Mrs Murphy's Arising from the Pew - feminist theology

Ecumenical Review, The, Jan, 2001 by Ninna Edgardh Beckman

Inherent risks

I can see an interesting potential for theology in the responses to God and society which are enacted in these liturgies. However there are also risks which, needless to say, differ according to whether they are seen from a feminist perspective (e.g., the need for a change of patriarchal patterns), or from the perspective of preserving liturgical tradition (e.g., the need to safeguard elements of Christian identity manifested in liturgy, patriarchal or not).

In our context, feminist needs challenge traditional Lutheran understandings of Bible and tradition, God and the human being. However these are matters which are already much disputed in contemporary theological debate -- the relationship between justice and justification being a good example, the relationship between scripture and tradition another.(15) Such basic theological issues are clearly in need of continual reinterpretation in each generation. Therefore I think it would be wrong to say that the liturgies which I have studied "reject" central Lutheran understandings: they rather underscore the need of an ongoing interpretation of matters of faith, and point to a lack of such a debate in the contemporary church.

I would also say that the role of women as priests in this process is essential. As priests, they have theological training and bear responsibility in dealing with matters of faith. As women, they might find it easier to understand how patriarchal patterns of liturgy may hinder a woman's development towards spiritual maturity. Women as priests' may thus be well suited to bridge the gap between the needs of women and the truths of tradition in a creative way, not least by authorizing laywomen as being capable of theological reflection. But this, of course, also presupposes a feminist consciousness.

From a feminist perspective there are obvious risks with women coming thus together to reconstruct liturgical tradition, and drawing mainly from their own experience. Feminist theologian Anne-Louise Eriksson has shown how the construction of theological ideas in the liturgy of the Church of Sweden has been closely linked with the construction of gender.(16) The idea of God as "absolutely other" has, for example, been dependent on the separation of male and female, with God as male and the congregation, at least implicitly, as female. Women coming together to construct liturgy never start "from scratch", but relate to tradition in one way or another. The risks of -- perhaps unconsciously -- taking over traditional understandings of "femininity" and "masculinity" are apparent.

Ecclesiological conclusions

The feminist liturgical movement -- in Sweden and elsewhere -- may be analyzed from many different perspectives. Up to now debate on the forms of women's liturgies has mainly focused on questions of gender symbolism and inclusive language, while the content of the liturgies has primarily been discussed in terms of heresy or orthodoxy. One major example of this type of debate is the aftermath of the global "Reimagining" conference on feminist theology held in Minneapolis in 1993. The conference, which was meant to mark the midpoint of the Ecumenical Decade, caused a verbal war in the North American religious press, with high costs (in terms of spoiled trust and relationships) paid by all parties. To meet accusations that worship al the conference was "heretical", those defending the conference had to address such questions as whether it was "Christian" or not to call God "Mother Sophia", and whether a shared meal held at the end of the conference was, or was not, a "desecration" of the eucharistic meal.(17)