Feminist Critique of Religion

The Christian Tradition is one that has gained and lost respect and value for women in many ways as it has travelled across the globe and crept its way into new cultures and sustained itself through different historical circumstances. From the fetishization of motherhood to the persecution of witches to the rise of female leaders in the church, Christianity has shape-shifted in rituals, imagery and interpretation of the scriptures. Rosemary Radford Ruether, a feminist theologian who writes on the importance of female imagery and language to represent the divine argues: “women no longer stand in direct relation to God; they are connected to God secondarily through a male” (Ruether 151). The tradition has internally contested the correct role of women in the world, the family and the church since its inception. But while women were often condemned or essentialized through the interpretation of Biblical texts (not to mention the selection of those texts), these texts could also serve as a tool for social change. Ruether offers a message of hope for women looking to find a place within the Christian tradition by highlighting the fact that “the New Testament contains a renewal and radicalization of prophetic consciousness, now applied to marginalized groups in universal, non tribal contexts” (Ruether 156). Through Ruether’s analysis and primary texts throughout the history of Christianity, we see that the textual representations of women and interpretations of those texts serve as a vehicle of oppression by setting up dichotomies on women’s behavior, but that interpretation can also be used by women as a means of religious resistance.

One of the women in the Christian Tradition that fought for social justice at the onset of the Jesus...

... middle of paper ...

...ures that control religion and spirituality, but instead on each other. Women must learn to reconcile their beliefs and critiques, all the while navigating the dichotomy of reformer/revolutionary

Works Cited

Cady Stanton, Elizabeth. The Woman's Bible. New York : European Publishing Company, 1895. Web.

"Gnostic Scriptures and Fragments." The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene. The Gnostic Society Library. Web. 13 Dec 2013. .

King, Karen. The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle. Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge Press, 2003. Web.

Malleus Malleficarum, excerpts. 1977. In Women and Religion, edited by Elizabeth Clark and Herbert Richardson, 121-130. San Francisco: Harper & Row.

Weaver, Mary Jo. 1989. "Who is the Goddess and Where Does She Get Us?" Journal of

Feminist Studies in Religion 5/1 (Spring): 49-64