Newsletter of the Asian Women's Resource Centre for Culture and Theology
Vol. 10, No. 2, October 2005
Follow-up workshop with Lieve Troch, Hisako Kinukawa
Twenty-eight wo/men participated in a live-in work-shop on critical feminist theology facilitated by Lieve Troch and Hisako Kinukawa this August. They were from Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore/Hong Kong.
A follow-up from a workshop in 2004, this 5-day workshop continued with critical feminist theology and the methodology of the dance of transformation.
The wo/men experienced a ‘safe space’ where they could ‘be’, looking at the power of theology, the power of language, and the power of the word of God, applying systemic analysis and supporting each other in the search and dream of an ekklesia.
Sacred text, the plurality of cultures, religion and language, historical periods, ethnicity, politics, nationhood, globalisation and multiculturalism were critiqued from a perspective of how they were constructed. During group sessions, structures, constructs and text were reformulated, using the tools of the hermeneutics of transformation.
In an ekklesia, ‘safe space’ is a reality, and spirituality and theology are part of that reality. Spirituality was said to be experienced in moments where the Divine is felt and where the Divine meets us. For the 28 wo/men there, each with their different stories of struggle, of hope and of joy, the Divine is the grace that happens in the struggle.
Report by Grace Chung, an AWRC member
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza conducts workshop in M’sia
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza is a petite, fair-haired, and soft-spoken woman. She is a feminist, and her stature and manner is a far cry from the prejudicial, pop-culture stereotyped belief that women who call themselves feminist are ‘men-haters’ male-bashers, loud, aggressive, and lesbian.
She defines feminism as “the radical notion that women are people”. Such a definition describes women as full citizens (not second class or any class that dichotomizes people by race, class, nationality, age, religion, personality, etc). She said that the definition of feminism as struggle of women over and against men is an outdated argument. Feminism sees women as full citizens in all spheres of life and relationships: in families, work, academic and religious venues. She does not subscribe to feminism that is defined by gender alone, and sees danger when only one paradigm is used for all women, particularly when the ‘ideal’ is taken to mean, young, slim, fair, Caucasian, etc… the stuff one sees in commercial and popular advertisements.
She rejects the use of the word ‘Man’ or any standard masculine term that is gender neutered to describe the human person. She uses instead the word wo/men as an inclusive term to describe women and men.
A group of 42 wo/men spent 2½ days at a workshop in June, learning the skills of Critical Feminist Biblical Interpretation (CFBI), from Schüssler Fiorenza. Her credentials include being a pioneer in feminist biblical interpretation and theology; first woman president of the Society of Biblical Literature, co-founder and co-editor of Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, and a co-editor of Concilium, a worldwide journal of theology to promote theological discussion in the spirit of Vatican II. She shared that when she was deciding to study theology, there was a rumour that Jesuit theologian Kahl Rahner was to be ‘silenced’. She told herself that she would not go on to study theology if he was. That is now history. In fact, one of her teachers, Joseph Ratzinger, is now the present Pope Benedict XVI.
Her interest in feminist theology began with her involvement in women’s liberation movements, and listening to women speak of their experience of the violence and discriminatory practices that were made against them in church and society. Her ongoing biblical scholarship continues to advocate a critical feminist biblical interpretation, inspired by the biblical visions of justice and well being, that would free, change and transform structures of oppression, both in religion and society.
The workshop participants had a taste of what is meant by CFBI, understanding the paradigms of biblical interpretation from which we operate, and the methodology which she called ‘a critical feminist hermeneutics of liberation’, all of which may take more than a semester at Harvard. She also addressed an audience of 120 people at a public forum, after the workshop.
Any discussion or summation of her scholarship on the subject by this ‘reporter’ who has only recently been introduced to it will not do justice to that scholarship. Thus, any inadequate interpretation or mistakes in this reporting is mine alone, and is not deliberate.
