow (eds.), Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion (New York: Harper, 1979), pp. 25-42. 3. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Tlie Women's Bible: The Original Feminist Attack on the Bible (Repr., Edinburgh: Polygon, 1985 [1895]) and Matilda Joslyn Gage, Woman, Church and State (Watertown, MA: Perspehone, 1980 [1893]) are two notable examples. 4. Carol Christ and Judith Plaskow (eds.), Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion (New York: Harper, 1979). 5. Cf. Kwok Pui Lan, 'Feminist Theology as Intercultural Discourse', in Susan Parsons (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 23-39. 6. See Ursula King, (ed.). Feminist Theology from the Tliird World: A Reader (London: SPCK, 1994), for a valuable collection of contributions from women in the South made around the turn of the 1990s. Much attention is given in this article to issues between North American and British feminist theologies. At points, discussion reaches beyond this Anglo-American focus, and there I use the terms 'South' to refer to Latin America, Africa and Asia, and 'North' to refer to countries in the Western world.

188 Feminist Theology

For Christian feminist theology, Mary Daly set the agenda for ensuing years with her Harvard exodus sermon, and her Beyond God the Father - a text which, for many secular feminists, was to embody both the beginning and end of feminist theology.^ Daly's devastating critique of Christianity as patriarchal Christolatry, inherently damaging to womengiven voice in more measured British tones by Daphne Hampson in her book. Theology and Feminism, where she portrays Christianity as 'irredeemably patriarchal' was countered by those who found ingenious ways of answering, in the affirmative, Ruether's consequent question, 'Can a male Savior save women?'^ In the UK, feminist theology emerged within a grassroots movement, which achieved the founding of an international journal. Feminist Theology, in September 1992, itself a testament to the ongoing plurality and vitality of feminist theology. The project of establishing a chair in feminist theology at a British university was mooted early in the 1980s, along with the initiative towards a journal. That took longer to achieve, with the joyous appointment of Lisa Isherwood to a chair in feminist liberation theology at the College of St Mark and St John in Plymouth in 2001.^ A vibrant research community gathered in Plymouth, now relocated at the University of Winchester, generating new scholarship in feminist theology. Feminist Theology continues

to thrive, with Isherwood among the founder members of both the journal and the open access Britain and Ireland School of Feminist Theology (BISFT).!" Moving on to other aspects of the British scene, I would like to pay tribute to the particular contribution of the late Asphodel Long to the British movement, not only for her own research on the Goddess, but for her commitment to maintaining channels of communication between Christian and Womanspirit feminist perspectives." And I also wish to salute Mary Grey, again not only for her prolific output, but
7. Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father: Towards a Philosophy of Women's Liberation (London: Women's Press, 1986 [1973]). 8. Daphne Hampson, Tlteology and Feminism (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990); Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sexism and God-Talk (London: SCM Press, 2nd edn, 1992), p. 116. 9. See Lisa Isherwood and Marcella Althaus-Reid, TIK Power of Erotic Celibacy: Queering Heterosexuality (New York: Continuum, 2006); Lisa Isherwood, 'Marriage, Haven or Hell: Twin Souls and Broken Bones', in Feminist Theology 11.2 (January 2003), pp. 203-15; Liberating Christ (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 1999) as examples of Isherwood's ongoing contribution to feminist liberation theology. 10. See www.bisft.org.uk 11. See, for example. Asphodel Long, In a Chariot Drawn by Lions: The Search for the Female in Deity (London: Women's Press, 1992); 'The Goddess Movement in Britain Today', Feminist Theology 5 (January 1994), pp. 11-39.

Daggers The Prodigal Daughter 189 also for her persistent networking with feminist theologians across the globe and for her encouragement to British women, inside and outside the academy.'^ By the 1990s, issues originally raised by the women's movement, which lent stimulus to grassroots feminist theologies, had permeated the mainstream, though lesbian women within the churches found themselves on an activist frontline where the temperature has continued to rise. Feminist theologians, such as Elizabeth Stuart and Marcella Althaus-Reid have also made substantial contributions to the emergence of 'queer' theology, which responds theologically to issues made manifest on that particular frontline." Feminist queer theologies also challenge latent 'compulsory heterosexuality' in the feminist theological struggle for justice.'"* A second, though related, way of tracing the direction of development in feminist theology is to consider its engagement with an increasingly sophisticated body of feminist theory. Where Daly, in her early writings, had only Simone de Beauvoir's magisterial The Second Sex^^ to turn to in developing her feminist ideas, current feminist theologians work with a plethora of richly productive resources in recent feminist thought and cultural theory. From the 1990s, feminist theologies have engaged fruitfully with new perspectives in feminist theory and broader philosophical debate. Thus Julia Kristeva lends further depth to feminist critiques of Christianity, while Luce Irigaray extends her invitation towards a divine horizon for female becoming.^* Engagement with Irigaray has been a fruitful occupation for feminist theologians such as Morny Joy, Tina Beattie, Jan Jobling and Rachel
12. See, for example, Mary Grey, Sacred Longings: Ecofeminist Theology and Globalisation

(London: SCM Press, 2003); The Unheard Scream: The Struggles of Dalit Women In India (New Delhi: Centre for Dalit/Subaltern Studies, 2004); TIK Wisdom of Fools? Seeking Revelation for Today (London: SPCK, 1993); Redeeming the Dream: Feminism, Redemption and the Christian Tradition (London: SPCK, 1989). 13. For example, Elizabeth Stuart, Gay and Lesbian Theologies: Repetitions with Critical Distance (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003); idem (ed.), Religion is a Queer Thing: A Guide to the Christian Faith for Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and Transgendered People (London: Cassell, 1997); idem (ed.), just Good Friends: Towards a Lesbian and Gay Theology of Relationships (London: Mowbray, 1995); Marcella Althaus-Reid, The Queer God (London: Routledge, 2003); Indecent Theology (London: Routledge, 2000). 14. The term derives from Adrienne Rich, 'Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence', in Signs 3 (1980), pp. 631-60. 15. Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (New York: Random House, 1989 [1949]). 16. See, for example, Morny Joy, Kathleen O'Grady and Judith L. Poxon (eds.), French Feminists on Religion: A Reader (London: Routledge, 2002); idem (eds.) Religion in French Feminist Thought: Critical Perspectives (London: Routledge, 2003). 17. Joy, O'Grady and Poxon (eds.), French Feminists on Religion; Tina Beattie, God's

190 Feminist TJieology Ellen T. Armour's Deconstruction, Feminist TJieology and the Problem of Difference: Subverting the Race/Gender Divide is one example of a wider

engagement with theory." Similarly, feminist queer theology reflects engagement with a vein of critical 'queer' theory, which is as rich and rewarding as the enticements of the French feminist theory of Kristeva and Irigaray. For example, Althaus-Reid writes in the Latin American liberation theology tradition, but there is a distinctive postmodern turn in her work." These theoretical explorations open up new ground for constructive exploration of women's subjectivities, agencies and identities, by challenging the hegemony of male symbolic structures. To sum up this initial survey, feminist theologies, in all their plurality, share a clear identity as liberation theologies, committed to the struggle for justice. Feminist theologies reflect diversity of contexts in 'South' and 'North', diversity in religious standpoint and practice feminist theology does not belong to Christianity and diversity in sexual orientation and practice. In recent years, some feminist theologies have engaged with a variety of feminist and postmodern theorists, so extending the terrain of feminist theology.
3.1. Christian Theological Currents

