Christology and Patriarchy - response to article by Karen Trimble Alliaume, Cross Currents, summer 1998

Cross Currents, Fall, 1998 by Marilyn M. Kramer

To the Editors:

In her article "The Risks of Repeating Ourselves: Reading Feminist/Womanist Figures of Jesus" (Summer 1998), Karen Trimble Alliaume noted that "feminists used two strategies, abandonment and unmasking, in resisting the efforts of orthodox christological foundations." This observation tells us that women theologians have been trapped into framing christology solely as a reaction to and within the perimeters set by the Patriarchy - the overarching centrality of Jesus's maleness as King, Son, Lord, and representative priest.

May I suggest a variation on Rosemary Ruether's approach? For me, Jesus is the image of - the prefiguration of - the highest manifestation of humanness: the unlimited capacity for all-inclusive love, His death on the cross the ultimate act of altruism.

Jesus's command to love our neighbor as ourselves tells us to value our neighbor's needs as (i.e., equally) we value our own needs. He admits this is difficult for the powerful and wealthy, who need the sense of importance their power and wealth give them. Through parables and example, Jesus demonstrated the way of love as giving and receiving so as to free them from their concerns for self - from illness, injury, pain, oppression, guilt, resentments, fears, family, possessions - so that their loving could be unlimited. He defined our "neighbor" as all others - the rich, the poor, the sick, the well, the weak, the strong, young and old, men and women, saints and sinners, those who have hurt us and those we have hurt, the less-than-human (lepers), the hated (Samaritans), and the feared (enemies).

All-inclusive love has no body identity, no gender, no racial, ethnic, class, or sectarian identity. Although difficult to describe in concrete form, if we think of it as a potential in ourselves and in all we meet, we can accept our responsibility for nurturing that potential by loving as Jesus loved. Thus envisioned, it can save both women and men of all races and stations.

Jesus's maleness, therefore, is not central to the redemptive mystery. It is a product of time and place more than anything else. The fully human embodiment of the divine image of love in which all humans are created had to be either male or female; given the cultural context of his time and the Old Testament background, I can think of several reasons why Jesus was male. In his time - and indeed in ours today - women were not likely tp be taken seriously as the long-awaited Savior. (The relatively modern pejorative "hysterical female" seems the most likely reaction.) Besides, as the holders of power and wealth in both the secular and religious communities, men had the greater need for Jesus's lessons of equal valuing concern for all others and Jesus was a credible role model with whom they could identify. This is not to say that women, too, do not need a credible, fully human representative of divine love with whom to identify. They do. I suspect women in Jesus's time recognized and identified with his lovingness, but such a personal response to Jesus can be difficult to sustain today.

I have a quibble with Ms. Alliaume's parenthetical remark, "after all, he cried out on his cross and God did not answer." That is the standard interpretation, a very human one, but I suggest another. Jesus fully expected to be with the Father. Immediately after he cried out in despair, he gave up his life. God did answer him, ending his suffering and fulfilling Jesus's expectations. By doing so, God proved that he had not abandoned Jesus. Only our human fear of death made it seem that he had.

MARILYN M. KRAMER Wausaw, Wisc.

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