1. The Role of Gender in Theology

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we introduce the relationship between gender, feminism and the formation and development of Christian theology, focusing in particular on (i) Judith Butler’s definition of gender, and gender expression in contemporary society (ii) bell hooks’ definition of feminism, the variety of feminist movements (iii) Audre Lorde on the importance of intersectional feminism (iv) Denise Riley’s theory of shifting categories of man and woman over time and in human consciousness (v) Alice Walker on womanism, and the importance of women of colour defining their own experiences of womanhood (vi) why we should combine discussions of feminism and gender with theology.

Course

In this course, Dr Ruth Jackson Ravenscroft (University of Cambridge) explores gender and theology. In the first module we introduce the relationship between gender, feminism, and theology. In the second module, we consider feminist theology in relation to the doctrine of God. In the third module we examine Rosemary Radford Ruether’s feminist theology, before turning to Mary Daly’s theology in the fourth module. In the fifth module we compare and contextualise the feminist theologies of Ruether and Daly. In the sixth and final module, we examine feminist theological engagement with scripture.

Lecturer

Dr Ruth Jackson Ravenscroft is a lecturer in Theology, Religion and Philosophy of Religion at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests lie at the intersections of theology, philosophy, literature, and intellectual history, particularly in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century thought. Her recent publications include The Veiled God : Friedrich Schleiermacher's Theology of Finitude (2019) and 'On Gender and Theology in the Mode of Retrieval’ in Theologies of Retrieval (2017).