Liberation Theologies | Bibliography | Women’s Pt. 2
Chapter 9: Women’s Theology, Part 2
Women and the Churches
1103. Armstrong, Karen. The Gospel According to Woman. Christianity’s Creation of the Sex War in the West. London: Elm Tree Books, 1986.
A non-narrative history of the shift in Christian attitudes to woman from Jesus’ “good news” to the misogynist tradition so firmly embedded in the structured church since the third century. Armstrong takes the celibate tradition in the West and its dichotomy between body and spirit as the core and root of the inferior status of women, whom the West sees as essentially “sexual beings.” From this basic identification of woman as sexual and of sexuality as evil came the tradition of Eve the temptress, of the powerful woman as the witch; and the Christian religious ideals of virgin, martyr, and mystic: models of independent woman, fully the equals of men, yet that today continue to shackle women to dead myths from past social ages.
In these chapters on historical models Armstrong offers many valuable insights into the ambiguous and double-edged archetypes of the woman expressed in Christian history: models of courage and independence yet also of dangerous pursuits for many of today’s women who need fresh models and ways of expressing their spirit and spirituality that go beyond Protestantism’s “wife and mother” options and the Catholic masochisms of “holy anorexia.”
1104. Ashe, Kaye. Today’s Women. Tomorrow’s Church. Chicago: Thomas More Press, 1983.
Attempts to deal with the issues of women in the Catholic church and the crux of the issue: can there be such a thing as “Christian feminism”? Ashe believes that there can be, but only if deeply informed by the leading feminist theory and strongly committed to a struggle against the phallotocracy of the church through women’s ordination, women’s conferences within the church, and a process of conversion. Bibliography.
1105. Bantley Doeley, Sarah, ed. Women’s Liberation and the Church. The New Demand for Freedom in the Life of the Christian Church. New York: Association Press, 1970.
See Bass and Boyd (989), item 61.
1106. Brown, Joanne Carlson, and Carole R. Bohn. Christianity, Patriarchy and Abuse. A Feminist Critique. New York: Pilgrim Press, 1989.
Not seen.
1107. Byrne, Lavinia. Women Before God. London: SPCK, 1988.
Reflections on the place of women as individuals, women, and members of the church and religious orders.
1108. Campbell-Jones, Suzanne. In Habit. A Study of Working Nuns. New York: Pantheon, 1978.
See Loeb (1001), item 936.
1109. Carmody, Denise Lardner. Feminism and Christianity. A Two-Way Reflection. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1982.
Carmody seeks the centrist ground of a “Christian feminism,” both of which are alternatives to the materialistic dead end of North American culture, but also seeks to demonstrate that feminist theory can inform all traditional fields – from theology to psychology to sociology to ecology – with a new sense of the divine.
Topics include new study of the feminine divine through the Goddess, a new Christocentrism, new insights into selfhood through feminist and Christian thought, feminist and Christian social theory, and feminist and Christian theologies of nature.
1110. Carr, Anne E. Transforming Grace. Christian Tradition and Women’s Experience. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988.
Addresses the issue of Christian feminism and concludes that there is nothing contradictory in the term. In fact, Carr sees feminism and Christianity as deeply united in the truth of their visions.
Topics include coming of age in the church, the women’s movement and its challenge to the churches, ordination of women in history, theology and ethics, feminist theory and feminist theology, women’s experience and theological anthropology, feminist reflections on God, feminism and Christology, Christ, Mary and the Church, and Christian feminist spirituality. Excellent bibliography.
1111. Chittister, Joan, O.S.B. Job’s Daughters. Women and Power. New York: Paulist Press, 1990.
Not seen.
1112. —. Winds of Change. Women Challenge Church. Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward, 1986.
Collected essays on issues of peace, justice, and liberation with an emphasis on the religious and spiritual context of Catholicism.
1113. —. Women, Ministry and the Church. New York: Paulist Press, 1983.
