I recently read an article entitled "Confessions of a recovering feminist," written by a female M.Div. student at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary here in Louisville. You can find the article here: http://www.towersonline.net/printer.php?grp=issues&id=196

The author makes the claim that "feminism is at the very heart of our fallen nature," and that her recovery from feminism is about "repentance of [her] desire to be in control and to raise [her] fist against God's created order." She goes on to note:

Only through repentance and faith in Christ am I, or any one for that matter, able to renounce rebellion and submit to the lordship of Christ. Recovery from feminism also means truly believing that God's Word regarding gender, and everything else for that matter, is true.

I agree wholeheartedly that it is only through repentance and faith in Christ that we are able to renounce rebellion and submit to the lordship of Christ. What I don't agree with is that feminism is a rebellion against God's created order, or that a woman's submission to the lordship of Christ should result in her one-sided submission to men, based solely on gender, in either her personal or public relationships.

The good news (gospel) of Jesus Christ is that in Christ, we are set free from sin. We are set free from the curse of Genesis 3, in which humans are put into conflict with one another, with the land, and with the animals. (See Genesis 3:14-19.)

The discordance described in Genesis 3 is not God's created order! God's created order, which Christ came to restore, is beautifully described by Paul in his letter to the Galatians, in which he writes about Christian freedom.

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sister; only do not use your freedome as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Galatians 5:13-14).

In Christ, we are called to a particular type of freedom, one in which we are asked to serve one another as equals.

For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God though faith.... There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26, 28).

The unequal roles of "free" and "slave"--consequences of the curse of Genesis 3--are done away with. The unequal roles of "male" and "female"--also consequenses of the curse of Genesis 3--are also done away with.

There are times when we need to be reminded to serve the most vulnerable members of Christ's body as equals. That is where Christian feminists, liberation theologians, etc. best serve the church. These members of Christ's body call us in faithful and creative ways to remember what it means to be free in Christ.

I am blessed to be a part of a Christian feminist community, NNPCW. We commit to feminism as an extension of our Christian belief that all people are made in the image of God as equals. We affirm women's ability to think theologically, value women's diverse experiences of all systems of oppression, acknowledge our participation in such systems, and accept our responsibility as Christian women to work for God's fuller justice.

Far from being at the heart of our fallen nature, feminism can be a great means toward freedom and equality in Christ.

Hi Noelle,
I am mostly suprised that no one has responded to your blog. This is an interesting topic. I have some agreement with both of you and some disagreement with both of you.
I think we all agree that it is through repentence and faith in Christ that we are able to renounce rebellion and submit to the Lordship of Christ.
I disagree with the Southern Baptist lady that it is in God's order for women to be in submission to men, rather I believe that Scripture lays out a plan for all of us to be in submission to each other. Certainly, the Trinity is not a model for women's submission since Father, Son and Holy Spirit are co-equal. And while Jesus was in submission to His Father while on earth, in his bodily resurrection he now is complete in that equality.
But on the other hand I don't think that liberation theology is very helpful since it begins theology with human experience rather than God's revelation of Himself in Holy Scripture and His Son Jesus Christ.
While I also value and affirm women's ability to think theologically, I would never want to base my or their theollogy on "women's diverse experiences of all systems of oppression." Rather I would want to affirm their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and their knowledge of Scripture and how that has molded and shaped their theology.

Viola,

Thank you for stopping by and starting a discussion about this post. I appreciate your comments, especially your mention of the fact that the three persons of the Trinity are co-equal. The godhead is such an interesting model for true community, isn't it?

I wanted to share a little bit with you about why I find Liberation Theology (and other so-called "contextual theologies") helpful. As a disciple and a student of scripture, I am actually most interested in the fields of biblical studies and biblical theology, and I tend to find systematic theology uninspiring and confusing. I am a very concrete thinker, so abstract concepts generally only frustrate me.

That is why I love scripture. The language and the metaphors are accessible to a person like me. Their meaning isn't always clear, but it is at least communicated in a form that I can grapple with.