In this section of the article, I turn from the diversity of feminist liberation theology to the expanding diversity of the wider theological enterprise, aiming to take issue with the notion of feminist liberation theology as a successor theology that is the view that feminist liberation theology is the only viable theological path, superceding all prior theologies. I argue that feminist theology constructively strays beyond liberation theology. This section is a necessary preface to my main constructive aim in this article, which I address in the following section.
Mother, Eue's Advocate: A Gynocentric Refiguration of Marian Symbolism in Engagement with Luce Irigaray (Centre for Comparative Studies in Religion and Gender Monograph Series, 3; Bristol: CCSRG, 1999); J'annine Jobling, Feminist Biblical Interpretation in Theological Context: Restless Readings (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002); Rachel Muers, 'The Mute Cannot Keep Silent: Barth, von Balthasar, and Irigaray, on the Construction of Women's Silence', in Susan Frank Parsons (ed.). Challenging Women's Orthodoxies in the Context of Faith (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000). 18. Ellen T. Armour, Deconstruction, Feminist Theology and the Problem of Difference:

Subverting the Race/Gender Divide (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999). Other examples include: Rebecca Chopp and Sheila Davaney (eds.). Horizons in Feminist Tlieology: Identity, Tradition and Norms (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997); Mary McClintock Fulkerson, Changing the Subject: Women's Discourses and Feminist Theology (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1994), in which Fulkerson employs linguistic theory in the interpretation of ethnographic research data. 19. Althaus-Reid, The Queer God: Indecent Theology.

Daggers The Prodigal Daughter 191 For many feminist theologians, the eruption of feminist critique of patriarchal Christianity, from the late 1960s, lent a liberating impetus away from the 'traditional' theological enterprise, and its outworkings within church and wider society, towards feminist liberation theology. From this perspective, feminist liberation theology is seen as a successor theology: feminist liberation theology is the only theology capable of responding to the radical feminist critique of Christianity, the only site for doing theology after the watershed marked by Daly's onslaught. In contrast to this view, while having no wish to undervalue mainstream feminist theology, to divert that mainstream away from its commitment to the liberative struggle for justice, or to devalue the breadth of feminist theology in its excess to the bounds of Christian theology, my purpose in this article is to argue that continuing feminist work in other areas of Christian theology would usefully be acknowledged as a vital aspect of feminist theology, a vital aspect which is already represented in a substantial body of work. But this is to anticipate the work of the next section of the article. My present task is to clarify, again in broad brush survey form, the diversity of currents in contemporary theological thinking and the place of feminist theology amidst these currents. For the purposes of this discussion, I will refer to the recently published third edition of The Modern Theologians, edited by David Ford with Rachel Muers, as a handy aid in drawing a dynamic sketch map of contemporary Christian theology.^" By dynamic, I mean that I am attempting to make some sense of a fast-moving situation, rather than to map stable contours. Crosscutting coordinates enable the direction of flux to be discerned, while pinpointing significant features amidst this flux. A number of coordinates could be used in creating such a map: I select five. First, there are parallel traditions of Catholic and Protestant theology, reflected in Ford and Muers' selection of 'classic' twentieth century Catholic theologians de Lubac, Rahner and Balthasarand Protestant theologians-Barth, Bonhoeffer and Tillich.^' But, by the early twentyfirst century, there are strong ecumenical currents working within and between these two strands, with Post-Vatican II Catholic theology on the one hand, and post-liberal, mainly Protestant theology, on the other contributing to this direction.^ This is not to suggest that Catholic and
20. David Ford (ed.) with Rachel Muers, The Modern Theologians: An Introduction to Christian Theology Since 1918, (Oxford: Blackwell, 3rd edn, 2005). 21. Ford and Muers, 'Preface', The Modern Theologians, p. ix. 22. See, for example, Mary Tanner, 'Ecumenical Theology', in Ford and Muers, Tlie

Modern Theologians, pp. 556-71; Paul D. Murray, 'Roman Catholic Theology after Vatican

192 Feminist Theology

Protestant traditions are dissolving differences into unity, but that there is increasing communication between these parallel traditions, which is respectful of difference. A second set of coordinates highlights the tension between liberal theology, with its nineteenth century Protestant antecedents, and the neo-orthodoxy of Karl Barth, with this tension being carried forward in the continuation of liberal theologies, into sometimes overlapping post-liberal, radical orthodox and post-modern perspectives, and in systematic theology in engagement with Barth.-^ Third, modernity and post-modernity act as coordinates for theology. The theological response to questions first posed by Enlightenment reason and the rise of science has continued throughout the twentieth century by theologians employing a variety of strategies. This theological impetus is both continued and contradicted in engagement with the different issues arising from modernity in the shape of post-modern perspectives.^"* Fourth, Christian theology can be mapped by noting a discernible shift from the dominance of German-language theology in the early decades of the twentieth century, to wider European and North American involvement, then on to the global engagements of twenty-first century theologies, with growing vitality and creativity in Christian theologies arising in the global 'South'.^^ Finally, and overlapping with the third and fourth set of coordinates, there is the shift in orientation from universalizing towards particularizing theologies. In part this arises from opportunities arising within post-modern fragmentation, in which new attention is claimed by groups on the margins of long-established power structures. Theologically, the particularizing move first appeared in liberation theology arising within the 1960s Latin American Catholic context. From the perspective of this fifth set of coordinates, feminist theology arrives at a recognizable location on the wider theological map, as one of a growing number of theologies adapting liberation theology to its own context, and to its own particular struggle for justice. But, given the crosscutting nature of the coordinates I have used, it is unsurprising that we find feminist theology straying beyond any
ir, in Ford and Muers, 77je Modern Theologians, pp. 265-86; James Fodor, 'Postliberal Theology', in Ford and Muers, The Modern Theologians, pp. 229-48. 23. See Fodor, 'Postliberal Theology' and John Webster's analysis of the work of Jungel, Jenson and Gunton, in 'Systematic Theology after Barth', in Ford and Muers, The Modern Ttieologians, pp. 249-64; James J. Buckley, 'Revisionists and Liberals', in Ford and Muers, The Modern Tljeologians, pp. 213-28. 24. See Part II of Ford and Muers, The Modern Theologians. 25. See Parts V and VI of Ford and Muers, The Modern Theologians.

Daggers Tlte Prodigal Daughter 193 neat and stable category of liberation theology. With regard to the first coordinate, the parallel traditions of Catholic and Protestant theologies, it is clear that the Catholic contributions of Daly, Ruether and Fiorenza