On the role of women in the pastoral mission of the church, new forms of language to express new realities and aspirations, religious life, ministry and secularism, post-conciliar spirituality among Benedictine women, renewal in the Catholic church, women as witnesses for peace, the role of holy disobedience, and new forms of leadership.
1114. Curb, Rosemary, and Nancy Manahan, eds. Lesbian Nuns. Breaking Silence. Tallahassee, FL: Naiad Press, 1985.
See Loeb (1001), item 939.
1115. Daly, Mary. The Church and the Second Sex. New York: Harper & Row, 1968.
Essential reading. On the inherent misogyny of the Christian church in its traditions of thought, language, ritual, organization, and action. This is a classic work, and one in which Daly rejects the association of Christianity and feminism as incompatible. See also Carson (991), item 153.
1116. Donovan, Mary Ann. Sisterhood As Power. Women Religious as Catalysts of the Future. New York: Crossroad/Continuum, 1989.
The role of women religious in bringing about institutional change.
1117. Dowell, Susan, and Linda Hurcombe. Dispossessed Daughters of Eve. Faith and Feminism. London: SPCK, 1987.
Examines the inherent contradictions and tensions of “Christian feminism.” The authors discuss their own and many other women’s alienation from a church that rejects their equal role. Discusses the historical developments of feminism in society and church, a reexamination of the Bible and its social and political message so distorted by neoconservatives and fundamentalists, the feminist assault on Christian traditions (they reject “radical” positions in favor of homosexuality and abortion), a maturing feminist theology, the contradictions of a Constantinian Christendom, a new feminist covenant with the earth, and a commitment to struggle that will bypass any attempts to get a “fair deal” from male structures.
1118. Dunfee, Susan N. Beyond Servanthood. Christianity and the Liberation of Women. Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1989.
This is a profound meditation on the challenge posed by Mary Daly’s rejection of Christianity as an essentially patriarchal manifestation of male religion, and thus incompatible with women’s lives and religion: women and Christianity have as much in common as a healthy woman and cancer.
Dunfee therefore begins with her own experience of Christianity, which she says has been informed by the feminist movement to take full cognizance of sexism, patriarchal authoritarianism, and resistance to change. But like Ruether, Schüssler Fiorenza, Moltmann-Wendall and others, she sees the possibility of a “Christian feminism” that will not so much accommodate women to Christian male structures as find the liberating seeds within Christianity to empower women to find their own liberation.
Discusses the liberating aspects of Christianity, the thought of leading Christian feminist theologians, the liberating potential of Christian symbols of service and altruism, which Dunfee concludes is little. Service and altruism may, in fact, disguise bondage and self-negation, and are therefore fraught with great danger for women. She therefore turns to the works of D. D. Williams, Niebuhr, and Tillich on altruistic love and mutuality and then goes on to examine the nature of the freedom created by this love.
She concludes with the insights of Sölle, Bultmann, Delwin Brown, and Jürgen Moltmann that the Christian community was formed as one of mutuality and service between friends, thus attempting to find at the roots of Christianity the remedies for Christianity’s two millennia participation in the enslavement of women. Brief bibliography.
1119. Eigo, Francis A., ed. A Discipleship of Equals. Towards a Christian Feminist Spirituality. Villanova, PA: Villanova University Press, 1988.
Not seen.
1120. Elizondo, Virgilio, and Norbert Greinacher, eds. Women in a Men’s Church. Concilium 134. New York: Seabury Press, 1980.
Topics include the historical development of a “men’s church,” the situation today, the masculinity of God and the role of women in both Old and New Testament, and the role of feminist theology as a liberation theology and in the emancipation of women. Includes essays by Ida Raming, Nadine Foley, Elizabeth Carroll, Rosemary Haughton, Maria Aguledo and others.
1121. Ermath, Margaret S. Adam’s Fractured Rib. Observations on Women in the Church. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1970.
See Bass and Boyd (989), item 268.
1122. Ferraro, Barbara, and Patricia Hussey, with Jane O’Reilly. No Turning Back. Two Nuns Battle with the Vatican Over Women’s Right to Choose. New York: Poseidon Press, 1990.
