Tuesday 1 April 2008

A turn for the girly....(perhaps the worst)

New Books! I can't believe I have new books considering my current financial position. However, I have decided to go exploring on the dark side. I have never much been into anything which purports to present a feminist critique. I am not quite sure what my reluctance was, but perhaps it was just that deep uneasiness which religious women feel when confronted by the claims of modernist and post modernist feminism. Many of the more forceful and publicized feminists argue from a deeply secularized perspective through which not only man, but God is villainized. When I have consulted the work of some, Mary Butler for example, I have come away with a label - 'fembot' - the willing victim of a patriarchal society. That is not very fair. I am not a deluded creature who has accepted the construct of a patriarchal wisdom. Faith is not like that.



Tina Beattie has been writing about how prayer, revelation and mysticism have been missing from feminist theology. Without these she is frightened the feminism may reduce theology to theory. I am entranced by her work because she is seeking to understand the sacramentality of the female body. It is a work of exploration and mystery which pushes gently on the sensual symbolism of liturgy and probes how people understand the sexual dimensions of Catholic life. Sometimes she is a bit weird and wades in waters too deep and dark for me to venture into, but overall I am learning and I am entertained, engaged.

My new books then, a walk on the wild side:

Woman: New Century Theology - Tina Beattie
New Catholic Feminism: Theology and Theory - Tina Beattie
Sex, Gender and Christian Ethics - Lisa Sowle Cahill


1 comment:

Unknown said...

Brave girl- I usually see the word feminism and run in the opposite direction!