The aim of this study is to explore how it might be possible to talk about God as powerful within a Christian feminist framework. This has been declared impossible by Mary Daly who, in her book Beyond God the Father (1973), strongly criticises the Christian tradition for being too deeply intertwined with patriarchy to be of any use for women seeking liberation from male oppression. This essay compares the works of two contemporary feminist theologians, with the aim to answer Daly’s criticism and seek for ways to talk about God’s power that considers this criticism as relevant while still remaining Christian. The method used is textual analysis, and the material consists of the books Cloud of the impossible by American process theologian Catherine Keller and Powers and Submissions by British Anglican theologian Sarah Coakley. The views presented on God’s power by these two theologians are introduced thematically. The three themes used are The relation between humans and God, The importance of language and The Male Trinity. These are then discussed in comparison to Daly’s standpoints. Keller promotes an image of God as radically relational and uses apophatic theology to show how limited our knowledge of any definite insights of God and the limitations of the human language is. Coakley advocates for submission to God through contemplation, which leads to insights about God’s genderlessness and makes space for God’s power to work within humans in order for them to overthrow gender inequalities. When compared to Daly this essay reaches the conclusion that there are ways to speak of God’s power in a “feminist friendly” way, such as through a form of submission to the creative power of God, although it has to be done with consideration to context and without forgetting the dark history of how the Church has misused power in the past.

Den här uppsatsen diskuterar John Howard Yoders teologiskt motiverade sexuella våld, med hjälp av queerteologen Marcella Althaus-Reid och den feministiska teologen Mary Daly, och även andra teologiska perspektiv. Särskilt fokus läggs på hur en teologi för syndarens upprättelse och försoning riskerar att osynliggöra skadade och sårbara personer, hur en idealiserad bild av församlingen riskerar att skada den personliga omdömesförmågan, och hur ett profetiskt motiverat gränsöverskridande riskerar att legitimera våld. / This thesis aims to discuss the theologically motivated sexual violence of John Howard Yoder, in the light of the writings of queer theologian Marcella Althaus-Reid and also feminist theologian Mary Daly, and others. Attention is put on how the hurt persons might be left out of a theology for redemption of the sinner, how an idealized view of the congregation risk hurting the personal capacity for judgement, and on how a prophetic calling to cross boundaries might end up protecting transgressive violence.

Assessing the feminist belief that women have a perspective dramatically differing from the patriarchal perspective, and that this viewpoint is, or could be, couched in a language differing from the norm, this researcher addressed the following three questions: (1) is there a definition of a women's language? (2) does a women's language exist? and (3) if a women's language does exist, in what form does it exist? These questions engendered feminist rhetorical criticism on the work of two radical feminists well known for their interest in, and attention to, the issue of a women's language.

In Pure Lust, Mary Daly claims that the Virgin Mary is an “image of total subservience, the dethroned and sapped Goddess who was converted into a vessel.” Daly perceives Mary primarily through Christian scripture and other orthodox texts, ignoring her role as part of a religion lived and experienced outside of Church doctrine and dogma. This thesis explores how Mary is perceived and utilized by the laity, as opposed to the theological Mary, by specifically looking at how the Virgin Mary is imagined and experienced at the Our Lady of Ephesus Shrine in Western Turkey. Utilizing Robert Orsi’s lived religion approach and ethnographic research, this examination of the Virgin Mary will test Daly’s theologically based theory.

The exposition of patriarchy and feminism in this thesis points toward the difficulty women experienced in the past, and in many cases still do, in their pursuit for equality in a male dominated society. Without feminists’ consciousness raising concerning women’s oppression, women might still be under patriarchal domination, oppression, and marginalisation; in fact, many still are. As a result, many women today can reject the views that men are superior, stronger, and more rational than they are, and that God created men to dominate on male-female relations. In their struggle against patriarchy, some feminists however, began to transform Biblical images and language for God, with the result that masculine images of God were simply replaced with feminine images, presenting God as androgynous and not as a Deity who transcends sexuality. God’s identity thus, in my opinion, became obscured. In this thesis I argue that both patriarchy and feminism have contributed to our experiencing difficulties when we try to identity with a loving and caring God as portrayed in Scripture. Daly’s outrage and anger against men and the Christian faith, as well as her decision to turn away from Christianity on the basis of its patriarchy, I judge to be, for various reasons given in this thesis, a negative influence in this debate. She is undoubtedly one of the most radical feminists of the past decades and her slogan “since God is male, the male is God” implies that in order for women to become liberated they require the emasculation of God. Daly’s line of reasoning is that Christianity is a male structure with a Scripture that is irredeemably patriarchal. Her belief that Christians are fixated upon the person of Jesus, a male, and that, therefore, women have to overcome this idolatry needs serious questioning. Her radical views have created disunity and separatism between women who are striving to answer life-changing questions / Philosophy & Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)

The exposition of patriarchy and feminism in this thesis points toward the difficulty women experienced in the past, and in many cases still do, in their pursuit for equality in a male dominated society. Without feminists’ consciousness raising concerning women’s oppression, women might still be under patriarchal domination, oppression, and marginalisation; in fact, many still are. As a result, many women today can reject the views that men are superior, stronger, and more rational than they are, and that God created men to dominate on male-female relations. In their struggle against patriarchy, some feminists however, began to transform Biblical images and language for God, with the result that masculine images of God were simply replaced with feminine images, presenting God as androgynous and not as a Deity who transcends sexuality. God’s identity thus, in my opinion, became obscured. In this thesis I argue that both patriarchy and feminism have contributed to our experiencing difficulties when we try to identity with a loving and caring God as portrayed in Scripture. Daly’s outrage and anger against men and the Christian faith, as well as her decision to turn away from Christianity on the basis of its patriarchy, I judge to be, for various reasons given in this thesis, a negative influence in this debate. She is undoubtedly one of the most radical feminists of the past decades and her slogan “since God is male, the male is God” implies that in order for women to become liberated they require the emasculation of God. Daly’s line of reasoning is that Christianity is a male structure with a Scripture that is irredeemably patriarchal. Her belief that Christians are fixated upon the person of Jesus, a male, and that, therefore, women have to overcome this idolatry needs serious questioning. Her radical views have created disunity and separatism between women who are striving to answer life-changing questions / Philosophy and Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)

The diploma thesis Antifeminism in Contemporary Teaching of the Roman Catholic Church examines the mechanisms which shape the identity of women in Roman Catholic teachings. This is the starting point for the subsequent constitution of gender order, i.e. the way the relationship between man and woman is constructed, and in which woman is subordinated to man. To support the subordinate position of women, Roman Catholic theology implemented theory of complementarity into its teachings. This inequality provides an important underpinning of gender-based violence. Feminist movement and feminist theology, such as that of Mary Daly brought new analytical tools in the 1960s and 1970s to understand the functioning of the social mechanisms that lead to women's subordination. These tools are, in particular, feminist critique and perspective, critique of power relations and of androcentrism, and a specifically feminist understanding of woman's identity. The Istanbul Convention, with its perspective that rejects inequality, promotes criticism of power relations and describes violence against women as gender-based violence, is conceptually in accordance with the methods and goals of the feminist movement as well as with democratic principles. In particular, it agrees with them on the issue of gender-based...