A narrative of the nuns’ struggle over freedom of conscience, speech, obedience, women’s rights, and the new wave of oppression within the Catholic church.
1123. Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schüssler, and Mary Collins, eds. Women, Invisible in Theology and Church. Concilium 182. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1985.
Essays by Schüssler Fiorenza, Mary Collins, Marie Zimmerman, Margaret Brennan, Marjorie Proctor-Smith, Adriana Valerioi, Kari Vogt, Mary Hunt, Marga Bührig, Isis Muller, and Mary Boys on church structures, ecclesial discourse in church history, anthropology, theology, ecumenism, and ritual itself that make women invisible, and the role of theology education in this process. Mary Boys also discusses the role of women in changing the process.
1124. Fitzpatrick, Ruth M., ed. Liberating Liturgies. Fairfax, VA: Women’s Ordination Conference, 1989.
A series of liturgies that stress the bipolarity of divinity and give voice to feminist insights in language, symbol, ceremony, and structure.
1125. Franklin, Margaret Ann. The Force of the Feminine. Women, Men and the Church. Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1986.
Essays by Franklin, Eileen Jones, Eileen Byrne, Barbara Thiering, Kevin Giles, Leo Hay, Marlene Cohen, Marie Tulip, Veronica Brady and others on women and the church, the church’s role in perpetuating sexual stereotypes, the ordination of women in the Bible and the Catholic church, psychological analysis of the objections to women’s ordination, institutional sexism, sexist theological language, feminization of religious structures through religious orders, and the fundamentally feminine element of Christian life.
1126. —, and Ruth Sturmey Jones, eds. Opening the Cage. Stories of Church and Gender. Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1987.
A collection of personal stories by men and women of major Christian denominations of Australia that reflect the struggle to change church structures and values toward sexuality, gender, and equality within Christianity. Contributors include L. and D. Balfour, Julia Perry, Pat Bundock, Merle Goldsmith, Kath McPhillips, Shirley Randell, Marie Tulip and others.
1127. Furlong, Monica, ed. Feminine in the Church. London: SPCK, 1984.
Essays by Furlong, Rowan Williams, Eric Doyle, Janet Morley, Jane Williams, Ann Hoad, Henriette Santer and others on women in the ministry, the ordination of women in Roman Catholicism, the “maleness” of Christ, Jesus and women, the image of Mary, sexual stereotypes in church and society, and views of hierarchy and the fall.
1128. —, ed. Mirror to the Church. Reflections on Sexism. London: SPCK, 1988.
Articles by Furlong, A. Peberdy, J. Morley, R. McCurry, E. Storkey, U. Kroll, J. Robson and others on ritual and power, sex and sexuality in the church, the family as a creative sacrament, femininity and the Holy Spirit, and other topics.
1129. —. Shrinking and Changing. Faringdon, OX: David Blamires, 1981.
Not seen.
1130. Grant, Jacquelyn. White Women’s Christ and Black Women’s Jesus. Feminist Christology and Womanist Response. Atlanta, GA: Scholar’s Press, 1989.
In recent years an open debate has emerged in feminist and feminist theological circles over the disparity between the socio-economic, and thus the theological, contexts of white, middle-class intellectuals and black intellectuals and activists; between “Christ” theologies still permeated with subtle and unquestioned triumphalism of class, education, and background and “Jesus” theologies born out of true oppression and struggle. This book attempts to highlight some of the contradictions in a feminist theology that often speaks of oppression and the need for liberation with very little solidarity between the classes and races.
1131. Gundry, Patricia. Neither Slave Nor Free. Helping Women Answer the Call to Church Leadership. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987.
From the realization that women, as equally as men, are the church, comes the decision that one need not plead for admission into the ministry, that one can be a minister through the power of one’s own Christian calling and unique gifts. Rather than continue to knock at closed church doors, women should form new, relevant ministries of their own, abandoning structures in favor of functions that nurture life and spirit. This book is a guide to that process.
1132. —. Woman, Be Free! Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1977.