were of critical importance in the inception of feminist theology. But it is equally clear that Protestant theologians, such as Letty Russell and Carter Heyward, were soon on the scene, whereas the broader grassroots movement embraced women from both denominational traditions within its broader extra-Christian spectrum.^^ From its origins, feminist theology was 'a broad church': ecumenical, interfaith, and fully engaged with post-Christian religion and secular feminism. On the other hand, a specifically Catholic tradition is continued in the work of feminist theologians such as Elizabeth Johnson and Tina Beattie, who write for both a Catholic and a wider feminist readership, and feminist theologies are similarly developed within Protestant traditions. Moving to the liberal/neo-orthodox/post-liberal coordinates, theologians who have contributed to writings on feminist theology are to be found among post-liberal theologians. Thus James Fodor names Serene Jones and Kathryn Tannerboth of whom contributed to Horizons in Feminist Theology.'" Again, feminist theology has strayed beyond its location as liberation theology. Further, John Milbank also claimed as a post-liberal by Fodor in his chapter on the 'classic' theologian, Henri de Lubac, is found to criticize his subject for a fatal flaw in his work, namely his 'failure to tackle the question of patriarchy and the rule of a male hierarchy'.^^ It is precisely this flaw, with its massive implications for wider Catholic sexual theology which is so powerfully challenged by Tina Beattie, among other Catholic feminist theologians.^^ My point here is that it is appropriate that feminist theologians at least eavesdrop upon, or better still engage with, critiques of patriarchy within Christian theology emerging outside liberation theology. Considering the third set of modern/post-modern coordinates, we have already noted how feminist theology has increasingly engaged with post-modern texts, including those of feminist theory. Thus it
26. Letty Russell, Feminist Interpretaiton of the Bible (Oxford: Blackwell, 1985); Carter Heyward, The Redemption of God: A Tlieology of Mutual Relation (Washington: University Press of America, 1982); Sheila Collins, A Different Heaven and Earth: A Feminist Perspective on Religion (Valley Forge: Judson, 1974); see also my Tlie British Christian Women's Movement: A Rehabilitation of Eve (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002) concerning the broad denominational spectrum of the British Christian women's movement. 27. Fodor, 'Postliberal Theology', p. 229; Chopp and Davaney, Horizons. 28. John Milbank, 'Henri de Lubac', in Ford and Muers, The Modern Theologians, pp. 76-91 (88). 29. Tina Beattie, New Catholic Feminism: Theology and Theory (London: Routledge, 2005).

194 Feminist Theology

runs in parallel with developments in wider theology. The fourth set of German/global coordinates involve feminist theology, both in the broadening of theological debate to include the white Western women who are one part of the move beyond German-language theology to North America and Europe, and, more significantly, feminist theologies from the 'South' contribute to the global engagement in Christian theology. Finally, the rise of self-consciously particular theologies, including feminist theology, has led to the dynamic shift from a imiversalizing

theology, with a self-conception as applicable in all locations because particular to none, to the mainstream recognition that 'All theology is partial and particular, arising in and speaking to historical, social and political contexts in which theologians are interested parties' where attention has been drawn 'to the limitations of the mainstream itself'.^" In sum, feminist theology has contributed, among other forces, to the redrawing of the map of Christian theology. My contention is that de facto it already exceeds the bounds of liberation theology, and that to make this excess explicit and to name it as an already existing aspect of feminist theology, is a productive way of reimagining feminist theology past, present and future. Further, I suggest that it is undesirable that feminist theology attempt to protect an exclusive identity as a liberation theology, and in consequence to evacuate other aspects of the diversity in Christian theology. But this general argument does not in itself explain why I should be interested in a particular turn to 'orthodoxy'. The next section will attempt to offer an explanation.
4.1. Revisiting Orthodoxy 4.1.1. The Neo-Orthodox Challenge

The beginnings of the reflections leading to this article lie in my unease over Linda Woodhead's critique of feminist theology, in her 'Spiritualising the Sacred', published a decade ago in Modern Theology.^^ Woodhead charges feminist theology with attempting to 'spiritualise the sacred'by which she means reconfiguring Christianity to cater for those attracted by the individualiast spiritualities offered by the New Ageand thus failing to engage sufficiently with Christian theology.^^ For Woodhead, feminist theology follows the well-trodden Enlightenment road of judging Christianity by inappropriate, secular criteria, and then reinterpreting the old
30. Ford and Muers, Editorial introduction to Part V, in Ford and Muers, The Modern Tlieologians, p. 429. 31. Linda Woodhead, 'Spiritualising the Sacred: a Critique of Feminist Theology', in Modern Tlteology 13.2 (1997), pp. 191-212. 32. I read 'Spiritualising the Sacred' in the light of Woodhead's earlier article, 'PostChristian Spiritualities', in Religion 23 (1993), pp. 167-81.

Daggers The Prodigal Daughter 195 faith to allow for individual spiritual gratification. She chooses Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza's ]esus and Elizabeth Johnson's She Who Is as exemplary feminist theological texts, where, she finds, the (spiritualizing) Sophia is employed to displace the central tenets of the (sacred) creed. Woodhead dismisses the feminist theological concern for justice, which she reductively cites as evidence of feminist theology's inappropriate use of secular grounds, in its critique of Christianity. Woodhead makes a neo-orthodox move, which can be seen as part of a wider attempt to roll back liberal theology's (Schleiermacherian) project of defending religion to the 'cultured despisers' informed by Enlightenment rationalism.''^ At the core of neo-orthodox critique lies the conviction that the secular humanism, which arose through the Enlightenment, has been allowed to set the agenda for Christianity, in consequence forging paths which veer away from those of Christian orthodoxy. It is interesting to reflect that the globalizing engagement of theology, and the emergence of Christian theology, including feminist

theology, in the 'South', is set to reduce the significance of 'Northern' preoccupation with issues arising from secular humanism. But, in her neo-orthodox move, Woodhead conflates the liberal theology she criticizes with liberation theology, and then makes feminist theology bear the brunt of her wider theological critique. It seems that feminist theology has been caught in the crossfire between neo-orthodox and liberal theological tendencies. The predominant feminist theological response to Woodhead's critique has been to ignore it, perhaps judging it to be a disappointing defection to patriarchal theology: no response appeared in the post-liberal forum of Modern Theology. But her conflation of liberal and liberation theologies does raise a wider question, namely: if theology is now widely conceded to be particular and contextual albeit this move is resisted by neo-orthodoxy what gives Christianity a distinctive identity amid its diversity? Does particularity necessarily involve a centrifugal action, dynamically increasing the distance between proliferating particular theologies? Or is global engagement between diverse Christian theologies an equal possibility? The work of this article is to suggest that where Christian feminist theologies or other particular theologies revisit
33. There are similarities with the radical orthodox position, which was in formation at the time. The account given by Lawrence Hemming in his 'Introduction', in Laurence Hemming, (ed.). Radical Orthodoxy: A Catholic Enquiry (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000), pp. 3-19 (3-5) shows the synchronicity of significant events in the emergence of radical orthodoxy with the publication of Woodhead's article; also see John Milbank, Catherine Pickstock and Graham Ward (eds.). Radical Orthodoxy: A Neiv Tlieology (London: Routledge, 1999).

196 Feminist Theology orthodoxy, a centripetal move within Christianity occurs: a move made on terms that are compatible with the wider project of feminist theology. A distinctive Christian identity is enriched through such dynamic engagement across the broadening spectrum of Christian theology. 4.1.2. A Journey to the Heart of the Christian Tradition To speak of orthodoxy in feminist theological circles is to risk being seriously misunderstood. So I want to make two things clear from the outset. I am not seeking to impose Christian feminist theology as a new orthodoxy to which feminist theologies 'should' conform. I have already affirmed the diversity of feminist theology: feminist theologies do not belong exclusively to Christianity. Nor in speaking of Christian orthodoxy am I interested in the policing of the Christian boundary, which I see as necessarily open equally to the inquisitive outsider, and to the insider who needs outside air. Rather, in speaking of 'revisiting orthodoxy', I envisage what Heather Walton and Elizabeth Stuart call 'a journey back into the heart of [the Christian] tradition'.^ To speak of this heart is to speak of a centre which is accessible by all particular theologies, and to remind ourselves of the dynamic relation between margin and centre.'^ To speak of the heart creates resonance with a strand in feminist theology, where our passions are engaged in the struggle for justice, and erotic power heals the broken-heartedness of patriarchy.^^ To speak of the heart of the Christian tradition invites our creative and imaginative engagement with whatever we may encounter on our journey to that place. To make this journey is to envisage the work of particular

Christian theologies as repeated reimaginations of the core themes of Christian orthodoxy, always informed by the pressing concerns arising from our respective particularities. 4.1.3. Feminist Theology and the Journey to the Heart of the Christian Tradition The question then arises as to where Christian feminist theologians stand in relation to these core themes of Christian orthodoxy. My response is
34. Heather Walton and Elizabeth Stuart, 'Editorial', Theology & Sexuality 10.1 (September 2003), p. 8. 35. Thus the move 'from margin to centre' (bel hooks Feminist Tlieory: From Margin to Centre [Boston: South End, 1984]) refuses to cede the centre, but does not imply a permanent forsaking of the margins. 36. Virginia Fabella and Mercy Amba Oduyoye, With Passion and Compassion: Tliird World Women Doing Theology (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988); Carter Heyward, Our Passion for justice (New York: Pilgrim Press, 1984); Rita Nakishma Brock, Journeys By Heart: A Christology of Erotic Power (New York: Crossroad, 1988).