A critical feminist biblical interpretation (CFBI) begins with a conscious understanding of the paradigms and models from which we operate. Such paradigms and models are not exclusive of each other; neither are they parallels; they are alternative reading strategies which are learned. It is important to look at social location, and to read and interpret in context. She identified four paradigms:
The Doctrinal-Revelatory Paradigm focuses on biblical text as doctrine. The premise of this paradigm is that only certain people can interpret the text. The basic assumption of this paradigm is that the biblical text is the Word of God inscribed in the text; it is divine revelation. Thus the approach to the reading of the bible is one of reverence, submission, and to see it as stone of truth, immutable, authoritative, and its teachings, rules and principles valid for all times.
The “Scientific”-Positivist Paradigm focuses on the biblical text as facts/information. There are two parts to this paradigm. One is the historical paradigm and the other the literary-anthropological-sociological paradigm. Exegesis is involved in the interpretation of texts from this paradigm. The basic assumption is that there is a chasm between text and world, past and pre-sent. The approach is to go beyond and behind the text to interpret the world behind the text, to look at past and present societies, and to see that texts are formulated by people and conditioned by their context.
The Hermeneutic-Cultural Paradigm focuses on biblical text as cultural classic. Language creates the reality. There are four models, and the method used is dialogue between text and context / text and reader, based on the assumption that there is equivocal under-standing of language, there is a surplus of meaning, as well as an endless play of meaning.
All three paradigms begin with the text. Feminist biblical interpretations can be found in the paradigms, but from a pre-critical approach. Thus if you want to know about women or understand them, you would look to see what the bible had to say about women. Women in the bible are ‘constructed’ by men writers and used as models. The bible has many inscriptions of how women should behave, and historical women and men are given as basis/standards to model or not model after. From these paradigms wo/men are the objects of the text and the bible continues to be for many wo/men a stone of truth, rather than bread of wisdom.
The fourth paradigm, Rhetorical-Emancipatory Paradigm, begins with the subject of the text, which is the one who is interpreting the text. The basic assumption of this paradigm is that “texts have persuasive and performative power in particular situations, where they function to legitimate or challenge the status quo.”
There are four models in this paradigm of which the fourth model, Critical Feminist Liberationist model is recommended by Schüssler Fiorenza. The subject of the text is the one interpreting the text, and this is done from an experience-systemic analysis, within the context of the socio-political arena of that experience. This paradigm starts with who is interpreting the bible and in what context. Questions that arise from reading the text with this paradigm are: What does the text do to me/us wo/men when we submit to its world of imagination? What is the purpose/meaning/reason?
Most of us have been brought up and conditioned to operate from one or all of the three paradigms. How do we make that leap to operate from the fourth model of paradigm four? She suggests that the text be engaged by hermeneutic mediation, in a ‘dance step of suspicion-reconstruction-evaluation-imagination, a process by which transformation and change can be brought about. Questions that call for deliberation include: What is the purpose of the text? Does it free or keep wo/men oppressed, and ‘in their place?’ This radical reading of the text is to be within a democratic kind of context (reading to be done in a group, not alone, and to be debated, as in the Jewish tradition). It is more exciting as it “brings different perspectives and differ-ent experiences and different viewpoints from different social locations,” continue to bring “new questions and new horizons to the reading of the text”. What makes biblical interpretation interesting in this model is that such an engagement allows for an understanding of how those different meanings of the text “shape lives for people whether it is very authoritarian, or egalitarian.”
Such a rhetoric does not deny the text is proclaimed as Word of God, but acknowledges that it is written by someone called Mark, or Luke, and should be read and interpreted in the times for which they were written.
CFBI is complex. The subject who is interpreting the text does so in a methodological model of critical feminist hermeneutics of liberation. In the hermeneutics of suspicion, Schüssler Fiorenza warned, “CAUTION can be dangerous to health and survival”. The methodology is akin to a dance. It is a dynamic movement. All the steps of the dance have theories of interpretation. The dance can begin at any point, but usually from the hermeneutics of the experience of the subject interpreting the text. Questions asked at this step of the dance include: What values/mindset have I internalized (conscientised)? What ideological function do these texts have, the kinds of values they reinforce? From my experience, how has the interpretation of these texts dominated and enslaved wo/men?