Discusses the status of women as second-class citizens in the church, the nature of women in Christian religious tradition; Christian stereotypes that keep woman in a domestic, subservient role; the biblical texts that have been used to bolster this; and positive biblical role models for women in every walk of life.
1133. Hageman, Alice L., ed. Sexist Religion and Women in the Church. No More Silence. New York: Association Press, 1974.
See Bass and Boyd (989), item 65.
1134. Hagen, June Steffensen, ed. Gender Matters. Women’s Studies for the Christian Community. Grand Rapids, MI: Academe Books, 1990.
Not seen.
1135. Heinzelmann, Gertrud, ed. We Won’t Keep Silent Any Longer! Women Speak Out on Vatican Council II. Zurich: Interfeminas, 1965.
Not seen.
1136. Heschel, Susannah, ed. On Being a Jewish Feminist. A Reader. New York: Schocken Books, 1983.
See Carson (991), item 304; Loeb (1001), item 952; and Ruud (1003), item 336.
1137. Kirk, Martha Ann, CCVI. Celebrations of Biblical Women’s Stories. Tears, Milk and Honey. Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward, 1989.
Recent feminist exegesis has now made possible liturgies of liberation based upon a clearer understanding of the role of women in biblical history and revelation. Includes the liturgies and music.
1138. Koltun, Elizabeth, ed. The Jewish Woman. New Perspectives. New York: Schocken Press, 1976.
Essays by Judith Plaskow, Carol Christ, Rachel Adler, Arlene Agus, Deborah Weissman, Blu Greenberg, Phyllis Trible, Mary Gendler, and others on Jewish feminism, women’s liberation and a theology of liberation, rituals and the Jewish year, women in Jewish law, historical models, Jewish women today, and women in Jewish religious literature: the Bible, Rabbinic tradition, Vashti. Includes a bibliography arranged by topic.
1139. Lack, Roslyn. Women and Judaism. Myth, History and Struggle. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1980.
See Carson (991), item 375; Ruud (1003), item 433.
1140. Loades, Ann. Searching for Lost Coins. Explorations in Christianity and Feminism. Allison Park, PA: Pickwick Publications, 1988.
Begins with the assumption that while “Christian feminism” may be a contradiction in terms, Christianity may still offer some keys to renewing a sense of human community that can bring together gender. Discusses the possibility of reform in a patriarchal society, rediscovering the feminine in Christian tradition, the “morbid over-identification with Christ as suffering victim,” and with the long religious tradition of woman as co-sufferer and masochistic mate of Jesus crucified; new voices for women in the Christian community; and new language and images of God as female. Good bibliography.
1141. Maitland, Sara. A Map of the New Country. Women and Christianity. London & Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983.
This is consciously not a book of theology but an attempt to bridge the gaps between feminism and Christianity and to describe the blend.
Discusses origins of Christian feminism, the women’s movement, communities of faith, women’s ordination, women in church bureaucracies, new language, liturgy and spirituality.
1142. Marriage, Alwyn. Life-Giving Spirit. Responding to the Feminine in God. London: SPCK, 1989.
Attempts to resolve the conflict between a patriarchal and sexist theology and church and the new insights and demands of feminist theology by side-stepping the issue of inclusive language and by reviving the importance of the Holy Spirit as the divine feminine.
1143. Martin, Faith McBurney. Call Me Blessed. The Emerging Christian Woman. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1988.
Reexamines many of the key passages of scripture that have been underpinnings of patriarchal authority. Rather than rejecting the Bible, Martin sees that a correct rereading of these texts can provide new insights that will liberate women from many stereotypical roles in society and church and to the reconciliation of women and men.
Topics include new awareness of women’s rights and voice within the church, Christian feminism, the traditions of biblical and church history, the male in authority, violence and oppression against women; the liberating role of Jesus, a theology that will account for true differences in men and women, if indeed there are such in nature; God in male and female image; women in authority; Paul on women; and new concepts of fatherhood, the language of God and humanity, and the new children of God.
