This thesis explores the meaning of embodied existence in the discourse of difference feminism and in the articulation of feminist theological ethics. Specifically, the analysis centres on the embodiment of maternity, both as it has been depicted in the tradition of philosophical and theological thought and as contemporary feminists debate its significance. The salient question guiding this inquiry springs from a set of questions that have been energetically explored throughout the history of philosophy. What is the significance of the female body to the enterprise of intellectual discourse? To spiritual transcendence? To the capacity to reason? To the way in which ethics is perceived and "done"? In general, the tradition has tolerated the inclusion of female embodiment only insofar as it gave flesh to expressions of human depravity. Building on the work of Mary O'Brien, principally in The Politics of Reproduction, this thesis extends the original questions by exploring the meaning of maternal embodiment within the theoretical and structural creations of Western thought. The first chapter outlines the contemporary debate among several feminist writers regarding the place of difference in feminist theorizing. Each of these authors is particularly concerned with the dualistic encoding of Western society that has relegated woman to the periphery of meaning-making. The analysis reveals that, from differing standpoints, motherhood emerges in their work as the inscribed and fundamentally subverted foundation of patriarchal ethics. In chapter two, the thesis details Mary O'Brien's philosophy of birth as itself a dialectical encounter with the traditional themes and methodologies of masculine theory construction. The analysis reveals how Mary O'Brien retrieves a universal experience as a theoretical and concrete basis for feminism without rendering it static and resistant to change. O'Brien reworks some of the seminal concepts of philosophy and ethics in order to validate the material experiences with which women are variously familiar. The third chapter compares each feminist account with Mary O'Brien's work, drawing on strengths and weaknesses and on the complementary links that can be deduced. The use of predecessor theory, the tension between material existence and abstraction, and the feminist quest for subjecthood and autonomy feature prominently in this dialectical encounter. Finally, chapter four compares a traditionally inspired "theology of the body" by Benedict Ashley with feminist theological views of embodiment offered by Beverly Wildung Harrison and Lisa Sowle Cahill. Harrison and Cahill, it is revealed, bridge Ashley's quest to theologize embodied existence with Mary O'Brien's affirmation of birth as a resource for profound ethical insight. The thesis also draws out important links between Mary O'Brien's understanding of maternity and the clarion wisdom of feminist theological ethics.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/9443 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Stevens, Joy. |
| Contributors | Melchin, Kenneth R., |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 234 p. |
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