Reframing Ideas about Feminist Theory and Theology for the 21st Century In Congress of Wo/men: Religion, Gender, and Kyriarchal Power, leading feminist scholar Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza challenges the tendency in feminist theory to leave behind religion—a space of struggle, resistance, and social transformation—as a place for feminist politics. She also confronts the tendency of religious feminists to view women as if they are all the same, or to limit them to complementary roles with men. Presenting an alternative vision for global justice within the landscape of neoliberal kyriarchy, Schüssler Fiorenza calls upon religious and non-religious feminists to engage in transformation through struggle, friendship, and community. Further, this groundbreaking book’s final chapter opens up the discussion for future feminist work, drawing the reader into an imagined community of feminist readers with whom the reader can agree or disagree, but nevertheless struggle alongside to imagine a more just world.
These essays in honor of Professor Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza come from international feminist scholars indebted to her ground-breaking achievements in the areas of biblical studies, feminist thought and social justice. The contributors represent a wide variety of backgrounds, commitments, methodologies, talents and interests. They are united here by their appreciation for Schussler Fiorenza as a scholar, teacher, mentor, colleague and friend. The spectrum is full of vitality, with important convergences and intersections. It exemplifies what Schussler Fiorenza has called 'critical collaboration': women thinking together and creating together. This Festschrift is unique in that it celebrates the work of women in the field. On the Cutting Edge is indexed in H.W. Wilson's Essay and General Literature Index.
Ephesians is a “mystery” text that seeks to make known the multifarious Wisdom of G*d. At its heart is the question of power. In this commentary, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza examines the political understandings of ekklesia and household in Ephesians as well as the roles that such understandings have played in the formation of early Christian communities and that still shape such communities today. By paying close attention to the function of androcentric biblical language within Ephesians, Schüssler Fiorenza engages in a critical feminist emancipatory approach to biblical interpretation that calls for conscientization and change, that is, for the sake of wo/men’s salvation or wellbeing.
In Wo/men, Scripture, and Politics, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, brings to bear years of trailblazing scholarship of feminist thought and hermeneutics onto the current political and cultural landscape. In this book, she seeks to articulate and use biblical interpretation as intervention into the failure of the democratic cultural-political imagination. Although such an intervention is often taboo for supposedly neutral academic scholarship, Schüssler Fiorenza argues that it is politically necessary because political argument today so often utilizes biblical rhetoric in the public square. e biblical-political analysis and suggestions of this book are developed in four chapters, each focusing on the role of the Bible in struggles over women’s leadership in the present, touching on the cultural “double bind” of women in politics, sexual abuse, power, and the #MeToo movement. Schüssler Fiorenza’s insights and arguments not only lead to the development of reimagined cultural biblical imprints of women in the political arena, but they also encourage her readers to add their own biblical examples to inspire them in their struggle for a biblical vision of “women in the public square.” is is an insightful, challenging book written for our time by someone who has always seemed to be ahead of hers.
Changing Horizons is the second of two volumes highlighting the ways in which Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza's work constructs a critical feminist theory and praxis of liberation, in relation to the biblical text and its legacy, and in relation to the theological and ecclesial setting of today. Schussler Fiorenza attempts to free both biblical studies and theology from disciplinary constraints and assumptions that have allowed them to acquiesce and even perpetuate forms of oppression—from racism and poverty to colonialism and gender equality.
This feminist classic explores the ways in which women can read the Christian Bible with full understanding of both its oppressive and its liberating functions. In the substantial new Afterword to this edition, Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza situates Bread Not Stone in relation to mainstream Biblical scholarship, Catholic and Protestant theologies, liberation theologies, and nineteenth-century feminist writings on the Bible.
In Jesus: Miriam's Child, Sophia's Prophet Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza makes a unique contribution to two quite different discussions of Jesus the Christ. On the one hand, she looks at biblical christology from a critical feminist perspective in the tradition of liberation theology. On the other, she examines the feasibility of a feminine christology by considering such problems as Christian anti-Judaism, ideological justification of domination, religious exclusivism and the formation of patriarchal identity. Re-imagining the Jesus movement in a feminist key transcends the boundaries set by history, gender and doctrine. By assessing various Jesus traditions and interpretations in terms of whether they can engender liberating visions for today, Schüssler Fiorenza seeks to challenge and transform a Christianity dominated by masculinity and exclusivist theological frameworks so that it offers a vision of justice and well-being for all, the central image in which is the reign, the coming world, of God. This Cornerstones edition features a new extended introduction which takes into account the developments in the field since the work was originally published in 1994.
Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza describes the theoretical and liberative theological commitments that orient her pioneering biblical scholarship, including the use of critical theory, analysis of interacting social, political, economic, and religious oppressions, and promotion of a genuinely emancipatory and democratic community of equals--in academy, church, and wider society alike.
In this major study, leading feminist biblical critic Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza focuses on Paul and his interpreters. She questions the apolitical ethos of biblical scholarship and argues for an alternative rooted in a critical understanding of language as a form of power. Modern biblical criticism, she reasons, derives much of its methodology and inspiration from an outdated notion of modern science. It professes value-neutrality and detachment from the world of politics and history. Yet, Schussler Fiorenza maintains, this posture belies an objectivity that fails to engage the sociopolitical context of both the text and today's reader. It also does not recognize the rhetorical character of biblical texts and readings. If language is understood in the sense of ancient rhetorics as a form of power that constitutes reality, then an ethics of interpretation is called for. The task of biblical studies is to identify and assess the ethical resources and moral visions of biblical religions. "Only then," Schussler Fiorenza contends, "will bibical studies be a significant partner in the global struggles seeking justice and well-being for all.
With Empowering Memory and Movement, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza completes a three-volume look across her influential work and career. In Transforming Vision (2011), she drew from decades of pioneering scholarship to offer the contours of a critical feminist hermeneutic. The chapters in Changing Horizons (2013) sketched out a theory of liberation. Now, the consequences for a liberating praxis are elaborated in interviews and essays that chart Schüssler Fiorenza’s own personal and professional history as these are intertwined with the history of the worldwide movement for emancipation and full equality. Empowering Memory and Movement looks back, but also looks around at challenges and potentialities on the global scene, and looks ahead to an emancipatory future, with a critical and wise engagement with scripture and the interpretive tradition always at the center.
More than ten years after it was first published, this book is as important and influential as when it first appeared. By way of celebration, Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza has written a new introduction, surveying responses and developments over recent years and the issues which arise from them, and commenting on her own intentions. This gives added value to what is already a classic.
Schüssler Fiorenza addresses such questions as, What are the educational practices and procedures that are advocated by traditional educational models, and how can they be changed? What kinds of educational and communicative practices do biblical studies need to develop in order to fashion an emancipatory democratizing rhetorical space and a forum of many voices? To envision, articulate, debate, and practice a radical democratic ethos of biblical studies, she identifies emerging didactic models that can foster such a radical democratic style of learning"--Pbk. cover.
Elisabeth Schuessler Fiorenza, well-known for her pioneering New Testament study In Memory of Her, was not only present at the creation of the feminist movement in theology and church, but was one of those women who gave it birth. 'Discipleship of equals', the title of this book, was her coinage, as was 'women-church' and ekklesia of women. However, this book is not a memoir or a biography; rather, it charts her feminist theological struggles. Collected within it are studies representing key issues in feminist theology and the feminist religious movement—milestones in the attempts of Christian feminists to reclaim their spiritual authority, to define biblical religion and the Christian church, and to articulate a feminist religious vision of justice and liberation. As the author herself writes: 'More than ever before, the women's movements in society and religion need a critical feminist analysis of patriarchal religious structures and a critical feminist theological articulation of liberation. By tracing my own unfolding journey of vision and struggle and by relating it to the collective struggle of women in theology, I seek to intervene in the contest over who has the right and authority to claim biblical religion.