1144. Mayeski, Marie Ann. Women. Models of Liberation. Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward, 1988.
An anthology of original source readings on the history and contributions of eight women in the life of the church with critical introductions to the historical context and meaning of the text itself. Includes, among others, Perpetua, Heloise, Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Avila, and Caryll Houselander.
1145. Mollenkott, Virginia Ramey. Women of Faith in Dialogue. New York: Crossroad/Continuum, 1987.
Sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, this ecumenical collection reflects the meeting of Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Moslem women on common issues of concern within their respective institutional churches and on the nature of women’s spirituality and religious life.
1146. Moltmann-Wendel, Elisabeth. Liberty, Equality, Sisterhood. On the Emancipation of Women in Church and Society. Ruth Gritsch, trans. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978.
Published lectures on women in the New Testament and ancient world; women’s coming of age intellectually, politically, economically, socially, and sexually; the gradual assertiveness of women to their own dignity; the emancipation of women in the church, and in society.
1147. Morley, Janet. All Desires Known. Prayers Uniting Faith and Feminism. Wilton, CT: Morehouse-Barlow, 1988.
A collection of liturgical prayers for each season from a feminist point of view. The texts and their style are compellingly direct and elegant.
1148. Osiek, Carolyn, R.S.C.J. Beyond Anger. On Being a Feminist in the Church. New York: Paulist Press, 1986.
This is a book written in full awareness of the approaching crisis within the Catholic church over the role of women, both within and outside religious orders. It is aimed at those, who despite insult, exploitation, arrogance, and complete lack of concern from the male authorities of their church, have decided to remain dutiful daughters. This causes much pain, suffering, and anger; and Osiek seeks to address much of this in both herself and her companions, those who remain loyal, no matter what, and those who thus, and from their backgrounds and ways of thought, are within the “majority culture” of Roman Catholicism.
Discusses raised consciousness, ways of adopting and adapting to the grim reality that that consciousness must confront, deciding to “choose life,” adopting a theology of the cross to bear this “redemptive suffering,” and a practical spirituality of survival.
One wonders whether this hybrid of “Christian feminism,” if considered apart from its obviously brave commitment, would not be seen as masochistic and traditionally “feminine” if viewed in a secular relationship of persons or power.
1149. Papa, Mary Bader. Christian Feminism. Completing the Subtotal Woman. Chicago: Fides/Claretian, 1981.
Examines sexism within Christian tradition and church and offers some tentative solutions. Issues include that of justice for women, sexism, women in struggle not only against male structures but internally – in women’s internalized hatred of their bodies – in many women’s contempt and fear of feminism, in religious sanction of these attitudes, the importance of the women’s movement and of women taking ministry onto themselves, the surprising willingness of men to cooperate in women’s struggles – even while many women oppose them – mutuality, and an agenda for equality.
1150. Parvey, Constance F., ed. The Community of Women and Men in the Church. The Sheffield Report. Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1983.
Issues of theology, liturgy, institutional power, and authority.
1151. Pro Mundi Vita. Women, the Women’s Movement, and the Future of the Church. Brussels: Pro Mundi Vita, 1975.
Not seen.
1152. Ranke-Heinemann, Uta. Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven. The Catholic Church and Sexuality. Peter Heinegg, trans. New York: Doubleday, 1990.
This book is about more than Catholic attitudes about sex. It is an indictment of the patriarchal structure of the Roman Catholic church and its methodological and consistent contempt for women within its structures and congregations. The book is a treasure-trove of the rightfully discarded: a long litany of misogynist statements from respected Catholic and early Christian theologians on the inferiority, irrationality and sinfulness of women. The core of the book, however, is her focus on the celibate male elite that has gathered all the religious and physical power of Christianity into its own hands and perpetrated the myth of celibacy’s superiority to married life and sexuality. Even more dangerous – and absurd – however, is this professedly celibate male’s presumption to speak with any authority upon sexuality and its moral or physical regulation.
While the book has been criticized for its overemphasis on misogyny and one-sided attack on the church’s disdain for sexuality, the author has been fired from her professorship in the history of religion at the University of Essen, Germany for questioning the “virgin birth.” Meanwhile, Doubleday, long the mainstay of Catholic religious publishing, has been condemned by John Cardinal O’Connor of New York for publishing this book, of which he claims to have read only the dust jacket.
