Assess whether Christianity and Feminism are compatible.
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Course
G585 - A2 Developments in Christian Theology
Institution
OCR
An A** 40-mark A-Level Development in Christian Theology (DICT essay assessing whether it is possible for Christianity to align with feminism, including the thoughts of Mary Daly and Rosemary Radford Reuther. From the Gender and Theology topic within the OCR RS curriculum.
Written by an A-Level st...
Assess whether Christianity and Feminism are compatible.
Feminism is the advocacy of female equality and women’s rights though, historically
and in the modern world, Christianity appears incompatible with feminist thought due
to its patriarchal links and androcentric language. They are difficult to reconcile, yet, a
sense of compatibility could be possible through reinterpreting or reforming Christian-
ity. However, one could also argue that misogyny is irrevocably ingrained in the reli-
gion and thus society must move beyond Christianity in order for feminism to succeed.
A strong argument for the idea that Christianity and Feminism are incompatible is that
Christianity is a tool for oppression, particularly of women, thus engendering the need
for all women in society to “get beyond religion,” as the post-Christian feminist theolo-
gian Mary Daly argues. Daly uses Friedrich Nietzsche, “whenever man has thought it
necessary to create a memory of himself, his effort has been attended with tortue,
blood, sacrifice,” to highlight that, historically, torture and sacrifice that benefits men,
comes from women. This argument is convincing as it conveys the way in which male
structures within society, such as the Church, fuel the historical and cultural oppres-
sion of women. Furthermore, Daly uses the term rapism to describe the violent soci-
etal actions against women that arise from a pervasive patriarchal culture, examples
of which can be seen within the Bible. In Numbers 31:17-18 it is said, “kill every
woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourself every girl who has never slept
with a man,” showing Christianity’s role in perpetuating the idea of women as inferior
and encouraging violence towards women. However, this argument is restricted by
Elizabeth S. Fiorenza, who strongly argues that Daly’s view on Christianity is extremely
limited and only serves to validate her preconceived notions of the religion being
founded upon sexism. Fiorenza evidences the story of Jesus and the Samaritan
Woman, in which Jesus asks the woman, “Will you give me a drink?,” thereby demon-
strating that Jesus sees her as an equal and should be treated with respect. This is a
convincing criticism as it lends weight to the idea that the Bible, which forms the basis
of all Christian thought, is not intrinsically sexist and that society has perhaps dis-
torted Christian theology to serve its own patriarchal agenda. Nevertheless, Daly
would criticise Fiorenza’s use of Jesus as a basis for women’s rights, arguing that the
incarnation of Christ was the “symbolic legitimation of the rape of all women and all
matter” as Jesus represents the transferral of the patriarchal God into the form of a
human man. This convincingly suggests that Christianity is far too closely linked with
the exploitation of women and therefore, in order to liberate women, one must move
past Christianity.
Furthermore, a strong though flawed argument for the incompatibility of Christianity
and Feminism is that Christian theology is inherently outdated, as is reflected by the
maleness of the language used within the religion. The theologian Daphne Hampson
states that “Feminism represents a revolution… as women come into their own, theol-
ogy will take a different shape,” convincingly affirming the idea that Christianity was
founded in a patriarchal world and thus must change in order to be compatible with
feminist thinking. Mary Daly lends weight to this argument by criticising the sentiment
of God the Father, stating that “if God is male, then the male is God,” highlighting that
God is the great patriarch and that the androcentric language concerning Him infil-
trates human society and human relationships. This successfully demonstrates that
the maleness of God, as emphasised by early Christian theologians like Tertullian who
called women “the devil’s gateway” and Aquinas who suggested women were “misbe-
gotten males,” is responsible for human delusions of a supernaturally natural authority
that men have over women. Therefore, Daly compelling argues that the maleness of
God must be stripped away, He must be “castrated” as women are, and the language
surrounding God should take a new form. This argument is convincing as it conveys
the type of necessary “revolution” that Hampson believes Christianity must undergo,
but, Daly also argues that removing adjectives and pronouns cannot change the in-
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