In 1913 Emily Wilding Scott reported a conversation between church fathers debating whether women had souls. Upon the conclusion of the conversation, they decided that women ‘probably’ had souls. Emily Wilding Scott later threw herself in front of the King’s horse at the English Derby in protest for women’s suffrage.
The word ‘feminism’ was first used in an issue of ‘The Athenium’ in 1895. It has developed and become established as a broad term for socio-political movements and theories aimed at eliminating gender inequality and promoting women’s rights. Feminist theology began as a branch of feminism, and throughout history the two have been closely tied, as the first feminists were ...view middle of the document...
The subsequent advances in feminist theology have only continued under the branch that Fiorenza instigated; Daly’s work applied no methods to move forward as her studies stagnated at her conclusion that the Bible was simply undermined by men. Following in the footsteps of Fiorenza, feminist theologians have contributed to Christianity by redefining good and evil, revelations, and salvation, which heralded the third stage of feminist theology, an exemplary work being Rosemary Radford Reuther’s ‘Sexism and God-talk’.
The most avid realisation of Feminist theology is that historical writing has never been objective- it is subject to relative truths that must be deconstructed: however Fiorenza urged us to see that the core of the Bible is still valid. Some believe that reading the Bible is an anachronistic process, and that one must consider it from the perspective of its time, but feminists find this doesn’t excuse quotes such as ‘sin began with a woman and thanks to her we must all die’ (Eccles 25:33) Feminist theologians see this as the word being skewed in male translation, but these translations have been supported by Christian leaders such as Tertullius, who claimed women to be ‘the devil’s gateway’. Martin Luther, who founded the Lutheran Church, commented on women harshly, saying ‘let them die in childbirth. That’s why they are here’ which illustrates an obvious demotion of women in that it applies the burden of original sin on their shoulders as well as the objectified single use being childbirth, and nothing more. Feminist theologians helped revise...