Daggers The Prodigal Daughter 197 to highlight two different engagements with orthodox themes, which, I argue, deserve recognition as aspects of feminist theology, and rescue from its ambiguous penumbra. I have argued elsewhere that the dominant theme within the British Christian women's movement of the 1970s and 1980s contrasts with North American feminist theology coming forth in that same historical moment: a British insistence that women are included in the redem^ption of Christ contrasts with North American christofllogical revisioning in terms of women's redemptive community.^'' A British feminist stress on a rehabilitated New Eve in Christ, emanating largely from the women's ordination debate in the Church of England, makes its claim in terms of the classical orthodox Christian understanding of salvation, simultaneously posing a radical challenge to the sexism which had led to longstanding 'dispossession' of the daughters of Eve, of their true Christian inheritance.'** In contrast, christoalogical revisioning was at play in North American feminist theology during the 1970s and 1980s, becoming explicit by the late 1990s. In her doctoral thesis of 1988, Julie Hopkins perceptively identified this latent move as a paradigm shift within Western feminist theology.'^ By 1998, when Ruether writes in Women and Redemption of a paradigm shift achieved by feminist theology, there is clear evidence of feminist theological 'christonlogical revisioning', in which salvation is equated with women's corporate redemptive activity, effected through the struggle for justice."*" Two different strategies are in play here. North American christo logical revisioning is deservedly recognized as key to the feminist theology emergent from the 'North'. In contrast, the British Christian women's position attracts less attention, and is ambiguously related to the broader field of feminist theology. My contention is that this is an example of orthodoxy revisited and thus of the feminist potential of orthodoxy. It is the first of two forms of orthodox theological engagement deserving wider feminist theological recognition.

The second form of engagement lies in an academic British tradition, which, likewise, has a somewhat ambiguous relation to feminist theol37. Jenny Daggers, 'Feminist Theology as Christo/alogical Revisioning', in Feminist Theology 17 (May 2001), pp. 116-28; The British Christinn Women's Movement, pp. 125-48. 38. Susan Dowell and Linda Hurcombe, Dispossessed Daughters of Eve: Faith and Feminism (London: SPCK, 2nd edn, 1987). 39. Daggers, 'Christo/alogical Revisioning', p. 118; Julie Hopkins, 'The Understanding of History in English-Speaking Western Christian Feminist Theology' (Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Bristol, 1988). 40. Rosemary Ruether, Wotnen and Redemption: A Theological History (London: SCM Press, 1998), p. 273; Daggers, Women's Movement, pp. 129-35.

198 Feminist Theology

ogy. I refer to the contributions of Sarah Coakley, Susan Parsons and Janet Martin Soskice, all of whom have long walked with both feminism and orthodox Christian theology.*^ If these two forms of engagement were to be unambiguously recognized as feminist theology, what would be the effect on Woodhead's critique? Clearly, in making her case, Woodhead ignores the British tradition represented by Parsons, Coakley and Soskice. As successor to Coakley in her post at the University of Lancaster, Woodhead could hardly be unaware of Coakley's contribution. I suggest that the paradigm shift discussed above has acted as a de facto boundary defining Christian feminist theology. Those who resist the shift, by remaining in closer engagement with orthodox Christian theology, are seen, by feminist theologians and their critics alike, as placing themselves beyond the pale of feminist theology. Were this not so, Woodhead might have found in this British tradition a form of feminist theology, which engages with Christian tradition in the way that she recommends. But, surely, my christoalogical revisioning thesis, with its claim of a paradigm shift away from orthodoxy, must lend weight to Woodhead's critique? After all, like Woodhead, I chose Fiorenza's Jesus and Johnson's
She Who Js along with Ruether's Women and Redemption'^^ as

exemplary texts to support my thesis. Two counter arguments are relevant. First, Woodhead ignores the biblical tradition of the struggle for justice, begun in the prophets of the Hebrew Bible, and continued in the incarnate Jesus, when she locates it uponinappropriate Enlightenment grounds alone. On the contrary, the struggle for justice may be relocated as a theme at the heart of the Christian tradition, rather than conceding this solely to Enlightenment origins. Second, the contrast I have drawn between British and North American feminist theologians is not cast in stone. There is fluidity and room for imaginative re-engagement with the forsaken paradigm, and thus room for those who are firmly within the feminist theology camp also to revisit orthodoxy. Taking this approach, Fiorenza's and Johnson's texts
41. See, for example, Susan Parsons (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), idem (ed.) Challenging Women's Orthodoxies in the Context of Faith (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000); Sarah Coakley, Powers and Submissions: Spirituality, Philosophy and Gender (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002); Janet Martin Soskice and Diana Lipton (eds.). Feminism and Tlieology (Oxford: Oxford University

Press, 2003); Janet Martin Soskice, 'Trinity and the Feminine "Other" ', in Nav Blackfriars 75 (1994), pp. 2-17; Janet Martin Soskice (ed.) After Eve: Women, Theology and the Christian Tradition (London: Marshall Pickering-Collins, 1990). 42. Rosemary Ruether, Women and Redemption: A TIreological History (London: SCM Press, 1998). Unpublished at the time of Woodhead's article.