The movement is not linear, the steps can be retraced, repeated, never ending. The hermeneutics of experience can call forth the hermeneutics of suspicion, by a hermeneutics of remembering of the hermeneutics of domination and social location. The hermeneutics of suspicion needs to be accompanied by the hermeneutics of critical evaluation. The steps of the dance can lead again to the hermeneutics of remembering and reconstruction, through a hermeneutics of creative imagination, and so on, towards transformative action for change. This could bring forth new perspectives and remembering of experiences, which require the process to begin again.
The dance acknowledges presence of anger within the dancer, who recognizes the injustice done by the structures of oppression, and is aware of the tension and temptation that it would be easier to delete or eliminate all history of oppression, and struggle for liberation. But it is only in connecting with the history of the struggle can there then be possibilities leading to commitment to change and transform situations of injustice, and to imagine a more just future, inspired by the biblical visions of justice and well being. The radical notion that women are people argues for the rights of all people who are wo/men. Thus men can be feminists or advocates of feminism, just as women can be anti-feminist.
Asked whether she had a ‘mission’ to fulfill, Schüssler Fiorenza responded that wo/men should have the
critical skills (tools) to read the bible, and that she was a teacher. She said that the teaching of feminism is not an option for liberation of others, but as tool to liberate the
subject of interpretation from paradigms which continue to perpetuate and reinforce structures and systems of oppression. Equality, for her, is not ‘same-ness’ or ‘no power’ but rather how power is used and how it empowers others.
It is possible in the hermeneutics of creative imagination to see citizenship as an ekklesia, a democratic assembly of full citizens, of wo/men oriented towards basileia—the reign of God. In the hermeneutics of creative imagination, the Beatitudes and the teachings of Jesus and Jesus’ vision of a new world come alive. The God we profess is not assigned to the peak of the hierarchical structure of church and worship, nor placed just in the center of the ekklesia. God’s spirit is in and around, within and out, ever dynamic, ever transforming, ever creative, fluid, and free.
Schüssler Fiorenza’s published works include: In Memory of Her, Bread, not Stone, But She Said, Discipleship of Equals, Revelation: Vision of a Just World, The Power of Naming, Jesus: Miriam’s Child, Sharing Her Word, Jesus and the Politics of Interpretation, Wisdom Ways: Introducing Feminist Biblical Interpretation.
Report by Grace Chung
Schüssler Fiorenza speaks at a forum
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza spoke to an audience of 120 people at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Centre in Kuala Lumpur on 24 June. The topic was “The Bible: Bread of Wisdom or Stone of Truth”. The forum was organized by Asian Women’s Resource Centre for Culture and Theology (AWRC), Malaysian Women in Ministry and Theology (MWMT), and Women’s Voice (WV).
Schüssler Fiorenza has done groundbreaking work, creating new paths in the field of feminist biblical interpretation and theology.
She began by explaining briefly what she meant by the bible being ‘Bread of Wisdom’. She finds the new biblical scholarship exciting as it brings together different perspectives, different experiences and differing view-points from different social locations to how the text is read, thus, bringing new questions and new horizons to the reading. She gave many examples of how text can be read as ‘hard stone’, used as a ‘security blanket’, or even as a means of perpetuating systems and structures of oppression and submission, rather than “enhancing, nurturing and enriching creativity”, and freedom from violence. “Such an interpretation for liberation will find the bible not as a fixed archetype but a fluid proto-type open to transformation.”
A critical feminist biblical interpretation would start with the experience of Christian wo/men that the bible is often given as a “hard stone of unchangeable truth rather than a nourishing bread of Divine Wisdom.” She uses the word wo/men as an inclusive term to mean women and men.
The definition of feminism as the radical notion that women are people makes reference to the democratic motto, “we, the people,” evoking memories of struggles for equal citizenship, and decision making powers in society and religion. It posits feminism “within the radical democratic discourses which argue for the rights of all people who are wo/men.” Accordingly men can be advocates of feminism, just as women can be anti-feminist.
She concluded by saying: “Theologically, feminism understands wo/men as the people of God and indicts the death dealing powers of oppression as structural sin and life-destroying evil.” Critical feminist interpretation, thus, is an invitation “to join in the movement for change and transformation that is inspired by the biblical visions of justice and well-being.”
Report by Grace Chung
Materials on womenet may be quoted and copied provided that womenet is acknowledged as source. Printed copies of womenet are available on request from the AWRC Office.
