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Having clarified what the agenda of feminism, feminist theory and feminist theology is, the focus will now shift to the three theoretical frameworks which underpin this study, namely: feminist theological anthropology, feminist cultural hermeneutics, and feminist pastoral care. Below is a diagrammatic representation of the three theories that form the framework for my study.
Figure 1: Theories underpinning this study
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Kvam (1996:10), theological anthropology differs from the study of humanity in anthropology as a social-scientific discipline. The term ‘theological’ places stress on the fact that this field of study explores the religious considerations of what it means to be God’s human creatures. Christian theological anthropology, like its social-science counterpart, thus understands humanity in a systematic way. Its approach is dualistic in nature. On the one hand, humanity is viewed as historically having become fallen, distorted and sinful; while on the other, in its authentic, original form, humanity is viewed as being created in the image of God (imago Dei) and being “united with God” (Ruether 1983:93).
Having clarified anthropology and theology, the third root of feminist theological anthropology, ‘feminism’, will now be examined. First, it becomes important to point out that a feminist is someone who acknowledges the patriarchal nature of the structure of society, including the church, and who seeks to change this structure. As mentioned above, the development of feminist theology, wherein feminist theological anthropology is located, took place in the second wave of the feminist movement that began in the 1960s (Ruether 2002:7).
The feminist theologians Oduyoye and Kanyoro (2006: 4) agree that historically, Christian thinking has led to some very damaging and oppressive understandings of women. It is this kind of thinking which underpins the androcentric (i.e., male-focused) and patriarchal (i.e., male-dominated) socio-cultural and religious lived reality of most of humanity. In this regard, Ruether (1983:94) mentions a patriarchal anthropology which has linked women with the emotional and bodily aspects and men with the rational and spiritual features of the human being.
According to Sherry Ortner (1996), dual anthropology (i.e., contrasting male and female) has been the material condition under which women have long lived and which remains their dominant experience. Much as this dualism can be critiqued, i t is inappropriate to speak theologically of a single anthropology while ignoring the real and painful differences which gender imposes on people’s lives. According to Rakoczy (2004:32-35), the notion of women as created in the image of God, has been a controversial issue throughout the history of Christianity. The early church fathers, Augustine and Aquinas asserted that only man is created in the image of God. For
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Augustine, woman is the image of God only when she is joined to her husband.
Aquinas viewed woman’s role in reproduction as the core reason for woman’s creation. Rakoczy (2004:48) explains that the traditional dualist model of anthropology is totally inadequate. Men and women are “different but equal”, as polar opposites, and each has characteristics from which the other is excluded. The language of complementarity is used and male and female characteristics are paired:
activity/passivity, reason/intuition, will/emotion, etc. Women’s characterist ics are always the passive and deemed as less important.
This position has served to cover up a materially unjust and sinful condition for women.
This is so because women are said to be equal but to have different roles from men: the latter being leaders, heads of the households and priests (Parsons 2000:12). Ruether (1991:286) writes that feminist theological anthropology must continue to draw its attention to the way in which such thinking and its implementation militates against the achievement of true lived equality for women and men.
As regards the physical aspect of the female body, Ruether (1983:94) argues that creation in the image of God means that a woman’s sexual being is also formed in God’s image, and thus, she concludes that devaluing womanhood and female sexuality is a sin.
Embodiment is then no longer something lesser, but becomes a way of celebrating human sexuality as a reflection of the image of God. Linked to this, Ruether (1983:93) provides a concise pathway for moving from theological anthropology to feminist theological anthropology, which is opposed to patriarchal anthropology:
There appears to be an ambiguity in the way imago Dei/sin has been correlated with maleness and femaleness. On the one hand, deeply rooted in Christian thought, is an affirmation of the equivalence of maleness and femaleness in the image of God. This has never been denied but it has tended to become obscured by a second tendency to correlate femaleness with the lower part of human nature in a hierarchical scheme of mind over body, reason over passions. Since this lower part of the self is seen as the source of sin - the falling away of the body from its original unity with the mind and hence into sin and death - femaleness also becomes linked with the sin-prone part of the self.