Daggers The Prodigal Daughter 199 may be read as creative reimaginings of central theological themes, so taking issue with the reason for Woodhead's disappointment with feminist theology: that it 'has failed to be sufficiently theological'.''^ In sum, my argument is that we already have an orthodox tradition within feminist theology, but this has been sidelined. Recognition of this would undermine neo-orthodox critique, here represented by Woodhead. Rehabilitation of this tradition as a respected aspect of the diversity among feminist theologies, would blur the implicit boundary which has placed this body of work outside. Yet rehabilitation is not enough. Blurring the boundary makes possible a moving across categories,"*^ allowing the diverse resources of feminist theology to be brought to bear in the (re)imaginative revisiting of orthodoxy. Though it is beyond the scope of this article to develop this point, it is important to clarify that this is a two-way traffic, or as Rachel Muers puts it, a 'double commitment', in which feminist theology criticizes and transforms theology, but also theological reflection is brought to bear on feminism and feminist theory.''^ 4.1.4. Nomadic Revisiting As one example of how the diverse resources of feminist theology might fruitfully be brought to bear, I suggest that orthodoxy be revisited in the spirit of Rosi Braidotti's nomadism. Walking in a feminist tradition which has long reconfigured home as journey, rather than as safe haven,'"' this revisiting brings to orthodoxy 'the kind of critical consciousness that resists settling into socially coded modes of thought and behaviour', attuned to 'the subversion of set conventions'.''^ This nomadic journey into the heart of Christian tradition assumes with Deleuze the dissolution of the notion of a centre, and consequently of originary sites or authentic identities, and a shift away from hegemony."*^ A nomadic consciousness thus anticipates the global engagement of diverse Christian theologies, wherein the traditional cartography of
43. Woodhead 'Spiritualising the Sacred', p. 191. Further examples of orthodoxy revisited are found in Jannine Jobling's productive theological reading of Fiorenza, and Hannah Bacon's deployment of Johnson in Bacon's doctoral thesis, where she explores the feminist potential of Trinitarian logic. See Jobling, Restless Readings, and Hannah Bacon, 'This God Which Is Not One: Thinking the Trinity in Light of Feminist Methodology' (Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Liverpool, 2003). 44. Rosi Braidotti, Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), p. 4. 45. Rachel Muers, 'Feminism, Gender and Theology', in Ford and Muers (eds.). The Modern Theologians, pp. 431-50 (431 and 448). 46. Nell Morton, Tlie Journey is Home (Boston: Beacon Press, 1985). 47. Braidotti, Nomadic Subjects, p. 5. 48. See Braidotti, Nomadic Subjects, p. 5, for this reading of Deleuze.

200 Feminist Theology

a single orthodox centre is disrupted by a mode of travelling, which celebrates 'the permanence of temporary arrangements and the comfort of contingent foundations':*' reimaginations at the heart of Christianity are multifaceted and resist any permanent closure. A visitation of orthodoxy in this nomadic spirit engenders a potential

'site of transformation of sedentary logocentric thinking to creative nomadic thought'.^" Braidotti speaks of 'the new [which] is created by revisiting and burning up the old', as mimetic repetition and consumption of the old makes visible points of exit from phallogocentric premises.^^ My contention is that this exit point might simultaneously be an entry point to orthodoxy. Where Braidotti cites Kaplan's imperative that we must leave home, that frequent site of racism, sexism and other damaged social practices,^^ I suggest a subsequent imperative to return, to consume these damaging practices, so opening new routes towards the heart of Christian tradition. The path allows the construction of new feminist Christian subjectivities, beckoning those for whom Christianity engages both unconscious desire and will-full choice. And Christian orthodoxy may be reimagined in and through this different mode of visitation. To step this way is not to reinforce boundaries with the wider enterprise of other feminist theologies. Thus, for example, I wish to respond positively to Ruth Mantin's post-realist thealogical invitation to further conversations between feminist theologies and feminist thealogies, in our shared renegotiation of the social imaginary.^^ For to work with reimagined themes at the heart of Christianity is to participate in this shared project. Mantin, too, looks to Braidotti's nomadic subjectivity to exceed limiting notions of a fixed, unified 'self', in the process of plural and fluid subjectivities in relation.^ Reimaginings of Christian themes can both draw upon figurations generated by the Goddess-talk in which Mantin participates, and provide new opportunities for conversations across the blurred boundary between feminist thealogies and theologies. Whereas, for Mantin, 'to speak from within Christianity is a strategy of collusion and complicity',^^ those drawn to revisit orthodoxy reimagine the established doctrines, symbols and liturgical practices of Christianity in new ways. We have much to say to, and learn from, one another.
49. Braidotti, Nomadic Subjects, p. 11. 50. Braidotti, Nomadic Subjects, p. 30 claims feminist theory is such a site. 51. Braidotti, Nomadic Subjects, p. 169. 52. Braidotti, Nomadic Subjects, p. 172. 53. Ruth Mantin, 'Blurring Boundaries and Moving Posts: Where Does a Feminist Stand for Justice?' in Feminist Ttteology 11.3 (May 2003), pp. 293-306 (297). 54. Mantin, 'Blurring Boundaries', pp. 297-99. 55. Mantin, 'Blurring Boundaries', p. 296.

Daggers The Prodigal Daughter 201 5.1. The Prodigal Daughter

I draw to a close with musings on a reimagined parable of the prodigal daughter. As befits feminist theology, this prodigal daughter may be read at collective and individual levels. As befits our times, she has a multiple, complex and fluid identity. Simultaneously dispossessed of her Christian inheritance and possessed of it, she makes her way as an exile out into the world, where, in most places that she visits, the treasure she carries is held in low regard. Yet, also, she finds travelling companions who take pleasure, together, in their shared inheritance, while sharing also the pain of their enforced exile. Some companions have

made a similar journey, others are on different paths. Among these travelling companions, the jewels of her inheritance come to sparkle more brightly, even taking by surprise some onlookers and fellow travellers who had previously considered them dull and lifeless. The inheritance can only be creatively imagined in our time, we have to know this moment which is ours, in all its joy, pain, suffering, injustice and love. In the other story, pigs and acorns loom large.^^ Though in this divided world, despite the traumas and suffering, we privileged daughters are spared the first-hand suffering of tending pigs and eating acorns. Nevertheless, from time to time, the journey takes her home. The prodigal daughter carries gifts, gathered during her travelling. Here this story diverges from the other one, where the prodigal son returns home in a state of utter abjection, the gifts being bestowed by the father alone. However, this part of our story is already told in another tale. Twenty years ago, Sara Maitland spoke in her Map of the New Country of women finding a route back to the institutional church, returning with gifts in our hands, empowered by the shared experience of the desert.^'' The prodigal daughter in my story also carries Sara's gifts, the strengths drawn from shared sisterhood in exile, but true to her multiple and complex identity, she bears also her old, now gleaming, inheritance. She joins her sisters who have never left, but who have followed the prodigal daughter's exotic journeyings with her travelling companions: some of her sisters and brothers are pleased to see her home. What of the rest? And who is the God who welcomes her?
56. Luke 15.11-32. 57. Sara Maitland, Map of the Neiv Country: Women and Christianity (London: Routledge, 1983), p. 111.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Title:Religion and the State.Authors:Etzioni, Amitai1Source:Harvard International Review; Spring2006, Vol. 28 Issue 1, p14-17, 4pDocument Type:ArticleSubject Terms:*ETHICS *RELIGIOUS education *SEX discrimination against women *MADRASAHS ISLAMIC countriesAbstract:Discusses issues concerning religious education in several countries. Adversities being of madrasas education being taught in several Muslim countries to students such as discrimination against women; Major argument against replacing madrasa education with value-free education; Requirements in forming a civic ethics education.Author Affiliations:1University Professor and Professor of International Relations, The George Washington UniversityISSN:0739-1854Accession Number:20781439Database: Academic Search Premier

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Title:The decade: A man's view.Authors:Finca, Bongani BlessinSource:Ecumenical Review; Apr94, Vol. 46 Issue 2, p191-193, 3pDocument Type:ArticleSubject Terms:*ECUMENICAL movement *WOMEN & religion Social aspectsAbstract:Discusses issues concerning the status of women in the church in the context of the focus on women of the Ecumenical Decade. Experience of the author in Christian education; Discrimination of women in the church; Discrimination of women within the African tradition.ISSN:0013-0796Accession Number:9503274217Database: Academic Search Premier

