O objetivo principal desta dissertação é fazer uma reflexão sobre as implicações pedagógicas, metodológicas e hermenêuticas da leitura da Bíblia, a partir de uma perspectiva popular e feminista. Nos dois primeiros capítulos são apresentadas algumas implicações envolvidas nessa leitura. Nas implicações pedagógicas foram resgatadas algumas das ideias de educação libertadora e conscientizadora presentes na Pedagogia do Oprimido, de Paulo Freire. Nas implicações metodológicas foi destacada a leitura popular da Bíblia como referência de verdadeiro processo de estudo bíblico popular, que parte de uma pedagogia conscientizadora e libertadora. E nas implicações hermenêuticas foi proposto um diálogo com a hermenêutica crítica feminista de libertação, desenvolvida por Elisabeth S. Fiorenza, pelo seu compromisso ético e político com a mulher enquanto sujeito histórico. No terceiro capitulo são apresentados um relato de experiência do grupo Flor de Manacá e o estudo realizado pelo grupo com o texto do Evangelho de João 8.1-12, que buscou visibilizar não só a metodologia da leitura popular e feminista da Bíblia, mas todo o processo do grupo como sujeito da leitura da Bíblia no contexto da cultura nordestina. Essa experiência e a pesquisa são reveladoras da importância dos grupos e da comunidade num processo de uma nova pedagogia para os estudos bíblicos, comprometidos com uma leitura da Bíblia que seja conscientizadora e libertadora e ao mesmo tempo sensível aos contextos culturais nos quais estão inseridos. / The main goal of this dissertation is to consider the pedagogical, methodological and hermeneutical implications of the reading of the Bible, in a popular and feminist perspective. In the first two chapters are presented some implications involved in this reading. Concerning the pedagogical implications we came back to some ideas on liberating education of Paulo Freire‟s work Pedagogy of the oppressed. Concerning the methodological implications we highlighted in the popular reading of the Bible as a reference for true popular Bible study process, starting from a liberating and empowering pedagogy. Concerning the hermeneutical implications, it was proposed a dialogue with the critical feminist liberation hermeneutics, developed by Elisabeth S. Fiorenza, because of her political and ethical commitment with women while historical subjects. In the third chapter are presented a report of the Flor de Manacá group experience, and the reflection conducted by that group on the text of the Gospel of John 8.1-12. It aimed not only to show the popular methodology and feminist reading of the Bible, but also the whole process of the group as a subject of the reading of the Bible in the context of Brazilian Northeastern culture. This experience and research reveal the importance of the groups and of the community in a process of a new pedagogy for biblical studies, committed to a reading of the Bible that is liberating and empowering and, at the same time, sensible to the cultural context in which it is inserted.

M.A. / The main aim of the research was to make the book of Revelation, often considered as a marginal book within the context of the Christian Bible, more accessible for contemporary readers. The study's first focus is on the contextualization of the creation of this book. The most accepted time frame in which this text was written is around 95-96 AD. The social-historical context in those years was investigated and possible crisis and conflict elements identified. Hypotheses about authorship was developed concluding that Revelation was probably written by a Jew who was part of an itinerant group which was viewed as apocalyptic prophets. The structure of the book of Revelation was investigated, as it is essential for the analysis of the contents. It was found that scholarship has not yet reach consensus of the book of Revelation. Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza nonetheless found general approval among scholars and thus was this chiastic surface structure applied on the book of Revelation. Other models of interpretation were investigated as well as key terminology. The focus then moved to feminist theology. It's origins, key terminology, important contributors and its contributions in the world were investigated. A couple of the new feminist hermeneutical and exegetical models that have been developed during the last decade were research concentrating especially on the twelve tenets developed from the notion of Denise Carmody's pillars of feminist theology. Revelation is interpreted by using these twelve tenets namely the quest for truth, meaning, justice, equality, love, hope, beauty, identity, empowerment, unity, happiness/fulfilment and freedom. Finally, this analysis is briefly evaluated in order to establish if the main aims namely: to arrive at a fresh interpretation of Revelation, making the book of Revelation more accessible to its readers, evaluating the book's relevance for today and developing the means to lead more believers or other readers from fear to freedom, was accomplished. The study concluded that this method had the potential to contribute towards a fresh interpretation of the apocalypse, and the identification of a meaningful message in the narrative. However, using this method exclusively in the exegetical analysis of the book of Revelation, tended to narrow the focus down to only a limited aspect of this rich and varied text. The findings of this research project suggested that, with further refinement, the Carmody-derived research process could fruitfully be used in conjunction with other feminist hermeneutical and exegetical models. Integrated in this manner, it has the potential to contribute towards a change in interpretive perspective and practice.