1153. Riley, Maria, O.P. Transforming Feminism. Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward, 1989
Examines recent Catholic social teaching from a feminist perspective and finds that church dogma ignores many of the needs and insights of women. Calls for a new formulation of church teaching that will incorporate feminist insights in order to achieve true liberation for both church and society as a whole.
1154. Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Mary. The Feminine Face of the Church. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1977.
See Carson (991), item 583.
1155. —. Women-Church. The Theology and Practice of Feminist Liturgical Communities. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1988.
While Latin American liberation theology focuses on a return to the traditions of evangelical Christianity, with a renewed emphasis on Christology and a “reform” direction; feminist theology seeks to go beyond the patriarchal forms of biblical religion, to reincorporate the Goddess into worship, and to form communities of faith and worship – as well as action – among women.
These rituals and communities are the focus of this book. It discusses the historical and theological foundations for liberating communities, the exodus from patriarchy, new understanding of the symbols of baptism and eucharist, and new liturgical forms that reflect and follow the woman’s life cycle, women’s crises and healing, but that in themselves only point to developing liturgies, not laid-in-stone doxologies.
Good bibliography for feminist liturgies. The introduction is an excellent essay on feminist spirituality, liturgy, and theology.
1156. Schneider, Susan Weidman. Jewish and Female. Choices and Changes in Our Lives Today. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985.
See Loeb (1001), item 971; Ruud (1003), item 680.
1157. Smith, Jackie M, ed. Women, Faith and Economic Justice. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1985.
Examines the economic forces that shape women’s lives and work, the biblical attitudes of the Jesus movement to economics, a new consciousness for peace and economic justice, the need for women to work for change. Includes a list of resources for women’s working groups, organizations, audiovisuals, legislative information, and further reading.
1158. Swidler, Arlene. Sistercelebrations. Nine Worship Experiences. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974.
See Carson (991), item 649.
1159. —. Woman in a Man’s Church. From Role to Person. New York: Paulist Press, 1972.
The author hopes to clear the air of preconceived answers – and questions – about the role and nature of women that have been defined and enforced for millennia by men. Instead, she hopes that her book will be an essay in freeing women to ask their own questions, perhaps to eventually defining their own answers.
1160. Turner, Rita Crowley. The Mary Dimension. London: Sheed & Ward, 1985.
Examines the women’s movement, male sexism and patriarchy, the Catholic church as the strongest and longest-surviving enemy of women’s freedom, and the issue of feminism and Christianity.
Turner concludes that despite two millennia of misogyny from male church leaders, women can find in the Bible and in the life of Jesus a way to freedom. Jesus was the champion of women, but his message of mutuality was distorted by late antique misogynist outlooks.
She then turns to the figure of Mary and shreds away centuries of using her as the model of the domesticated, and docile, women. Mary, instead, should emerge as the queen, as a model of women’s strength. She then examines the contradictory – and to Protestants and feminists repulsive – doctrine of Mary as Virgin-Mother, as a remote and unattainable embodiment of good. Yet here Turner can find both positive, and very natural models for women’s nurturing and relational roles – if we bear in mind that women will not be restricted to these alone. Thus Mary, “the woman and the symbol, could point the way out of the present impasse that feminism has led us into.”
1161. Von Wartenberg-Potter, Bärbel. We Will Not Hang Our Harps On the Willows. Global Sisterhood and God’s Song. Fred Kaan, trans. Oak Park, IL: Meyer Stone Books, 1988.
A series of reflections on the existential roots of women’s spirituality, their role in the churches, their place in biblical traditions, all supplemented and founded on the first-hand experiences of individual women around the world.
1162. Weaver, Mary T. New Catholic Women. The Contemporary Challenge to Traditional Religious Authority. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985.
