Extravagant Affections: A Feminist Sacramental Theology

241 Pages·2001·12.59 MB·English

by  Susan A. Ross

Extravagant Affections
"A ground-breaking contribution to both feminist and sacramental the-
ology, brimming with insights that result from cross-fertilizing the two.
Written with engaging style and supple argument, it makes brilliant use of
the ambiguity of women's experience of sacraments, both positive and neg-
ative, to rethink basic meanings and practices. The result is an extravagant
feast for the mind and heart that proves beyond doubt the power of fem-
inist discourse to clarify and transform central tenets of Christian faith."
— ELIZABETH A. JOHNSON
"To read Susan Ross's Extravagant Affections is to get a rare glimpse into
the sacramental life and theology of many Catholic women today, but
also into what the future should be and is likely to be. For some decades,
we have learned increasingly to begin our theological reflection from the
shared faith experience of believers, but Ross points out — rightly — that
for the most part, we have neglected to take account of the gendered di-
mension of women's religious experience; and as a result the sharing has
been truncated. Beyond this criticism, she goes on to suggest creatively
how family (in the broad sense) may be the context within which best to
discover the way in which gender affects the sacramentality of human life.
This book deserves a wide readership." —BERNARD COOKE
"Susan Ross has put together a critical and constructive feminist contri-
bution to sacramental theology. The attention she gives to learning by
celebrating, to embodiment, to a broad notion of sacramentality, and to
developing fresh sacramental paradigms offers something that will allow
the general reader good insight into the issues at stake, and ought to draw
other sacramental theologians into conversation."
— DAVID N. POWER, O.M.I.
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Extravagant Affections
A FEMINIST
SACRAMENTAL
THEOLOGY
SUSAN A. Ross
Continuum
New York • London
2001
The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc
370 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10017
The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd
The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX
Copyright © 1998 by Susan A. Ross
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the
publishers.
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ross, Susan A.
Extravagant affections : a feminist sacramental theology / Susan
A. Ross.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8264-1320-X (paperback : alk. paper)
1. Sacraments - Catholic Church. 2. Feminist theology.
3. Catholic Church - Doctrines. I. Title.
BX2203.R65 1998
234'.16/Q82 - dc21 98-25997
In Memory of
John B. Ross, Jr. (1948-1996)
and
Ann O'Hara Graff (1950-1996)
and for
Bill
"We must not deprive ourselves, our loved ones,
of the luxury of our extravagant affections."
Mary Gordon
Final Payments
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Contents
INTRODUCTION 9
Parti
WOMEN AND THE SACRAMENTS:
METHOD AND CRITERIA
1 SACRAMENTS AND THE NEED FOR A FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE 19
2 FEMINIST THEOLOGY AND SACRAMENTAL THEOLOGY 43
3 WOMEN, THE SACRAMENTS, AND AMBIGUITY 64
Part 2
FAMILY AS EMBODIED CONTEXT
FOR SACRAMENTALITY
4 BODY AND GENDER IN SACRAMENTAL THEOLOGY 97
5 WOMEN, SACRAMENTS, AND THE SYMBOLIC 137
6 WOMEN, SACRAMENTS, AND ETHICS 171
7 WOMEN, WORSHIP, AND THE SACRAMENTS:
TOWARD A FEMINIST THEOLOGY OF WORSHIP 203
INDEX 233
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Introduction
In Mary Gordon's novel Final Payments, Isabel Moore comes to a pro-
found realization about her life, her desires, and her religion. After a
struggle to find her own way in life following her father's death, she comes
to see that Jesus' statement, "the poor you will always have with you" does
not mean that we are "to justify the excesses of centuries of fat, tyrannical
bankers," but that the costly jar of ointment, which the apostles thought
should be sold for the poor, must be broken open and enjoyed. Isabel
comes to realize that she must "open the jar of ointment" and live her life
fully, accepting both the joys and the risks of loving.1
This book proposes that the jars of ointment of the church, the sacra-
ments, need to be broken open, by all people, but especially by women.
The horror of Jesus' disciples at his allowing a woman to anoint him with
costly oil is echoed today by the refusal of magisterial Roman Catholi-
cism to allow women to preside at the Eucharist and to act as sacramental
ministers. Beneath this refusal is a complex set of reasons and tradi-
tions, but these reasons and traditions serve to contain and protect what
lies within these jars of ointment: God's own extravagant affections for
humankind. In this book I explore these reasons and traditions, along with
the experiences of women who are challenging them.
This book has been a long time in the making. It began around a series
of questions I began asking as I was completing my dissertation over fifteen
years ago: How is it that a tradition, claiming to venerate the physical, ma-
terial, and bodily, through its sacramentality, is so hostile to the reality of
women's bodies? How can Catholic women, who feel both nurtured and
1. Mary Gordon, Final Payments (New York: Ballantine Books, 1978) 298-99.