Silent Liberation: Navigating Feminist Theology Through the Christological Lens of Mary of Bethany

Obsculta Volume 7 Issue 1 Article 7 June 2014 Silent Liberation: Navigating Feminist Theology through the Christological Lens of Mary of Bethany Karen M. Kiefer College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/obsculta Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, and the Ethics in Religion Commons ISSN: 2472-2596 (print) ISSN: 2472-260X (online) Recommended Citation Kiefer, Karen M.. 2014. Silent Liberation: Navigating Feminist Theology through the Christological Lens of Mary of Bethany. Obsculta 7, (1) : 61-86. https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/obsculta/vol7/iss1/7. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Obsculta by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. OBSCVLTA S ILENT L IBERATION : N AVIGATING F EMINI S T T HEOLOGY THROUGH THE C HRI S TOLOGI C AL L EN S O F M ARY O F B ETHANY Karen McClain Kiefer Often in life we find ourselves in the paradox of ef- fecting the very antithesis of the goal we pursue. Such might be said about feminist theology, which seeks a greater unity in the Church through greater inclusivity of women within it, thereby freeing women’s experience from biblical and historical suppression. Yet, feminist theologians disagree among themselves as to what this unity looks like, and therefore do not provide a cohesive platform from which to operate. Held in tension are the compatibility of feminist theology with Christianity, Scripture, and even the very nature of Jesus Christ. Ultimately and tragically, their views can dis- card the very voices of women in biblical history that many have admirably sought to liberate. Standing in the midst of confusion among these disparate views within feminist theology, a woman in the Church is a witness to this antithesis.1 She hears a cacophony of voices screaming for liberation and reform that have arisen amidst the oppression, omission and amputa- tion of the feminine experience from Christian tradition and Scripture as the result of misogyny and an androcentric church history and structure. On one side, voices insist on destruction 61 Silent Liberation of existing church structures and discarding Scripture and tradition; and on the other are cries for the reconciliation between patriarchal bias within tradition and the changes we need to make within the church. This dissonance can leave her ques- tioning Scripture, tradition, roles, and even Jesus himself. This woman who loves the church and believes in Jesus Christ can easily feel torn between honoring her dignity as a person and honoring her deep faith, especially as she tries to answer those beautiful and haunting words of Christ, “Who do you say that I am?”2 Only when she looks back at Scripture might she find solace from timeless truth that honors her very existence. She can look to Mary, the understated sister of Martha and Lazarus. Through Mary’s experience with and understanding of Jesus, she can serve as a key exemplar in what it means to be a woman devoted to Christ, and aid in the understanding of the person of Jesus and how he calls both men and women to be in the church and, therefore, the world. Through the Christological lens of Mary of Bethany, it is maintained in what follows that if feminists can expand their vision beyond a primary preoccupation with structure and roles they can bet- ter understand and embody their own call and move closer to the currently elusive goal of greater unity within the church. To examine this, this essay will focus on: (1) The cause of feminist issues within history and the church, (2) The disrup- tive division within feminist theology which claims to be a voice for women in the church, (3) The Christological lenses found within feminist theology, what may influence those lenses and how that Christology informs the understanding of God’s call, and (4) The inspiration of Mary of Bethany to navigate feminist issues and the call of women in the world and the church. Feminist theology did not emerge without cause. 62 OBSCVLTA For centuries, women’s voice has been suppressed in history and in Scripture. We hear very androcentric accounts of world events and biblical events. Women have been blamed by some for the fall,3 and even Aquinas himself stated that “the male sex was normative for humanity and that the female was a defective instance of human being.”4 There has been a great deal for women to overcome. Even today, there are structures in place that can be argued as exclusive and can seem alienating to women. The effect on the psyche and self- image of women in a male-dominated landscape is not to be underestimated.5 As a result, the historical, prevalent bias toward androcentric hermeneutics has fueled a strong and growing response in the form of feminist theology. Women are not happy with the absence of their story in history, and have taken up arms in alternative ways of looking at Scripture and tradition. Fr. Kilian McDonnell, O.S.B. agrees: “The an- gry reaction to the texts of Scripture and tradition denigrating women formed some of the suppositions to feminist hermeneutics [and] exegesis.”6 The feminist response has varied, from throwing up hands in frustration and leaving Christian- ity altogether, to a reformist response that recognizes that the Christian church is not patriarchal in its essence and can be reformed to honor women’s experience as well as men’s. Both responses have significant Christological impacts. These two broad groups of feminists, revolutionary and reformist, 7 that have emerged from within the church seem to proceed from the same theological locus–to proclaim, “that women are fully human beings made in the image of God”8 in equal dignity as men.9 The following seems to be a broad consensus in defining feminism that both groups embrace:10 (1) this equal dignity of women has been persistently denied 63 Silent Liberation and changes need to be made in attitude, concepts or structures to manifest this equality, and 2) feminism is not merely the call for women to have an equal place in the current system. It is a call to rethink and perhaps remake the system itself in light of women’s experience. From there, the two camps can diverge quite drastically in some cases, leaving a woman in the church unsure how to navigate her par- ticipation in it. Both views are examined below, and then compared to Mary of Bethany’s example of discipleship. The Revolutionary Feminist Those who share a revolutionary view of feminist theology seem to dismiss the church altogether, and gen- erally call themselves “post-Christian” because they fully reject Christianity at its very roots as an androcentric patri- archy. Daphne Hampson expresses this in her book, After Christianity, “The position that I advocate is clearly after Christianity in that I think the myth of Christianity untenable on both moral and epistemological grounds.”11 Hampson and other revolutionary feminists argue that Christianity is inher- ently oppressive to women and is unable to adapt to include women’s experience as a central part of the faith. As a result, they declare feminist theology as incompatible to Christianity, and remove themselves altogether from the church, its tradi- tions, doctrines, and perhaps most tragically, Scripture–which contains the very voice of women suppressed over the millennia that some feminists have admirably sought to liberate. Because of this absolute rejection and separation from the church, it could reasonably be argued that their views are inconsequential to a discussion that desires to stand from 64 OBSCVLTA within the Church to examine women’s concerns and experience. McDonnell echoes this concern: “There is... [a] danger- ous element in some feminist texts: absolute frustration from which there is no exit.”12 However, as a group that emerged from Christian tradition, their voices are important to ac- knowledge as part of the greater mosaic of women’s identi- ty and experience that has been so distorted and nearly lost throughout the millennia of biblical history and tradition. The fact that they were so frustrated with the oppression of half of the population of the church as to determine the need to leave the faith justifies a look in to their concerns, and McDonnell has done just that in his studies.13 He reviewed several feminists’ reactions to their anger about women’s sub- ordination in the Christian tradition, and while he focused primarily on their responses through the development of their Mariologies (doctrines on the Virgin Mary), much of what McDonnell reports applies as well to their general feminist theological position. Regarding the problem revolutionary feminists have with Scripture, McDonnell notes: “[T]he problem most of the time is not in the interpretation. ‘The problem is in the text.’ Men see only what male experience allows them to see, they write what male conscience allows them to write.”14 It would seem then to underscore the claim that revolutionary feminists do not wish to mine the Scriptures at all for the treasure of a deeper understanding of women’s experience, but wish instead to disregard them completely as the tainted product of misogyny. McDonnell summarizes: These particular Catholic feminists feel—whether rightly or not—that they cannot rely on Scripture, as it is hopelessly patriarchal. Nor can they look to the structural Church, dominated by old men, who will not implement even those changes in favor 65 Silent Liberation of women that the present Roman theology allows.

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