THE WEB OF RELATIONSHIP: Feminists and Christians

An investigation of: (1) whether there is a distinctively feminist habit of thought, & (2) the relationship between the feminist position (either as a unique political program or a philosophy) & the Christian theological tradition. Answers are sought primarily in a collection of essays on feminist ethics edited by Barbara Hilkert Andolsen, Christine E. Gudorf, & Mary D. Pellauer, Women's Consciousness, Women's Conscience: A Reader in Feminist Ethics (Minneapolis, Minn: Winston Press, 1985). It is concluded that there are strong, if unacknowledged, ties between feminism & Christianity, primarily in scriptural arguments about justice & liberation, archeological evidence of women's experiences within the Judeo-Christian story, & the development of female-centered religions out of pagan, Jewish, & Christian lore. Specific links between the relationality of the feminist ethical vision & the Christian theology of sin are illuminated via a comparison of these contemporary feminist essays with three twentieth-century Christian documents: H. Richard Niebuhr, The Meaning of Revelation (New York: Macmillan, 1941); Emil Brunner, Man in Revolt: A Christian Anthropology ([Olive Wyon's Tr from German] Philadelphia, Pa: Westminster Press, 1939); & Pope John Paul II, Reconciliation and Penance: Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation (Washington, DC: US Catholic Conference, 2 Dec 1984). K. Hyatt