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Feminist Theory and Christian Theology PDF

228 Pages·2000·68.756 MB·English
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I I J 7 I 2.. coo FEMINIST THEORY AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY I I GUIDES TO T HEOLOGI CAL INQ!JIRY Edited by Kathryn Tanner of the University of Chicago and Paul Lakeland of Fairfield University, Guides co Theological Inquiry are intended co introduce students, scholars, clergy, and theologians to those academic methods, disciplines, and movements that are most germane to contemporary theology. Neither simple surveys nor exhaustive monographs, these shon books provide solid, reliable, programmatic statements of the main lines or· workings of their topics and assessments of their theological import. Already available are Nonfoundationalism by John E. Thiel, Literary Theory by David Dawson, Postmodemity by Paul Lakeland, and The ories ofC ulture by Kathryn Tanner. Forthcoming tides in the series include Hermeneutics by Francis Schlissler Fiorenza, Critical Social Theory by Gary Simpson, and Afri.can American Critical Thought by Shawn Copeland. I I FEMINIST THEORY AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY CARTOGRAPHIES OF GRACE SERENE JONES GUIDES TO THEOLOGICAL INQVIRY FORTRESS PRESS / MINNEAPOLIS For Charis Augusta Parsons Jones and her future FEMINIST THEORY AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY Cartographies of Grace Guides to Theological Inquiry series Copyright © 2000 Augsburg Fortress. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of chis book may be reproduced in any manner with out prior written permission from rhe publisher. Write co: Permissions, Augsburg Fortress, Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440. Scripture translations from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Coun cil of Churches of Christ in rhe Un ired Stares of America are used by permission. Cover design: Craig Claeys Author photo: T. Dagradi Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Dara Jones, Serene ( -) Feminist theory and Christian theology : cartographies of grace / Serene Jones. p. cm. - (Guides co rheological inquiry) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8006-2694-X {alk. paper) 1. Feminist rheology. 2. Feminist theory. l. Title. II. Series BT83.55 J66 2000 230'.082-dc21 00-035365 CJP The paper used in this publication meets the m1111mum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library e "' Materials, ANSI Z329.48-l 984. Manufactured in che U.S.A. AF 1-2694 04 03 02 01 00 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Contents Foreword Kathryn Tanner Vtl Preface tX I. Mapping Feminist Theory and Theology I Feminist Theory Feminist Theology Cartographies ofG race 2. Women's Nature? 22 The Essentialist Side oft he Debate The Constructivist Side oft he Debate Strategic Essentialism 3. Sanctification and Justification: Lived Grace 49 Feminist Theology as Eschatofogical Essentialism Lived Grace: Remapping justification and Sanctification A Feminist Strategic Essentialist Map 4. Oppression 69 General Features oft he Feminist Theory ofO ppression Demystifying Patriarchy Five Faces ofO ppression 5. Sin: Grace Denied 94 A Reformation Map ofS in A Feminist Remapping ofS in Sin Awaiting Redemption V vi FEMINIST THEORY AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY 6. Community 126 General Features oft he Feminist Theory ofC ommunity Feminist Perspectives on the Liberal/Communitarian Debate A Thirdmzy 7. Church: Graced Community 153 Distinctive Features ofC hurch as Community Church as Community ofS aints and Sinners and as Mother Adorned in Freedom: The Bounded Openness ofC hurch Notes 177 Index 206 Foreword C hristian theology has always conceived itself in dialogue with other intellectual disciplines, notably philosophy. Such a dialogue has expanded its range exponentially and thereby become more difficult in the pluriform, multivoiced intellectual landscape of contemporary times. Help ing theologians navigate an intellectual universe chat no one person can now master, or even adequately survey, is one point of the Guides to Theological Inquiry series. This book on feminist theory and theology is a crucial contribution co the series, each volume of which is dedicated co a topic or method in contemporary intellectual life and its significance for theology. Feminist theology, as it is prac ticed in the United Scates today by academic theologians such as Serene Jones, models for theology generally a courageous and creative strategy of theological response to the shifting and variegated geography of the present intellectual ter rain. As Jones's book so well demonstrates, feminist theology avails itself of the full range of feminist scholarship in a variety of fields (e.g., literary theory, psy chology, and social and political theory) in order better to attend to the con crete specificities of women's lives-their challenges and problems-and co promote, by way of such diagnoses and analyses of women's situations, the flourishing of all. Incorporating the way that feminist scholarship bridges sophisticated academic methods and real-life concerns, feminist theology in Jones's hands reorients doctrines of the human person, sin, grace, and the church in renewed service co the world by remapping creatively the directions for living that such docuines provide. The book therefore combines an inuo duction to feminist studies in a variety of fields with both the rich stories of women's lives and a historically sensitive rereading of Christian doctrines (espe cially in a Protestant vein). The reward, for those interested in consuuct.ive the ological proposals, is an outline of an exciting new feminist systematics. -Kathryn Tanner .. vu Preface A s the subtitle of this book suggests, I undertake the task of "mapping" in the pages ahead. Picking up che cartographer's cools, I sketch for the reader maps of two worlds of reflection, feminise theory and Christian the ology. I like the image of mapping because ic captures well my intention to lay out central concepts that structure these two worlds and to draw lines that show the interconnections between them. At their best, maps help us figure out che "lay of the land" in areas where we might otherwise be lose; they give us directional guides that allow us to negotiate unfamiliar terrains. I hope these maps provide help of this sore to chose unfamiliar with the worlds I explore. Writing this book has made me increasingly aware of the limits of maps, however. Both Christian theology and feminist theory are worlds of thought that have profound effects upon the people who inhabit their terrains. They are discourses that shape lives, craft dispositions, and form certain virtues of per ception and practice; this quality of formation is difficult co capture in the one dimensional lines of cartographic arc. Maps also cannot give one a sense for the fullness and complexity of the lives of the people who live on the streets, hills, and plains they chart. In the chapters ahead, I try to make my maps slightly more multidimensional than usual by stopping occasionally co let their inhabi tants speak, to lee you see something of the dense texture of their day-co-day existence. The best way co hear these voices, however, is not by observing the markings of my maps from a distance; I suggest, instead, actually using these maps to visit the places I describe. Having said this, I muse also say that writing this book has made me acutely aware of the ways maps can hide or obfuscate dimensions of the worlds they cry co order. For example, I spent a good deal of time writing this book in a house that sics on a high-desert dirt road that doesn't appear on any of the marketed maps of the area. Similarly, I am certain that in charring the central concepts that mark the worlds of feminist theory and Christian theology, I have left huge ... vw

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