Feminist Feminism

Feminist theologians are continuously trying to reclaim past female experiences from traditional sources and envision new ideologies and symbols from alternative sources. In terms of reclaiming from traditional sources, feminist theologians either try to create one view of tradition that’s right and not sexist, use non-sexist parts of a given religious text to criticize sexist components, or, if they had enough and understand that their tradition can never be change, they suggest forgetting about it and moving on. Another important aspect of feminist theology is reformation of traditional sources. Reforming time-honored texts and envisioning new ideologies with alternative and non-traditional sources is considered constructive theology. This is essential because without reform, there remain the sexist symbols and language in the long-established religious texts and this will continually legitimate sexist social practices and attitudes which will always lead to classism, racism, and sexism.

Feminist biblical scholar, Phyllis Trible uses the method of literary approach to reclaim women’s experiences from traditional sources. In her article, “Eve and Adam: Genesis 2-3 Reread”, she analyzes the passage of the biblical tale of “Adam and Eve”, and scrutinizes the original Hebrew text. Trible expresses how the text can have various meanings to the reader depending on the renditions and explanations used. This is because in linguistics, some words have more than one meaning. She believes that translators throughout history have accepted the androcentric meaning, rather than the feminist and non-androcentric meanings. She concludes that the punishment of Eve being kicked out of the Garden of Eden should not be seen as a prescription for ...

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...ering, which is she believes is not the Christian path to salvation. Delores Williams, like other feminist theologians, uses the meaning of the words and does word-study of the religious text to reclaim the experiences of women.

Muslim feminist, Bouthaina Shaaban, uses the non-sexist parts of the Qur’an to assess the sexist parts of the Qur’an and criticize Islamic societies that mistreat women. She believes that Islam is androcentric because of the shari’a law, which she believes is not divine, but man-made. She advocates that in order for women to reclaim their experiences from the androcentric and patriarchal tradition, they must go back to the sources, which are the Qur’an and the Hadith. Like Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza, she asserts that women in the Prophet Muhammad’s community in early Islam were granted full responsibilities and they had leadership roles.