Ruether (cited in Gonzalez 2007:127) concludes that a Christian anthropology cannot simultaneously support the stance that male and female both fully reflect the divine
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image, while also taking the position that women are associated with the “devalued aspects” of humanity.
Michelle Gonzalez (2007:125) asserts that feminist theological anthropology argues that humanity was not only created in the image of God, but that the same God created that image as male and female. This argument refutes the classical patriarchal theological anthropology which has historically viewed men as fully reflecting God’s image while women were considered to reflect the image of God (imago Dei) inadequately. This patriarchal view is based on a sexist interpretation of the creation stories of Genesis 2 and 3, which have been used as a source to blame women for the existence of sin in the world. F eminist theologians have used Genesis 1:27 (which records that men and women were created equally in the image of God) to claim the full humanity of women.
In addition, feminist Hebrew biblical scholars have interpreted the second creation story in other ways, as demonstrated by Miranda N. Pillay (2009:89), who highlights that the differences in the depiction of the creation of women could be explained
by suggesting that the first human being was created a hermaphrodite, incorporating within it the two sexes - “male and female, He created them.”
This would then repudiate claims of male superiority over females based on this passage.
It is within the framework of the above interpretation of the Genesis stories that Oduyoye (2001), an African feminist theologian, is empowered to declare that feminist theological anthropology is a fundamental step in the effort to create a more egalitarian understanding of human relationships. The imago Dei in all of humanity is the basis of her theology. Oduyoye (cited in Gonzalez 2007:125), emphasizes “justice, caring, sharing and compassion, even in a hostile world, as the expression of the divine image all human beings are expected to reflect,” which finds its most tangible manifestation in the person of Jesus.
The theory of feminist theological anthropology thus contributes to the struggle against destructive gender constructs (Oduyoye 2001). The reason for employing this theory as one of the three theories underpinning this study is its significance in recognizing that humanity consists of males and females as being equally created in the imago Dei. This has an impact on three parts of this present study: first, it will link to the religio-culturally
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constructed identity of women in the context of this study, which is outlined in chapter four. This linkage is due to the fact that the imago Dei is understood overwhelmingly from a patriarchal anthropological perspective rather than from a feminist theological understanding, an understanding which in turn shapes these women’s religious identities in that they are considered inherently inferior in the eyes of the (largely male) church leaders who uphold such thinking and who transmit this view to the general population.
Second, it will have implications for chapter five, which deals with the perceptions of female ex-prisoners of self, society and God. Hence, in this chapter, the women’s voices will reveal how while the dominant discourse on imago Dei has shaped their perceptions of self and society, it has not affected to the same degree their perceptions of God. What will be revealed and analysed, using feminist theological anthropology, is the women’s transcendence of their oppressive perceptions of self and society, in attaining a liberating perception of God. This perception resonates well with feminist (as opposed to patriarchal) theological anthropology.
Third, the imago Dei concept will contribute to the proposal of a feminist pastoral care definition of rehabilitation from an African viewpoint, to be outlined in chapter six.
Through the lens of this definition of what rehabilitation entails, current theories of rehabilitation will be critiqued and in the same chapter, six features of a new approach will be proposed. In turn, these six features will be used to critique current programmes and ultimately, in chapter seven a new rehabilitation programme will also be put forward.
Rakoczy (2004:42) says that an anthropology which is uplifting of the dignity and equality of women involves an acknowledgment that woman is truly imago Dei and mirrors God’s perfection as much as man does. By misinterpreting scripture in a way that posits sin with women, female ex-prisoners in this study are doubly blamed, first as former criminals and second as fallen Eves of the creation story (Gonzalez 2007:125).
Oduyoye (2001:72) adds that since Jesus Christ is the embodiment of God, then his human nature must reflect God also. The example of true compassion, true justice, and true love for all, especially for the poor and marginalised, embodied in the person of Jesus Christ, must serve as the role model for all of humankind. Through the proposed African feminist pastoral care understanding of rehabilitation, such an understanding of imago Dei will be brought to the forefront.
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