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Title:Almost there.Authors:Lichtman, Judith1 Fechner, HollySource:Human Rights: Journal of the Section of Individual Rights & Responsibilities; Summer92, Vol. 19 Issue 3, p16-19, 4p, 1bwDocument Type:ArticleSubject Terms:*CIVIL rights *SEX discrimination *SEX discrimination in employment *WOMEN -- Legal status, laws, etc. *WOMEN'S rightsAbstract:This article stresses the importance of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 to achieving equality for working women. The Act overturned a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that collectively made it extremely difficult for employment discrimination on the basis of sex, disability or religion to collect compensatory and punitive damages. Further, the Act protects women from an affirmative action backlash by limiting the circumstances under which a third party may challenge a consent decree that remedies sex discrimination. And African American women can once again bring claims challenging race or ethnic origin discrimination in the terms and conditions of their contracts. Finally, the law ensures that women employed abroad, who are not protected against sex discriminations by foreign laws, may sue U.S.-based employers for employment discrimination. The Civil Rights Act of 1991 would have been a more significant step if the U.S. president and Congress had not compromised away full damages for women. Enacting the Equal Remedies Act would remedy this inequity. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Justice must fulfill their roles as effective enforcement agencies for working women. INSETS: A civil rights bill to satisfy no one;Sources of further information.Author Affiliations:1President, Women's Legal Defense Fund, Washington, D.C.Full Text Word Count:3462ISSN:00468185Accession Number:9312281395Database: Academic Search Premier

ALMOST THERE Contents Removing caps on damages For women, the Civil Rights Act of 1991 is a move in the Serious enforcement right direction Women of color Conclusion Despite its flaws, the Civil Rights Act of 1991 is an important step on the long road to achieving equality for working women. The Act overturned a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that collectively made it extremely difficult for employment discrimination plaintiffs to prove their cases. In an extraordinary step forward in strengthening civil rights for employed women, the Act for the first time allows individuals who prove intentional employment discrimination on the basis of sex, disability, or religion to collect compensatory and punitive damages. The damages piece is perhaps the most significant, but every Act provision restoring previous employment law improves the legal climate for women. For example, in disparate impact cases, employers again bear the burden of demonstrating that requirements such as height and weight standards--which have often excluded women from jobs as firefighters and police officers--are job-related and consistent with business necessity. Women also benefit from the Act's language confirming that mixed motive cases involving both sex discrimination and a legitimate motive do violate the law. For women employees who have made recent headway into traditionally male occupations, the new law's stipulation that they may wait to challenge a seniority system until they actually feel the system's adverse impact could be critically important. Further, the Act protects women from an affirmative action backlash by limiting the circumstances under which a third party may challenge a consent decree that remedies sex discrimination. And African American women can once again bring claims challenging race or ethnic origin discrimination in the terms and conditions of their contracts. Finally, the law ensures that American women employed abroad, who are not protected against sex discrimination by foreign laws, may sue U.S.based employers for employment discrimination. Having this new law does not mean the end of the struggle for working women's advocates, who now face three major challenges. Two challenges are related directly to the new law: passing the Equal Remedies Act (ERAct) to remove the arbitrary caps the Civil Rights Act places on damages that can be awarded for sex discrimination; and monitoring enforcement to prevent the Bush Administration from gutting the Act through hostile implementation. The third important challenge is convincing the courts and enforcement agencies to recognize formally and address better multiple discrimination against women of color. Women can be bolstered in their fight by the knowledge that their voices were key to securing passage of the new law. Despite President Bush's claims to have won major

compromises, the Act he signed in 1991 was very similar to the bill he vetoed in 1990 a turnabout many observers attribute to fallout from the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings. Removing caps on damages For five years, working mother Carol Zabkowicz was a target of such egregious sexual harassment at the Wisconsin warehouse where she worked that she suffered serious physical and emotional problems, including anxiety and vomiting. Co-workers constantly addressed Zabkowicz as "slut," "bitch," and "fucking cunt," exposed their buttocks to her, and repeatedly posted caricatures of her performing sexual acts--sometimes with animalson the walls at work. Zabkowicz v. West Bend Co., 589 F. Supp. 780, 782-83 (E.D. Wis. 1984). Pregnant with her second child, losing weight and in declining health, Zabkowicz heeded her doctor's advice and took a medical leave. A federal judge later ruled that she had been subjected to "sustained, malicious, and brutal harassment," but awarded her just over $2,700 in back pay--the only monetary federal remedy available to compensate victims of gender-based employment discrimination before the Civil Rights Act of 1991 was enacted. Zabkowicz received nothing for her medical bills or emotional stress. Her case illustrates both what's right and what's wrong with the new Act. Now, women who sue for intentional employment discrimination under Title VII can collect damages under the newly-created section 1977A (codified at 42 U.S.C. 1981A). But the new law subjects working women to a new injustice. At the insistence of the president and members of Congress from both parties, there are strict caps on the amount of damages sex discrimination plaintiffs can be awarded--no matter how malevolent the discrimination or how high the victim's losses in pain and suffering. Sadly, Zabkowicz's story is not isolated. Many victims of intentional, egregious employment discrimination incur major medical bills and suffer substantial emotional pain and lost pay. For example, Helen Brooms of Chicago spent six weeks in traction and suffered permanent physical damage after she fell down the stairs in a desperate flight from her boss. His extreme sexual and racial harassment included propositioning Brooms, describing his organ size and what black women were forced historically to do sexually for white men, showing her pornographic pictures, and, she says, threatening to kill her if she did not submit. Brooms v. Regal Tube Co., 881 F.2d 412, 417 (7th Cir. 1989). Despite the horrendous discrimination sometimes inflicted on women in the workplace, the available damages are limited by an arbitrary sliding scale based on employer size. For employers of 15 to 100 employees--the vast majority of all employers in this country the cap is set at $50,000 for combined compensatory and punitive damages. For employers with 101 to 200 employees, the cap is $100,000; for 201 to 500 employees, $200,000; and for more than 500 employees, $300,000. 42 U.S.C. $ 1981 A(b)(3). Employers with fewer

than 15 employees are not covered by Title VII. 42 U.S.C. 2000e(b). For women who have incurred substantial losses, such as pain and suffering resulting from harmful discrimination, the caps could prevent them from recovering the full measure of their damages under federal law. The most any company could ever be liable for is $300,000. This figure includes punitive damages intended to punish particularly egregious discrimination. Enacted to deter future intentionally harmful behavior, punitive damages are available only when the plaintiff shows that the employer engaged in discriminatory practices with malice or reckless indifference to federally-protected rights. Full relief in the form of compensatory and punitive damages have long been available to victims of race and national origin discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 42 U.S.C. section 1981. In Johnson v. Railway Express Agency, Inc., 421 U.S. 454, 459-60 (1975), the Supreme Court held that Section 1981 affords a full federal damage remedy against race discrimination in private employment. Capping damages under Title VII, the major law against sex discrimination in private employment, sends a message that sex discrimination is not worthy of full justice. To correct this arbitrary distinction, senators and representatives from both parties introduced the Equal Remedies Act of 1991 almost immediately after the president signed the Civil Rights Act of 1991. The aim of the ERAct--S. 2062 and H.R. 3975 -- is simply to remove the caps on damages. "These caps are arbitrary, discriminatory, and, therefore, constitute an affront to the values that all Americans hold dear," says ERAct co-sponsor Sen. David Durenberger (R-Minn.). Another leading co-sponsor, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), called the caps "obnoxious and extremely offensive." There is no evidence that damage awards for sex discrimination would be excessive. Rather, a recent study found that damages awarded under Section 1981 for intentional race and national origin discrimination using the same standard of proof and definition of "intentional" as are used under the Civil Rights Act--have been both limited in number and modest in amount. From 1980 to 1990, plaintiffs were awarded damages in only 69 reported cases brought under Section 1981 throughout the entire country. The damage awards exceeded $200,000 in only three cases--one of which was reversed on appeal Although many awards may not be affected by the caps, a limitation denies a fair remedy to those plaintiffs who suffer the most severe harm. A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision further highlights the inequities created by the Act's damages caps. In Franklin v. Gwinnett Co. Public Schools, 112 S. Ct. 1028 (1992), a unanimous Court ruled that a plaintiff who proves intentional sex discrimination in violation of Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 can recover full and fair

