Vol. 27 No. 2, June 2008

In God's Image is an Asian Christian women's effort to provide a forum for expressing our reality, our struggles, our faith reflections and aspirations for change.

Editorial

The AWRC publication team for In God’s Image (IGI) is happy to present this mixed edition which features articles covering a wide range of topics. Conscious of the variety of topics, we decided on “Women, Ritual and Religion” as the cover title to highlight a most common issue that runs through a number of the contributions. 

The obvious reason for such a cover title is that a number of the contributions have to do with feminist critiques of law and religion, the meaning and celebration of the Eucharist, the biblical story of Jesus’ anointing by an unnamed woman, a comparison of two religions’ practices – the mantra and contemplation, and so on. 

In Asia, it is a fact that women constitute an obvious majority of the practicing believers, not only in Christianity but also in the other living religions. This is so despite the fact that some religious laws often curtail the leadership of women or even prohibit women from performing or participating in certain religious rituals. A feminist re-reading and critique of the biblical texts and the male-biased interpretation of the same can help us go to the radical meaning (i.e. the root meaning) of those texts, in order to bring out the message of liberation and transformation for both women and men. 

Two articles in this edition provide feminist critiques of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is a central ritual in the life and work of the churches. In fact, it is foundational to the structure, law and function of many churches.

Pauline Chakkalakal critiques a number of religious laws in the biblical tradition but also highlights the liberative messages from scriptures, seen through feminist lenses. She goes on to describe the situation of women in post-Vatican II church, characterized by the contradiction between Vatican II affirmation of the dignity and vocation of women and the reality that women continue to face exclusion. She then cites the ‘all-male presence’ at the Last Supper as the crux of the problem, i.e. “the foundation on which an all-male Catholic priesthood is solidly built,” but which she critiques with a return to Jesus’ original vision of “discipleship of equals”.

Gabriele Dietrich focuses on the socio-economic and political relevance of the Eucharist especially in this age of capitalist and neo-colonial globalization. With a social analysis and feminist perspective, she revisits various practices of celebrating the Eucharist through history, highlighting the tendencies to magical deception, mystification, over-spiritualising, and personalizing of the ritual. She also recalls the examples of notable priests whose celebration of the Eucharist has been connected with the offering of their lives to the struggle of the people for social transformation. While she affirms that it is in the nature of the Eucharist to create community, overcome barriers and make the vision of the “Reign of God” or the “Kinship of God” visible, the reality is that it has not been able to live up to such nature. 

Indeed, when the words of blessing and the elements used in the Eucharist do not reflect the cultural setting of the people, when the broken body and the shed blood of Christ have nothing to do with the struggles of vulnerable groups, like Dalits and women, and when children continue to be excluded from the Eucharist, its very nature to create community and make visible the reign of God is far from being achieved. 

Interestingly, Gabriele Dietrich is critical of how the notion of ‘equality’ between women and men is based on men being the point of reference and that it has actually led to the incorporation of women into the capitalist world system. She asserts that the point is not so much about women “being equal with men” but that men are of incomplete humanity as long as violence rules the world.

The other articles include critical reflections on feminist theology (Jayachitra L), intercultural hermeneutics (Hannah Chen), development aid (Meehyun Chung), conducting seminars on gender and violence against women (Eunice Barbara Novio), Mary’s message for Sri Lanka (Malini Devananda), and on the Hindu practice of mantra and Christian practice of contemplation (Lilith Usog). 

We are very happy to include a letter to the publication team from one of our very own AWRC members, Hanna Varghese, who has also contributed a lot, in terms of her theologizing through art, to In God’s Image. Letters like this are very encouraging indeed, not only to the publication team, which needs an occasional pat on the back, but more so to the writers and contributors who have entrusted their stories and scholarship with us. 

Before closing, I would like to mention on behalf of the publication team our sincere gratitude to Chung Sook Ja and HyeRan Kim-Cragg, who served as guest co-editors of the March 2008 edition of In God's Image, on "Women and Family." In that edition, we could not clearly mention their guest co-editorship. So we want to acknowledge and thank them both for their hard work, passion and commitment that helped to make the publication of that special edition possible.

Publications Secretary

If articles listed in the table of contents interests you, and you would like to have a copy of this journal, please write to igi@awrc4ct.org.