How can recent advances in biblical studies empower feminist struggles and inspire all Christians to articulate a vision that promotes human dignity, justice, inclusivity and well-being for all? In this book, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza develops her insights into the study of the Bible. She reclaims the work of nineteenth and early twentieth-century feminist biblical interpreters. And she analyses several intriguing biblical passages to show how the Bible can contribute to the spiritual struggle for a more just world. Praise for Sharing Her Word: "A fresh yet seasoned stock taking of feminist Biblical hermeneutics by one of the leading figures in this field." - Old Testament Essays, 2000>
Jesus and the Politics of Interpretation seeks to interrupt the rhetorics and politics of meaning that, in the past decade, have compelled the proliferation of popular and scholarly books and articles about the historical Jesus, and that have turned Jesus into a commodity of neocapitalist western culture.In this spirited book, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza continues her argument begun in Jesus: Miram's Child, Sophia's Prophet (Continuum, 1995), now with a focus on the politics of Jesus scholarship. It is no accident, she maintains, that scholars in the U.S. and Europe have rediscovered the historical Jesus at a time when feminist scholarship, critical theory, interreligious dialogue, postcolonial criticism, and liberation theologies have pointed to the interconnections between knowledge and power at work in positivistic scientific circles. It is also no accident that such an explosion of Jesus books has taken place at a time when the media have discovered the "angry white male syndrome" that fuels neo-fascist movements in Europe and the U.S.The answer to this commodification of "Jesus" is not a rejection of critical scholarship and Jesus research but a call for their investigation in terms of ideology critique and ethics. By claiming to produce knowledge about the "real" Jesus, Schüssler Fiorenza points out, mainstream as well as feminist scholars refuse to stand accountable for their reconstructive cultural models and theological interests. Hence, she calls for an ethics of interpretation that can explore such a scholarly politics of meaning, rather than the ideological discourses on "Jesus and Women" that are fraught with both anti-Judaism and anti-feminism.
Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza charts a new and provocative course in the interpretation of the book of Revelation. She recognizes not only the ideological distortions but also the sociopolitical location of the Apocalypse. In this way she opens to the reader the world of vision of this powerful New Testament book. This book has three major sections: (1) an introduction that centers on social location and rhetorical analysis; (2) the commentary; and (3) a theo- ethical rhetorical reading of the visionary world of the book of Revelation under the headings of empire, tribulation, resistance, and competing voices.
DO MEN AND WOMEN read the Scriptures differently? Do they bring different concerns and presuppositions to the text, use different methods? read with different eyes? And should they? These are some of the basic questions addressed in this book. Searching the Scriptures is a feminist introduction, and it differs from any book in that genre ever written. It charts a comprehensive approach to feminist interpretation and prepares the way for a second volume which will engage in critical feminist commentary on the Christian Testament and other early Christian writings. The two-volume commentary project grew out of a five-year-long series of discussions in the "Women in the Biblical World" section of the Society of Biblical Literature, involving feminist scholars from all over the world. Their aim was to explore the ambivalent feminist legacy of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's The Woman's Bible, the centenary of which falls in 1995. Like that volume, Searching the Scriptures underlines the political character of biblical interpretation. However, it does not adopt the conceptual and methodological approach of The Woman's Bible, nor, like another recent study, does it limit its theoretical focus to gender. Rather, it seeks to be inclusive, ecumenical and multicultural. It brings together the best in contemporary feminist biblical and historical studies to explore critical issues of perspective, method and communication. This first volume explores the many facets of feminist hermeneutics, outlines modes of enquiry and theological approaches, samples the history of interpretation by women, and shows possible ways forward for feminist biblical studies for both worship and teaching. ELISABETH SCHUSSLER FIORENZA is the Krister Stendahl Professor of Harvard Divinity School and the first woman president of the Society of Biblical Literature.
How can recent advances in biblical studies empower feminist struggles and inspire all Christians to articulate a vision that promotes human dignity, justice, inclusivity and well-being for all? In this book, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza develops her insights into the study of the Bible. She reclaims the work of nineteenth and early twentieth-century feminist biblical interpreters. And she analyses several intriguing biblical passages to show how the Bible can contribute to the spiritual struggle for a more just world. Praise for Sharing Her Word: "A fresh yet seasoned stock taking of feminist Biblical hermeneutics by one of the leading figures in this field." - Old Testament Essays, 2000>
Breaking the silence - becoming visible / Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza -- Daughters of the church : the four Theresas / Mary Collins -- Neither clergy nor laity : woman in the church / Marie Zimmermann -- Enclosure : institutionalising the invisibility of women in ecclesiatical communities / Margaret Brennan -- Images of women in the lectionary / Marjorie Proctor-Smith -- Women in church history / Adriana Valerio -- 'Becoming male' : one aspect of an early Christian anthropology / Kari Vogt -- Transforming moral theology - a feminist ethical challenge / Mary Hunt -- Role of women in the ecumenical dialogue / Marga Buhrig -- Vocational prospects of Catholic women theologians and their situation in Catholic theology departments in German universities (with special reference to the University of Munster, Westphalia) / Isis Muller -- Women as leaven : theological education in the United States and Canada / Mary Boys -- Editorial reflection / Mary Collins.