damages. In practice, the Supreme Court's ruling means that a teacher who is sexually harassed at school can be fully compensated, but a machinist who is sexually harassed at a factory may not be. Serious enforcement Enacting a new civil rights law, which sets forth broad principles to govern conduct, is never enough to accomplish its goals. Executive branch agencies and federal courts must resolve many questions through implementation and interpretation. This is especially true for the Civil Rights Act, because legislative compromises produced significant ambiguity, and because the Bush Administration has demonstrated its active hostility to the law. The Act carried to its full promise will enhance equal employment opportunities for women and people of color. Unfortunately, the prospects for national leadership are dim under the current administration. Clarence Thomas's confirmation to the Supreme Court solidified that Court's conservative majority. And just before President Bush signed the Act, he signaled his administration's hostility by issuing a signing statement--revoked after strong public disapproval--that supported an interpretation that would have effectively reinstated many of the same Supreme Court rulings that the Act was passed to overrule. Of utmost importance to the Act's future is the fact that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission' (EEOC), the agency responsible for enforcing equal employment opportunity laws, is failing to protect the rights of employment discrimination victims. During the eight-year tenure of Chairman Clarence Thomas, monitoring activities by Women's Legal Defense Fund attorneys repeatedly documented a drastic reduction in enforcement activity and policy changes that severely eroded Title VII rights. Since Commissioner Evan Kemp took over as EEOC chair in March 1990, the agency's decline has accelerated alarmingly. An April 1992 review of the commission conducted by Women Employed, the National Women's Law Center, Equal Rights Advocates, and the Women's Legal Defense Fund found serious failures in the following four areas:

Across the board, the EEOC's performance in handling complaints is dismal. Settlements are declining, no-cause findings are increasing, investigations are incomplete, and examples of staff incompetence and hostility to complainants are numerous. Under Commissioner Kemp, only 14 percent of all new EEOC charges filed result in some type of settlement. In contrast, at the height of EEOC enforcement in 1980, 32 percent of all new charges filed resulted in settlement. The EEOC has failed to attack discrimination on a systemic level. In fiscal year 1991, the EEOC filed only 42 class action suits--a mere 8.6 percent of all cases filed. In comparison, two-thirds of all cases filed in 1980 were class actions. And, the number of Equal Pay Act cases has decreased dramatically, from 79 in 1980 to just six in 1991.

The EEOC has failed to fulfill its role, mandated by Executive Order 12067, as the leader in setting equal opportunity enforcement policy. Rather, the policies and procedures established during Kemp's tenure have weakened enforcement and undermined the agency's mandate. The EEOC has moved away from sound and open debate and drastically reduced its accessibility and accountability to the public. Under Kemp, the Commission has held only eight open meetings. In contrast, during former Chair Eleanor Holmes Norton's tenure, open commission meetings were held weekly or bi-weekly.

These failings are deeply troubling. Now, the EEOC has the added responsibility of implementing the Civil Rights Act of 1991. The Department of Justice will also play an important role in the Act's implementation. These agencies will promulgate regulations interpreting the new law; educate their staffs more about the new legal standards, procedural rules, and available remedies; modify or institute case processing procedures and litigation decisions; and urge their interpretations on courts in specific cases. The Act also requires the EEOC to establish a "technical assistance training institute" to help employers comply with equal employment opportunity laws and regulations. At each stop, either the EEOC or the Justice Department-or both could dramatically restrict the power of the Act to secure the rights of employed women. Already the EEOC has been restrictive in its implementation of the Act. The Commission has taken the unnecessarily narrow position that the Act should not be applied to cases arising before its effective date. Even for cases that arose after the effective date, the EEOC does not appear to be negotiating for compensatory and punitive damages on behalf of charging par-ties--unless the charging party so requests. Such hostile implementation defeats the very purpose the law was passed to address. Women of color Just as policymakers must eradicate arbitrary caps on damages and ensure strong, effective enforcement of the equal employment opportunity laws, they must also pay particular attention to women of color as a group. All too often, both the judiciary and the enforcement agencies treat multiple discrimination against women of color as if it were two separate and distinct harms. While this may be true in some cases, women of color often experience sex and race discrimination as intricately intertwined. Women of color also most feel the sting of discrimination when it comes to the bottom line: the paycheck. A recent study by the Institute for Women's Policy Research found that women of color were four times more likely than white men to work in low wage jobs. In comparison, white women were three times more likely, and men of color were one and one-half times more likely, to hold low-paying jobs. In its 1991 report, the United States Department of Labor went so far as to say that the glass ceiling in employment is "nearly impenetrable" for women of color. Clearly, the empirical and qualitative evidence demonstrates that for women of color

discrimination based on race cannot be addressed independently from discrimination based on sex--or vice-versa. Multiple discrimination based on race and sex often puts women of color in an inferior position to white men, white women, and men of color. According to some contemporary legal theorists, legal interpretation and enforcement mechanisms should recognize discrimination against women of color as a unique historical and analytical category. See Crenshaw, Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex, 1989 U. Chi. L.F. 139, Scarborough, Conceptualizing Black Women's Employment Experiences, 98 Yale L.J. 1457 (1989). Courts and enforcement agencies could do much more to acknowledge and remedy the combined effects of multiple discrimination. Only a few courts, with mixed results, broach the subject directly. In DeGraffenreid v. General Motors Assembly Div., 413 F. Supp. 142, 143 (E.D. Mo. 1976), aff'd in part, rev'd in part on other grounds, S58 F. 2d 480 (8th Cir. 1977), the court refused to consider the interaction of race and sex discrimination. It went so far as to hold that considering race and sex discrimination together would create an unintended "super remedy" for African American women. Other courts reject the De-Graffenreid analysis and recognize multiple discrimination claims under Title VII. One court held that discrimination against black women can exist in the absence of discrimination against black men or white women. Jeffries v. Harris Co. Community Action Ass'n, 615 F.2d 1025, 1034 (5th Cir. 1980). Another court found that evidence of racial and sexual harassment can be aggregated to measure pervasiveness. Hicks v. Gates Rubber Co., 833 F.2d 1406, 1416 (10th Cir. 1987). Despite the importance of this issue, the EEOC has not issued interpretive regulations on multiple discrimination supporting the Jeffries ruling and rejecting the DeGraffenreid reasoning. To begin to confront discrimination unique to women of color, the EEOC should recognize that in some circumstances, discrimination occurs on the basis of race (or ethnic origin) and sex--and revise its policies and procedures to reflect this new category of discrimination. Moreover, the EEOC should develop and bring cases based on a theory of multiple discrimination and improve its data collection regarding discrimination against women of color. Conclusion The Civil Rights Act of 1991 would have been a more significant step if the president and Congress had not compromised away full damages for women. Enacting the Equal Remedies Act would remedy this inequity. Similarly, the new law and other protections against employment discrimination would be more meaningful if they were backed by

aggressive executive branch leadership. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Justice must fulfill their roles as effective enforcement agencies for working women. At the top of the agencies' agendas should be remedying discrimination against women of color. Women's groups preferring to move on to other pressing concerns, will need to tackle these immediate challenges vigorously, with the recognition that battling discrimination is not for the short-winded. PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): The Civil Rights Act gives women more chance to be eqal with men. ~~~~~~~~ By Judith Lichtman and Holly Fechner Judith L. Lichtman is president of the Women's Legal Defense Fund in Washington, D.C. Holly B. Fechner is the Fund's policy counsel. This article was made possible in part by funds granted to Fechner through a fellowship program sponsored by the Charles H. Revson Foundation. The statements made and views expressed, however, are solely the responsibility of the authors.
A CIVIL RIGHTS BILL TO SATISFY NO ONE