It is for the same reason that I love "contextual" theologies, though I would argue that all theologies are contextual. Liberation theology, for example, does indeed take human experience into account, and I find that very helpful in learning about who God is.

All of us, as we go about our lives and try to make sense of God and the world, "do" theology. We take our experience and scripture both into account as we do so. And for some of us, that experience includes experiences of oppression. For all of us, that also includes our knowledge and understanding of Christ as he is revealed in Scripture and (as Reformed theologians) tradition.

There are flaws in Liberation Theology, yes. But there are flaws in all human attempts to understand and communicate who God is. That is why I read diverse theologies, from John Calvin, to Rosemary Radford Ruether, to St. Augustine, to Gustavo Gutierrez (and many in between).

And that is why I appreciate conversations like this one. Thank you again for getting this discussion going!

Blessings,
Noelle

Hi Noelle, thank you for responding. I have to confess I love Systematic Theology but I also have to confess that for the Trinity and Christology James Torrance was my teacher through Fuller Theological Seminary.

I do read a lot of different theology including all the ones you have mentioned except Gustavo Gutierrez, but maybe a commentary by him. Of course I have to also admit it is the Calvin and Karl Barth I love.
I realize that many suffer through oppression, I just can't see using it as a methodology but rather as a means of service to God after finding God's truth in scripture.
I did write a small piece on Liberation Theology several summers ago at http://www.vow.org/viewpoints/essays/04sep13-vlarson-liberation_theology_and_whippoorwills.html.
Anyway I think if we start with human experience we end up mixing human sin with God's revelation.

Hey Noelle!

Didn't know this blog existed. Need to get my daughter linked to it. I am glad you are talking about progressive, feminist, and liberation theology.

I think your post and your response to Viola are quite thoughtful.

Hi John,

Thank you for joining the conversation! Please forgive me if I'm having a totally brainless moment here, but have we met? Your name is so familiar, but I can't place it.

Where is your daughter in school? Please encourage her to check out our website--and the blog, of course!

Noelle

Hi Viola,

What is to keep Calvin and Barth from mixing their human sin with God's revelation, even if they were to try to start their theology from a place of total objectivity in interpreting God's revelation through scripture?

Is it not possible that some of their best and creative work came precisely out of their particular experiences?

I find that using experience as *one* of the starting points for theology often yields beautiful and true insights into who God is.

Noelle

I understand that we all often tend to see things through our own particular grids. But starting theology from God's revelation or from above as Barth would put it is different.

Starting from our experience we tend to think about how we would envision God. What should God be like since I am a woman? What should God be like if I am a slave, etc. The other way is to look to Scripture to see what God says about Himself and to even take our definitions from God's self identity.

I don't think this leaves any of us out in the cold as far as oppression goes. The Scriptures inform us of God's compassion and care. In fact Jesus death on the cross is the ultimate picture of God's love for his children.

Anyway I probably should not keep going on about this and I have enjoyed this conversation.

Hi Viola,

I don't want to keep going if you're wanting to draw this conversation to a close, but I did want to add just one more thought if that's okay.

It occurs to me that Liberation Theology does in fact take scripture as it's starting point, most specifically the exodus narrative, as well as Christ's liberating life and death.

It takes the message of scripture--one of liberation through Christ--and interprets human experience from this starting point. This theological understanding of humanity and our relationship to God, then, helps to further shed light on scripture (e.g. helping us to understand sin as a corporate, not just an individual, reality; or helping us to understand freedom in Christ as a "here-and-now," bodily reality (realized eschatology), and not just a future, spiritual reality).

Thank you for being such an engaging partner in this conversation.

Many blessings,
Noelle

Hey Noelle,

I don't think we have met.

You may be thinking of the famous actor, John Schuck, who played Painless the Dentist on M*A*S*H and Yo-Yo in Holmes and Yo-Yo. Or maybe not.

My daughter is at Univ. of Montana. Someone else posted on being a student there. Although she finishes in December.

Peace!
john
www.shuckandjive.blogspot.com