Please read the abstract in the section, 09summary of this dokument / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Practical Theology / PhD / Unrestricted

This dissertation examines the ecclesiology of the Emerging Church from a feminist perspective. I focus on the theological critiques raised by early feminist theologians regarding the patriarchal habits of sexism and God-talk, systemic erasure and exclusion, and the interconnection of clericalism and hierarchical power embedded within the church. These critiques reveal areas within the Emerging Church where it has failed to embody its stated vision of being an organic, relational, and inclusive form of church. Constructive engagement with the challenges and contributions of feminist theology presses the Emerging Church to more radically embody its stated vision. An analysis of the literature on the Emerging Church reveals its commitment to form a church that reflects organicity, relationality, and inclusivity in a variety of creative forms. At the same time, the literature and public conversations on blogs, social media, and in conferences raise questions about the Emerging Church’s predominantly white and predominantly male public presentation, and about practices of exclusion and marginalization within it. This dissertation provides a thick description of the Emerging Church’s lived ecclesiology on the basis of a qualitative research study conducted on twelve Emerging Church congregations in the United States. The work of early feminist theologians such as Mary Daly, Nelle Morton, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, discloses the theological scaffolding that make the embedding of patriarchal and sexist structures and habits in the church possible in the first place. Their feminist vision of church as radical participation in Christ challenges the Emerging Church to keep re-visioning itself in light of the systemic marginalization persons continue to experience in the church. The dissertation concludes by arguing for the need to incorporate emancipatory language, God-talk, and symbolic systems into the theology and practices of Emerging Church in order to counter the deep-seated patriarchal habits and patterns within it. I conclude that to take itself seriously and achieve the substantive theological and structural changes for which its own vision calls as a living, participatory, and inclusive body of Christ, the Emerging Church must be willing to practice an explicitly feminist critique and take into account the contributions of early feminist theologians.

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My dissertation examines the cross-class relations of Victorian women separated by social status but brought together by their faith in a subversive Christian God who supports female labour. Using original archival research, this project documents the untold story of working-class women and their middle-class allies who challenged patriarchal interpretations of Christian theology and, particularly, the limitations placed on women’s material lives. Drawing on Victorian social thought, feminist autobiography theory, and contemporary body theology, my project pursues two complementary objectives. The first aim is to bring the neglected voices of working-class women into the debates about gender, labour, and cross-class relations that defined the Victorian period. The second is to trace the origins of a feminist “theology from below,” which, born out of the material grittiness of everyday life in the nineteenth century, emphasized the incarnational nature of all bodies, including those labeled dirty, disabled, and perverse. My first two chapters respectively explore the diaries of two well-known Victorian women, Josephine Butler and Hannah Cullwick. Both reconfigure Christian discourses of mission and servitude, seeking not only agency within their positions of subjugation but also new models of relationality. The final two chapters bring together the voices of Jane Andrew (a farm worker) and Ruth Wills (a factory worker) with the writings of fin-de-siècle Christian socialists to construct a politics of redemption based on an ethics of inter-relation that, instead of positioning some bodies as “godly” and others as in need of “saving,” recognizes the immanent divine spirit animating all material life. Using contemporary feminist theology to strengthen the incarnational politics found in these Victorian writings, I argue in favour of bodily transgression—the willingness to walk, talk, touch, and labour in ways that are thought to be “perverse” and “ungodly”—as a legitimate answer to Christ’s call to defy social hierarchies, especially the ones established by capitalist modernity. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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Thesis (Ph.D. (Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics)) -- University of the North, 2000 / Refer to document

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Discussions of rape inevitability tum to the actions of the victim. This thesis documents some of the ways that American law tends to blame rape victims for the crimes against them, rather than blame the perpetrators of rape. This study contends that such an anti-victim reaction arises because patriarchal anthropology, the philosophy of living which grows out of patriarchal theology, proclaims that women are not only sinful but the very cause of sin. The central focus of this thesis is American case law pertaining to rape, critiqued through the lens of patriarchal anthropology. The cultural bias against the victim extends into the heart of the American legal system. This study seeks to demonstrate that patriarchal anthropology and the normalization of rape culture has created a justice system in which blaming the victim is acceptable, and in which the state of mind, previous actions, or appearance of the victim are inappropriately considered when deciding the innocence or guilt of an alleged rapist.