A Comparative Study of Radical/Reformist
Feminist Theology: Mary Daly - Anca Manolache
Anca JUGARU
The article attempts at making
a brief comparative analysis of the opinions that two writers have regarding
feminist theology. One of them is the famous representative of radical
feminist theology, Mary Daly, and the other is a reformist feminist with
a Christian Orthodox orientation, Anca Manolache. The points of view considered
are those from "Beyond God the Father" (Women's Press, London, 1973) and
"Gyn/Ecology" (Women's Press, London, 1979) by Mary Daly, and "Feminine
Issues in the Church of Christ"( Mitropolia Banatului Printing House, Timisoara,
1994), by Anca Manolache.
The paper considers both
the divergent opinions, and the areas in which the two authors agree or
even have the same point of view. Such areas refer to the following issues
of interest in feminist theology: the doctrines about Jesus, woman's place
in the Gospel, her relationship with Jesus, the myth of the primeval sin,
the analysis of Mariology. If the authors have different opinions regarding
the first two issues, because of their different approaches, different
cultural, hystoric and social traditions, as well as different time coordinates,
their opinions coincide to a remarkable extent with respect to the analysis
of Mariology (although their theologic perspectives are distinct) and the
myth of the primeval sin. So remarkable is this coincidence of opinions,
that at certain points, their ideas are convergent, which is probably very
significant and not at all haphazard.
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Feminism and Theology
Anca MANOLACHE
The author does not accept
the idea of feminism in the theological framework. Therefore she proposes
a deep learning of the Christian Orthodox theology, the sole able to offer
a correct understanding of the message of Christ regarding the feminine
problematic.
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A fragment from
"Feminine Issues in the Church of Christ"
Anca MANOLACHE
As the author points out
in her introduction to this work, the clerical community has never felt
the need to explain anthropology in the practical area of the equality
of rights. The world has kept functioning according to the law of the strongest,
so that the Church is nowadays confronted with serious questions, such
as: " what did you, Christians, do with women's liberty and rights". This
is happening because inside the canon, the woman remains under the constraints
of the same laws, dominated and even subdued to the husband's claims and
domination, whithout any support in Messiah Christ's evaluations, whithout
the support of that "sacrificial love" that St.Paul the Apostole mentions
in his anthropological texts.
This is what George Khodr,
the Metropolitan bishop of Orthodox Lebanon thinks (in " La recontrer de
l'Homme chez les chretiens du Moyen Orient", Contacts, issue No.156/1991,
p.293-294) : "We must admit that the modern world's most significant contribution,
in spite of the frightening dissolution of manners that can be noticed,
resides in its discovery of women's cultural role and in giving her the
possibility of expressing her creativity and dignity. The fact that the
woman has come out of her home and that she proves in an admirable way
in some countries and her total involvement in the nation's life combats
St. John Chrisostom's argument, according to which " the woman depends
on man, because she is in charge of household activities and the kitchen".As
the author continues:"… no human being can avoid being the hostage
of his or her own history and experience…". In all this process,
it is important that "the Church should liberate itself from everything
it inherited from Judaism and all the centuries of oppression of women,
and that the believer should try to free the inner being of both men and
women. The bishop ends by saying: " Tell me what you think about women
and I will tell you who you are".(p.3-07)
A certain fatigue of Christian
society endlessly postpones an issue that is now being raised at the ecumenic
level, the author emphasizes. Further more, the issue requires a correct
and responsible answer from the Church, regarding "the role of Orthodox
women in the Church and the society", The purpose of this work is by no
means to promote the idea of women being ordained, because this is not
an urgent issue."It is not ordination that women from the Christian area
need", says Anca Manolache in accordance with the reformism inside Christianity,
but "a serious reevaluation of their place in society, and especially within
the Church, where she urges her sons to go". By degrading the opinion about
women through inhuman and non-Christian labels that the ancient world created
and the Church took over, the tension between the two poles of the humankind
is deepened.
"The two dimensions of human
nature", says the author, "which is the same irrespective of sex, need
a third dimension, that would not only be the arbitrator of this everlasting
dispute, but also go beyond them and force them to respect each other.
The face of God is this third dimension, which guides us and dwells inside
us, as the human being should stop being the only pole of reference for
itself", she ends by quoting the same George Khodr.
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Women - a Challenge for the Whole Church
Gabriele
KIENESBERGER
The article is describing
the need of women belonging to the Roman Catholic Church of Austria. Thanks
to the work of women, the diocese of Linz, trying to meet their chanllenges,
installed in 1997 a Women‘s Commission. The Commission may send
delegates to the highest decision bodies and give input in women‘s
affairs.
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Feminism in a Covent
Mihaela MUDURE
Impressed by a trip to Madrid,
the author creates a pervading essay about one of Spain's most important
mystics, St. Theresa of Avila, who spent a few years in the Encarnation
Monastery. Theresa of Avila was one of the first feminist voices of Christianity
in an age when many visionaries were subjected to the horrors of the Inquisition.
The choice of taking the veil as a way of life is reflected as her means
of liberating herself from the authority of man, as the monastery was one
of the few places where women had access to spiritual life throughout history.
The monastery was a small feminine community in an aggressively patriarchal
age, in times when only nuns and some aristocratic women were able to read.
St. Theresa of Avila was
among the few women who could speak and were allowed to have a say in history,
generally speaking, and particularly in the history of Christianity. By
bravely opening her soul, she was one of the first women who dared to speak
about themselves. In her main work, "The Inner Castle", written for the
spiritual guidance of nuns on the path to devotion, she actually creates
"a feminine communion that is proud in its humbleness, a specific archetype
of feminine solidarity", as the author of the essay tells us.
Under the impression of these
intense feelings that emerged in Madrid, towards the end, Mihaela Mudure
attempts to identify a similar example in the Roman Church of ancient or
more recent times. She draws attention upon the lack of any type of similar
information by asking a challenge-question: " Is this one of the mute presences
of our history, one of the feminine hypostases of our nation still waiting
to be discovered?"
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Religious Attitudes and Practices Regarding
Feminine Blood
Iulia HASDEU
The study synthesizes remarks
rezulted from theoretical explorations having as theme feminine spirituality
regarded from the perspective of religious anthropology.
Blood is one privileged element
in building an anthropology of feminism. Following its path we could study
the feminine cultural univers and its relations with other social and cultural
structures.
The study describes several
sorts of feminine blood from the perspective of cultural meaning, mostly
in Jewish and Christian popular traditions. These sorts of blood gravitate
around menstrual blood and woman's reproductive role. More than that, blood
seems to be, a privileged path towards spirituality for women.
