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Genesis and Patriarchy: Part II Women and the End of Time

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Angela West
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In a previous article, (New Black friars Jan 1981) I argued that the eschatological interpretation of biblical theology is, ultimately, the only possible site for the creation of a feminist discourse. To put it in more assimilable terms: the contradiction of being a woman and a feminist is only finally resolvable in the context of Christian eschatology. This is rather a large claim, so I shall try to substantiate it.

Most theology hitherto has been based on an essentially androcentric perspective as a result of the fact that it is founded on an essentially androcentric anthropology. In recent years, attempts have been made by some anthropologists to bring an alternative perspective to bear on the material of their discipline: thus, Michelle Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere, the editors of a recently published collection of essays by a number of female anthropologists state in their introduction that the aim of the book is to ‘demonstrate the importance of women’s lives for our understanding of the human record’. I think it is important to consider what implications their conclusions, and those of other feminist scholars, have for non-androcentric theology, for a feminist hermeneutics.

At first sight, their conclusions wouldn’t seem to be very comforting to feminists. ‘The current anthropological view draws on the observation that most and probably all contemporary societies, whatever their kinship organisation or mode of subsistence, are characterised by some degree of male dominance’. And further on they say ‘. . . although the degree and expression of female subordination vary greatly, sexual asymmetry is presently a universal fact of life’.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 62 , Issue 736 , October 1981 , pp. 420 - 432
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 Woman, Culture and Society, eds. Rosaldo, and Lamphcre, , California, 1979.Google Scholar

2 Ibid. Introduction p 3.

3 Ibid, p 67.

4 Psychoanalysis and Feminism, by Juliet Mitchell. Penguin, 1974Google Scholar. See especially Conclusion Chap 6 The Cultural Revolution.

5 The Crucified God, by Moltmann, J, SCM. p 326. 1974.Google Scholar

6 Christology at the Crossroads, Jon Sobrino. SCM p 67.Google Scholar

7 See John Atherton's article ‘A Theological Critique of Thatcherism’, in Thatcherism, The Jubilee Group Lent Lectures 1980 ed. Ken, Leech.Google Scholar

8 See Timothy Radcliffe's article The Old Testament as Word of God; Canon and Identity in New Black friars, June 1980, p 31.

9 Ibid, note 13.

10 See article by Terry Eagleton ‘American Criticism Today’ in New Left Review, No 127 May-June 1981.Google Scholar

11 Unpublished lecture by Timothy Radcliffe on Daniel.

12 See Jesus and the Language of the Kingdom, Norman Perrin SCM 1976.Google Scholar

13 Protest and Survivè, eds. Thompson, E. P. and Dan, Smith Penguin 1980 pp 50–51.Google Scholar

14 In Womanmirit Rising, eds. Christ and Plaskow.