Reframing Ideas about Feminist Theory and Theology for the 21st Century In Congress of Wo/men: Religion, Gender, and Kyriarchal Power, leading feminist scholar Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza challenges the tendency in feminist theory to leave behind religion—a space of struggle, resistance, and social transformation—as a place for feminist politics. She also confronts the tendency of religious feminists to view women as if they are all the same, or to limit them to complementary roles with men. Presenting an alternative vision for global justice within the landscape of neoliberal kyriarchy, Schüssler Fiorenza calls upon religious and non-religious feminists to engage in transformation through struggle, friendship, and community. Further, this groundbreaking book’s final chapter opens up the discussion for future feminist work, drawing the reader into an imagined community of feminist readers with whom the reader can agree or disagree, but nevertheless struggle alongside to imagine a more just world.
This feminist classic explores the ways in which women can read the Christian Bible with full understanding of both its oppressive and its liberating functions. In the substantial new Afterword to this edition, Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza situates Bread Not Stone in relation to mainstream Biblical scholarship, Catholic and Protestant theologies, liberation theologies, and nineteenth-century feminist writings on the Bible.
Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza describes the theoretical and liberative theological commitments that orient her pioneering biblical scholarship, including the use of critical theory, analysis of interacting social, political, economic, and religious oppressions, and promotion of a genuinely emancipatory and democratic community of equals--in academy, church, and wider society alike.
With Empowering Memory and Movement, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza completes a three-volume look across her influential work and career. In Transforming Vision (2011), she drew from decades of pioneering scholarship to offer the contours of a critical feminist hermeneutic. The chapters in Changing Horizons (2013) sketched out a theory of liberation. Now, the consequences for a liberating praxis are elaborated in interviews and essays that chart Schüssler Fiorenza’s own personal and professional history as these are intertwined with the history of the worldwide movement for emancipation and full equality. Empowering Memory and Movement looks back, but also looks around at challenges and potentialities on the global scene, and looks ahead to an emancipatory future, with a critical and wise engagement with scripture and the interpretive tradition always at the center.
An important contribution to feminist christological conversation."- Toronto Journal of Theology "Essential for anyone grappling in depth with issues of biblical christology." -Anglican Theological Review
Schüssler Fiorenza addresses such questions as, What are the educational practices and procedures that are advocated by traditional educational models, and how can they be changed? What kinds of educational and communicative practices do biblical studies need to develop in order to fashion an emancipatory democratizing rhetorical space and a forum of many voices? To envision, articulate, debate, and practice a radical democratic ethos of biblical studies, she identifies emerging didactic models that can foster such a radical democratic style of learning"--Pbk. cover.
In this major study, leading feminist biblical critic Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza focuses on Paul and his interpreters. She questions the apolitical ethos of biblical scholarship and argues for an alternative rooted in a critical understanding of language as a form of power. Modern biblical criticism, she reasons, derives much of its methodology and inspiration from an outdated notion of modern science. It professes value-neutrality and detachment from the world of politics and history. Yet, Schussler Fiorenza maintains, this posture belies an objectivity that fails to engage the sociopolitical context of both the text and today's reader. It also does not recognize the rhetorical character of biblical texts and readings. If language is understood in the sense of ancient rhetorics as a form of power that constitutes reality, then an ethics of interpretation is called for. The task of biblical studies is to identify and assess the ethical resources and moral visions of biblical religions. "Only then," Schussler Fiorenza contends, "will bibical studies be a significant partner in the global struggles seeking justice and well-being for all.
In Wo/men, Scripture, and Politics, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, brings to bear years of trailblazing scholarship of feminist thought and hermeneutics onto the current political and cultural landscape. In this book, she seeks to articulate and use biblical interpretation as intervention into the failure of the democratic cultural-political imagination. Although such an intervention is often taboo for supposedly neutral academic scholarship, Schüssler Fiorenza argues that it is politically necessary because political argument today so often utilizes biblical rhetoric in the public square. e biblical-political analysis and suggestions of this book are developed in four chapters, each focusing on the role of the Bible in struggles over women’s leadership in the present, touching on the cultural “double bind” of women in politics, sexual abuse, power, and the #MeToo movement. Schüssler Fiorenza’s insights and arguments not only lead to the development of reimagined cultural biblical imprints of women in the political arena, but they also encourage her readers to add their own biblical examples to inspire them in their struggle for a biblical vision of “women in the public square.” is is an insightful, challenging book written for our time by someone who has always seemed to be ahead of hers.
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