Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation. By Mary Daly. Beacon Press, 1973. $8.95 ($3.95, paperback).
A Different Heaven and Earth: A Feminist Perspective on Religion. By Sheila D. Collins. Judson Press, 1974. $8.95 (also available in paperback).
Human Liberation in a Feminist Perspective--A Theology. By Letty M. Russell. The Westminster Press, 1974. $3.95, paperback.
Man as Male and Female: A Study in Sexual Relationships from a Theological Point of View. By Paul K. Jewett. Eerdmans, 1975. $2.95, paperback.
New Woman/New Earth: Sexist Ideologies and Human Liberation. By Rosemary Radford Ruether. The Sea-bury Press, 1975. $8.95.
Classical theology in all of its forms and most contemporary theologies are thoroughly sexist. Ignoring the multiplicity of images used to reveal God in scripture and the explicit command against idolatrous images, Christian theology has by and large absolutized masculine images of God and a sexist interpretation of scripture in order to provide a rationale for the patriarchal status quo of Western society.
For example, Clark Pinnock’s essay on “An Evangelical Theology of Human Liberation” in the February issue of Sojourners illustrated such traditional thinking. Pinnock defined God in terms of “Father” and “Son” and referred to the Spirit (feminine in Hebrew and neuter in Greek) by the masculine pronoun at least four times. He used masculine pronouns exclusively through out the essay, 27 times for God, to say nothing of the 23 times he reminded us of Jesus' “masculinity.” Neither the half of the human race which is female nor any feminine spiritual images were mentioned.
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