This is an excellent survey of issues concerning Catholic women in the context of John Paul II’s attempts at restoration and attacks on the post-Vatican II church. Topics include the historical development of American Catholic women; the immigrant church and the maturing of American Catholicism away from old authoritarian molds; the impact of feminism on religious women; the feminist goals of ordination, power within the church and self-defined status as equals; of women-church; Catholic feminist theology, including the influence of Judith Christ and Starhawk; and an analysis of the work of Anne Carr, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Rosemary Radford Ruether and Mary Daly; and Catholic feminist spirituality.
1163. Weber, Christin Lore. Blessings. A WomanChrist Reflection on the Beatitudes. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990.
Expands upon the insights of WomanChrist (1164) to analyze the destructive dualisms of patriarchal religion. “WomanChrist” contains all the inherent contradiction in Christianity for a woman: for God is revealed on one level as a man; and yet Paul (1 Cor. 1:25) and the Christian tradition itself makes very clear the association between Jesus and divine Sophia: the feminine face of God. This book is about the wrenching pain of these polarities and the attempt of feminist theologians to heal the rift to wholeness.
Here Weber examines the mystery and contradictions of the Beatitudes and demonstrates how they are a song to the possibility that life and creation can be made whole again.
1164. —. WomanChrist. A New Vision of Feminine Spirituality. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987.
An attempt to redefine a Christianity that can be hospitable to women by linking the archetypal, and deeply personal, experiences of a woman’s life and body to the images and language of God expressed in Christianity. Ultimately this is an attempt to coopt the traditional imagery for feminist uses.
1165. Weidman, Judith L., ed. Christian Feminism. Visions of a New Humanity. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1984.
Essays by Weidman, Ruether, Schüssler Fiorenza, Brock, Russell, Nannette Roberts, Clare Fischer, B. Wildung Harrison, and Constance Parvey on feminist theology and spirituality, feminist biblical interpretation, feminist Christology, women and ministry, women in work, life style, sexuality and mutuality, and women’s tradition and memory.
1166. Wilson-Kastner, Patricia. Faith, Feminism, and the Christ. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983.
Not seen.
1167. Zanotti, Barbara. A Faith of One’s Own. Explorations by Catholic Lesbians. Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1986.
See 982.
Women as Priests
1168. Carmody, Denise Lardner. The Double Cross. Ordination, Abortion, and Catholic Feminism. New York: Crossroad/Continuum, 1986.
The two crosses for Catholic feminists are the ordination of women and the issue of abortion. Carmody seeks to chart a middle ground between radicals on both issues that will fully acknowledge the deeply religious foundations of equality and reverence for life.
In today’s world and climate of official church oppression of dissent and of open discussion, however, Carmody’s call for a faithful “Catholic feminism” may strike many readers as oxymoronic as the traditional sobriquet of “Catholic intellectual.” The debate remains defined by the men at the top, receiving the grace and making the rules.
1169. Coriden, James, ed. Sexism and Church Law. Equal Rights and Affirmative Action. New York: Paulist Press, 1977.
This is a collection of essays written around the publication of the the Vatican statement on the ordination of women in 1976 (appendix 2). It includes essays by Katherine Meagher, Hamilton Hess, Francine Cardman, Nadine Foley, Edward J. Kilmartin, and others on women and orders, women in the ministry of the early church, the tradition and hermeneutics of ordination, participation of women in the full life of the church, and women in Vatican documents.
1170. Gryson, Roger. The Ministry of Women in the Early Church. Jean Laporte and Mary Louise Hall, trans. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1976.
Examines his themes through the sources: Old and New Testament, second-century texts, third-century writers, Alexandrian Fathers, the Didascalia, Greek canonical texts of the fourth to sixth centuries, other Greek documents, Ambrosiater and Pelagius, and Latin canonical sources from the fourth to the sixth century. Good bibliography for women in the ministry.
1171. Hayter, Mary. The New Eve in Christ. The Use and Abuse of the Bible in the Debate About Women in the Church. London: SPCK; Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1987.
