CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Boston University Institutional Repository (OpenBU) Boston University OpenBU http://open.bu.edu Theses & Dissertations Boston University Theses & Dissertations 2015 A feminist analysis of the Emerging Church: toward radical participation in the organic, relational, and inclusive body of Christ https://hdl.handle.net/2144/16295 Boston University BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY Dissertation A FEMINIST ANALYSIS OF THE EMERGING CHURCH: TOWARD RADICAL PARTICIPATION IN THE ORGANIC, RELATIONAL, AND INCLUSIVE BODY OF CHRIST by XOCHITL ALVIZO B.A., University of Southern California, 2001 M.Div., Boston University School of Theology, 2007 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2015 © 2015 XOCHITL ALVIZO All rights reserved Approved by First Reader _________________________________________________________ Bryan Stone, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Academic Affairs; E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism Second Reader _________________________________________________________ Shelly Rambo, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Theology Now when along the way, I paused nostalgically before a large, closed-to-women door of patriarchal religion with its unexamined symbols, something deep within me rises to cry out: “Keep traveling, Sister! Keep traveling! The road is far from finished.” There is no road ahead. We make the road as we go… – Nelle Morton DEDICATION To my Goddess babies – long may you Rage! v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation has always been a work carried out en conjunto. I am most grateful to Bryan Stone who has been a mentor and a friend long before this dissertation was ever imagined. His encouragement and support have made all the difference to me. I am grateful and proud to call him my advisor and my friend. I am also grateful to Shelly Rambo for being my second reader and for the formative role she has played in key moments of my theological development. I am grateful to my dissertation committee members, Cristian De La Rosa, Choi Hee An, and Christopher H. Evans, for taking the time to engage this project critically. Additionally, I am deeply appreciative of the friendship and influence of Cristian De La Rosa, Phillis Sheppard, Tiffany Steinwert, and Gina Messina-Dysert. I am indebted to the Emerging Church communities that welcomed me into their churches, their homes, and ultimately their lives. It has been a privilege to be in their company and to hear their stories. The Center for Practical Theology, Boston University School of Theology, and the Hispanic Theological Initiative/HTIC have supported my work in more ways than I can count. I am grateful to these institutions and to the people behind them for investing in me and for making this work possible. I offer a special thanks to Joanne Rodriguez, HTI/HTIC Director, and Ulrike Guthrie, editor extraordinaire, both of whom made it possible for me to face my fears along this journey. I am also grateful to the Wesleyan Center at Point Loma Nazarene University and its Visiting Scholars program for providing me a most beautiful place to complete the data analysis stage of the dissertation in the summer of 2014. vi To say that Mary Daly and Team Mary – Linda Barufaldi, Emily Culpepper, Mary Hunt, Nancy Kelly, Nancy O'Mealey, and Jennifer Rycenga – have changed my life would be a ridiculous understatement. I cannot say enough about the significance of their challenge, encouragement, affirmation, and gynergy to my Be-ing. I will always be more grateful than I can adequately express. Thank you for Be-friending me and for your Amazon Grace. I am grateful for the accompaniment of my friends in this process who have cheered me on all along the way. I am thankful to Martin Gutierrez and Kevin Marino, Kate Wilkinson and Lisa Bergeron, who are not only amazing friends but also welcomed me into their homes for extended periods of writing time. I am especially grateful for the accompaniment of Kathryn House and Stephanie Arel in the last years of the program – my cup runneth over – YAYA! And for the accompaniment of Nell Becker Sweeden, Josh Sweeden, Adam Braun, Andrew Tripp, Yara Gonzalez-Justiniano, and my colleagues at the Hispanic Theological Initiative: all of you have made all the difference in my making it to the end of this dissertation, muchas gracias! I am also so appreciative of The Dugout Café – my home away from home and the gathering place for The Pub Church, Boston – I could not, nor would I want to, imagine the journey without them. Finally, I am thankful for my family of birth, each of whom has been an inspiration to me, especially for my mom, whose journey has been inspiring to witness, and for my papa, whose existential wisdom and love for sharing a good drink have gotten me through many a dark day. My last thanks go to Jesse, who is an inspiration to most – words fall short. vii A FEMINIST ANALYSIS OF THE EMERGING CHURCH: TOWARD RADICAL PARTICIPATION IN THE ORGANIC, RELATIONAL, AND INCLUSIVE BODY OF CHRIST (Order No. ) XOCHITL ALVIZO Boston University School of Theology, 2015 Major Professor: Bryan Stone, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs; E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the ecclesiology of the Emerging Church from a feminist perspective. I focus on the theological critiques raised by early feminist theologians regarding the patriarchal habits of sexism and God-talk, systemic erasure and exclusion, and the interconnection of clericalism and hierarchical power embedded within the church. These critiques reveal areas within the Emerging Church where it has failed to embody its stated vision of being an organic, relational, and inclusive form of church. Constructive engagement with the challenges and contributions of feminist theology presses the Emerging Church to more radically embody its stated vision. An analysis of the literature on the Emerging Church reveals its commitment to form a church that reflects organicity, relationality, and inclusivity in a variety of creative forms. At the same time, the literature and public conversations on blogs, social media, and in conferences raise questions about the Emerging Church’s predominantly white and predominantly male public presentation, and about practices of exclusion and marginalization within it. This dissertation provides a thick description of the Emerging viii Church’s lived ecclesiology on the basis of a qualitative research study conducted on twelve Emerging Church congregations in the United States. The work of early feminist theologians such as Mary Daly, Nelle Morton, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, discloses the theological scaffolding that make the embedding of patriarchal and sexist structures and habits in the church possible in the first place. Their feminist vision of church as radical participation in Christ challenges the Emerging Church to keep re-visioning itself in light of the systemic marginalization persons continue to experience in the church. The dissertation concludes by arguing for the need to incorporate emancipatory language, God-talk, and symbolic systems into the theology and practices of Emerging Church in order to counter the deep-seated patriarchal habits and patterns within it. I conclude that to take itself seriously and achieve the substantive theological and structural changes for which its own vision calls as a living, participatory, and inclusive body of Christ, the Emerging Church must be willing to practice an explicitly feminist critique and take into account the contributions of early feminist theologians. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION .................................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. vi ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... viii TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................... x CHAPTER ONE WHY FEMINISM AND THE EMERGING CHURCH? ...................... 1 The Research Question and its Significance ................................................................... 5 The Emerging Church and Feminist Theology ......................................................... 10 The Postmodern Milieu of the Emerging Church Movement .................................. 15 The Method A Feminist Practical Theological Project ................................................. 19 The Descriptive Move............................................................................................... 22 The Qualitative Research Method ............................................................................ 22 The Listening Guide ................................................................................................. 26 The Critical Theological Move ................................................................................. 31 The Strategic Move ................................................................................................... 33 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 33 Limitations .................................................................................................................... 36 CHAPTER TWO EMERGING CHURCH: FOUNDATIONS AND