The Civil Rights Act of 1991 is a flawed but important step forward in addressing discrimination in the workplace--a document designed as the ultimate compromise. And so far, few groups are completely happy with it. Civil libertarians say the agreement is merely a beginning step that needs boosting with new, stronger legislation. Business groups, including the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are unhappy about new exposure to damages. The move toward a new civil rights law began with efforts to undo Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio, a ruling that made it harder for workers challenging employment practices that have the effect of harming minorities or women even if there is no proof that is what the practices were intended to do. The Wards Cove ruling made it easier for employers to justify such practices as being "required by business necessity," defining it to mean only that the practice must "significantly serve a legitimate business objective." President Bush assailed each version of the civil rights legislation as a quota bill that would

force employers to hire by numbers to protect themselves against lawsuits. Civil rights advocates argued that the term "business necessity" would let employers decide not to hire blacks, for instance, if their customers would prefer to deal with whites. The compromise eliminates a definition of "business necessity." Instead, it states that practices that have a disproportionate impact on women or minorities must be "job-related for the position in question and consistent with business necessity." The purpose of the bill is to return to the state of the law before Wards Cove. A second battleground has been over creating the right for women and the disabled to obtain damages in cases of intentional discrimination or harassment. Under current law, groups other than minorities are limited to lost wages and job reinstatement or promotion. The compromise allows juries to award damages between $50,000 and $300,000, depending on the size of the business. Civil rights groups, particularly women,s groups, are unhappy with the dollar caps and say they want to see that provision changed, either in this bill or a separate measure.
SOURCES OF FURTHER INFORMATION

The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, 1400 'Eye' Street N.W., Suite 400, Washington, D.C. 20005, maintains a Computer Bulletin Board which can be used to download lists and analyses of decisions on the application of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 to pending claims, information on other issues, model briefs, etc. All you need is a computer, a communications software package, and a modem. Call the Bulletin Board at (202) 371-5631 and follow the instructions. There is no charge for plaintiffs' counsel using the Bulletin Board. Call (202) 371-1212 with any questions and ask to speak to Richard Seymour, Sharon Vinick, or Michael Selmi. It also maintains a mailing list of plaintiffs' attorneys and has a variety of materials on the 1991 Civil Rights Act, affirmative action, and other EEO issues. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 99 Hudson Street, 16th Floor, New York, New York 10013, has an exhaustive March 1992 memorandum. "Application of the 1991 Civil Rights Act to Pre-Existing Claims", as well as many other materials on EEO law. Call (212) 2191900 and ask to speak to Eric Schnapper, Judith Reed, Nina Pillard, or Marina Hsieh. In Washington, D.C., call (202) 682-1300 and ask to speak to Kerry Scanlon. In Los Angeles, call (213) 624-2405 and ask to speak to Bill Lann Lee. The National Employment Lawyers' Association, 535 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco, California 94133, has a wealth of materials and regular publications available to members

on many aspects of EEO law. Call (415) 397-6335 and ask to speak to Terisa Chaw. Copyright of Human Rights: Journal of the Section of Individual Rights & Responsibilities is the property of American Bar Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

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Title:Christianity, development, and women's liberation.Authors:Walker, Bridget1 bwalker@oxfam.org.ukSource:Gender & Development; Mar1999, Vol. 7 Issue 1, p15-22, 8pDocument Type:ArticleSubject Terms:*ATTITUDE (Psychology) *EQUALITY *LIBERTY *SEX discrimination *WOMEN & religion *GENDERAbstract:Development practitioners working for gender equity must understand the significance of religion for many women who live in poverty. Both development interventions and religion are concerned with poverty; and both have often been problematic for women. Religious faith can offer women the opportunity for liberation; but it can also encourage conformity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Gender & Development is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts)Author Affiliations:1Member of the Strategic Planning and Evaluation team of Oxfam GB.ISSN:1355-2074Accession Number:5596188Database: Academic Search Premier

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Title:The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew--Three Women Search for Understanding.Source:Kirkus Reviews; 11/1/2006, Vol. 74 Issue 21, Special Section p1214, 2pDocument Type:Book ReviewSubject Terms:*BOOKS -- Reviews *WOMEN & religion *NONFICTIONReviews & Products:FAITH Club: A Muslim, a Christian, a Jew: Three Women Search for Understanding, The (Book)People:OLIVER, Suzanne IDLIBY, Ranya WARNER, PriscillaAbstract:The article Reviews the book "The Faith Club: A Muslim, a Christian, a Jew: Three Women Search for Understanding," Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver and Priscilla Warner.Full Text Word Count:301ISSN:0042-6598Accession Number:23079623Database: Academic Search Premier The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew--Three Women Search for Understanding Section: RELIGION and SPIRITUALITY
The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew--Three Women Search for Understanding Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver and Priscilla Warner Free Press / October / 074329047X / $25.00

When Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver and Priscilla Warner began meeting to talk about their faiths, they thought that they were uniting to educate their children, not themselves: After 9/11, Idliby, a Muslim, and Oliver, a Christian, started talking at their daughters' kindergarten bus stop about writing an interfaith children's book, and pulled in Warner, a Jewish mother with writing experience, to complete the trio. "I think that Ranya came out of a sense of isolation," explains Warner. "Suzanne came out of a sense of curiosity. And I came to it out of pure fear." But as they began writing, they found that they were having an increasing number of adult conversations that were as important, if not more so, than those focused on the children. "The Faith Club was never planned," says Idliby. "It evolved organically, from questions that our children asked us, or things that we experienced in our everyday life." When they began the project, the three relative strangers slowly started seeing each other as confidants, having conversations that they hadn't had even with their closest friends and families: "In over 50 years of knowing my siblings, we'd never once had a conversation with God. And suddenly, that's what I was doing with these women." After countless hours of meeting, the group agrees that these are important exchanges for everyone to have: they devote their last chapter to helping others set up their own faith clubs. Says Idliby, "I really think that we all owe it to ourselves as Americans to have these conversations." Copyright of Kirkus Reviews is the property of VNU eMedia, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Title:A Maid to Order Bible.Authors:Hutchens, S. M.1Source:Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity; Sep2006, Vol. 19 Issue 7, p46-48, 3pDocument Type:Book ReviewSubject Terms:*BOOKS -- Reviews *WOMEN & religion *NONFICTIONReviews & Products:FINALLY Feminist: A Pragmatic Christian Understanding of Gender (Book)People:STACKHOUSE, John G.Abstract:The article reviews the book "Finally Feminist: A Pragmatic Christian Understanding of Gender," by John G. Stackhouse Jr.Author Affiliations:1Lutheran School of Theology, ChicagoISSN:0897-327XAccession Number:22337022Database: Academic Search Premier