Focuses less on the biblical texts pro or con women’s ordination but on the use of the Bible as a bolster for this debate. Hayter eschews the polemics of both the fundamentalist right and of post-Christian feminists who see the Bible as either a patriarchal text for little patriarchs or one for misogynists that clearly excludes women. Hayter, instead, seeks to carefully examine the key texts in Genesis 1-3 and 1 Corinthians to demonstrate that the Judeo-Christian tradition may, in fact, be one of unfolding liberation. While the Bible may be the word of God, it is not the last, but the “seminal,” word.
1172. Ide, Arthur Frederick. Woman As Priest, Bishop and Laity in the Early Catholic Church to 440 A.D. Mesquite, TX: Ide House, 1984.
Reviews the historical background, the role of women in the Roman world, in Apostolic thought, in the early church, and the controversy over reference to women ministers in Romans 16, the ordination of women, male collaboration against women, women and sexuality in early Christianity.
1173. Jewett, Paul King. The Ordination of Women. An Essay on the Office of Christian Ministry. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1980.
See Loeb (1001), item 957.
1174. Lang, Judith. Ministers of Grace. Women in the Early Church. Middlegreen, Slough: St. Paul Publications, 1989.
Traces the role of women’s ministry but focuses on the lower orders of deacons, widows, and virgins, avoiding the call to ordination of women as priests.
1175. LaPorte, Jean. The Role of Women in Early Christianity. New York & Toronto: Edwin Mellen Press, 1982.
Uses texts to illuminate the various areas of women’s role, including martyrdom, in conjugal life, in contemplative life; as prophets, widows, virgins and deacons; and women as symbol in various writers: vice and virtues, mother, Sophia, and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
1176. Rhodes, Lynn N. Co-Creating. A Feminist Vision of Ministry. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1987.
Drawing on the theological work of Letty M. Russell, Beverly Wildung Harrison, and Rosemary Radford Ruether; and on the experience and wisdom of many women clerics and pastoral workers, Rhodes attempts to outline a new feminist ministry.
Issues discussed include authority, the meaning of salvation, mission, vocation, and the meanings of friendship and solidarity.
1177. Swidler, Arlene, and Leonard Swidler, eds. Women Priests. A Catholic Commentary on the Vatican Declaration. New York: Paulist Press, 1977.
This is a large collection of essays and commentaries around the Vatican’s 1977 Declaration on the Question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood, which is reprinted here on pages 37-49.
Contributors include the Swidlers, Carroll Stuhlmueller, M. Nadine Foley, Elizabeth Carroll, Carolyn Osiek, E. Schüssler Fiorenza, Thomas P. Rausch, Adela Yarbro Collins, Robert Karris, Anne Carr, R. Radford Ruether, Mary Ellen Sheehan, Pauline Turner and Bernard Cooke, Sidney Callahan and many others.
Issues include the historical testimony, sacramental implications, the meaning of apostleship, scholastic doctrine, the image of Christ, and contemporary events.
1178. Van der Meer, Haye, S.J. Women Priests in the Catholic Church? A Theological-Historical Investigation. Arlene and Leonard Swidler, trans. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1973.
Examines the evidence of scripture, the church fathers, the church’s magisterium, and theological speculation, to conclude that God created humanity, in both male and female, in fullness. To deny any office based on gender is to deny the humanity of that person and to negate God’s creative action.
1179. Wijngaards, J. N. M. Did Christ Rule Out Women Priests? Great Wakening, Essex: McCrimmons, 1986.
The answer is no; but since his first edition in 1977 the author has come to the revelation that the issue of human rights for women has a full theological significance that the Vatican’s intransigence to dialogue cannot dismiss.
1180. Witherington, Ben. Women in the Ministry of Jesus. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
The subtitle reads, “a study of Jesus’ attitudes to women and their roles as reflected in his earthly life.” Jesus certainly forged new ground for his contemporaries in his attitudes toward women, his acceptance of their important roles, his contacts with them, and their voice in his movement.
The author examines women and their roles in Palestine, in Jesus’ teaching, in his ministry, and in his actions. His new attitude of equality was continued into the early church. Bibliography divided by chapter.
