Okay, so I got to thinking about yesterday’s blog post last night on my commute home from work (strange, huh, the things that occupy your attention when you’re stuck in traffic on the freeway. Complete sidenote—I read last weekend that going 5 mph over the speed limit is like adding 10 cents a gallon to your gas bill). I wasn’t really satisfied with it. First of all, I was wondering whether I should have given you my personal opinion on Calvin’s doctrine of sin, and Jones’ take on it. If this were my personal blog, I might. But the church doesn’t pay me to make theological pronouncements, especially without the authority of a Master’s of Divinity to back me up.

Second, I talked about how I have difficulties dismissing parts of the Bible or confessions. As I got to thinking about it, I realized that I was implying that all previous Christian feminist works do discard them. Undoubtedly there are some who encourage us to throw out chunks, or even all, of Scripture, the most prominent being Mary Daly in Beyond God the Father. However, today’s wave of feminist theologians aren’t the first to grapple with Scripture to find ways in which it can uniquely speak to and empower women. Many others have already done so. In fact, groups like NNPCW come directly from that tradition.

For those of you who are members of NNPCW, you probably received the primers on feminist theology, womanist theology, and mujerista theology in your membership packets. If you’re not a member and you’d like to read them, go to www.pcusa.org/women/education/theology.htm, where you can order them for free. It is a great place to start if you’re wondering what this whole thing is all about. The primers also include some great references for further reading. And coming soon is a fourth primer, on theology from Asian American women’s perspectives.

It is very possible that none of you are interested in this topic, and I’ve now just spent two days boring you stiff. But perhaps there are a few of you out there reading this who are interested in talking more theology. I’ve been thinking for a long time how awesome it would be to run an online young women’s Bible study or theological discussion forum. There are so many young women out there who don’t have campus groups, possibly don’t even have outlets for exploring their beliefs as women (depending on the culture of the campus you’re at). What if we all got together?

There are a couple of feasible ways we could do this. One would be an online bulletin board, where people could post questions and comments for response. I just saw that Presbyterian Disaster Assistance set one up, so why couldn’t we? We could also have regional forums for campus group questions and the like.

We could also do a set weekly chat time, using some very simple chat browsers that we’ve tested here at the office. The advantage to the chat is that we could run it any time that you all wanted—if midnight Eastern is the only time people aren’t rushing around doing homework, we could meet then. If I got even five people who were willing to commit to showing up weekly or monthly, I would put in the effort to do it. We could start off by discussing the women’s theology primers, or even use pieces from other places, like the 2005-2006 Horizons Bible Study on the liturgical calendar. I know your schedules, and this wouldn’t be reading or labor intensive if you didn’t want it to be. It would mainly be an opportunity for women to discuss and learn from one another.

If you’re interested in any of these options, or have more ideas, e-mail me directly at karice@ctr.pcusa.org and we’ll go from there!

Have a great weekend!

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” --Ecclesiastes 3:1

Kelsey

Hi Kelsey,
I meant this response for both blogs, Thursday and Friday, and sent it to the wrong one. So with some time on my hands this afternoon I thought I would copy and edit. And does it ever need to be edited. I should never write in a hurry.
I have been trying to get out a response to your for the last two blogs and couldn't do it till now. Although I am an older woman as you know, I just received my Masters ten years ago. It was in history with a concentration in the humanities. Because of that I could have a field day with my thesis, and I did. The thesis was about feminist's ethics and a proper validation for those ethics which I liked. I chose the Bible as the "good foundation." I am saying all of this to say my first chapter was a history of early feminism and I found three kinds of early feminism. Cultural, Enlightenment and Christian (in this case the Christian feminism was very orthodox and Evangelical. One of the other chapters covered contemporary feminists who I consider radical in their religious views. They are Mary Daly, Rosemary Radford Ruether and Sharon Welch. Then I looked at two contemporary feminists who are orthodox/Evangelical. Here I looked at Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen and Catherine Clark Kroeger. (The first and last chapters of my thesis are on my web site.) My point is one does not have to reinterpret scripture to agree that woman should have full equality. The last two women hold that line. Are you aware that the Salvation Army has always had women preachers and leaders as did the early Methodist. I am very bothered by the kind of feminism that wants to do away with Jesus death on the cross as our salvation. Etc. I wish the Women's Ministry Area did not have such radical books recommended such as "Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us." I do hope you will get more discussions on this.
Blessings,
Viola Larson
p.s. why does one have to do word verification at the end of the blog?