May 2018

THIRD PANEL DISCUSSION WITHIN FER DISCOURSE INITIATIVE:
"FEMINIST READING OF THE BIBLE"


Fer Discourse Initiative team had the honor and pleasure to welcome in Sarajevo Harvard University Professor Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza on May 18, 2018, one of the most famous feminist theologists, who spoke of feminist theology from a Christian perspective, on the basis of her many years of academic work which primarily include interpretative strategies of female reading of the Bible. 
After Professor Schüssler Fiorenza's introductory speech, a discussion ensued which showed how important it is to talk about topics such as women's rights and women's position within the Catholic Church and Christian community in general if we bear in mind that mainstream male-centric theological system is omnipresent and that there is a built-in model within that narrative which is at odds with the basic Christian religious principle of humans as equal adherents of faith. During the discussion, it became evident that there is a need for a female reconstruction of early-Christian history, and because the Bible is not only a historical collection of stories but also a testament for Christians of today, it is necessary to do a critical historical and theological analysis. According to Professor Schüssler Fiorenza, cultural and social feminist transformation of Western society has to take biblical history and the influence of biblical tradition into account because biblical faith is still very influential. Another issue of interest were androcentric texts and language which should not be taken as valid evidence of human history, culture and religion; hence the task of feminist biblical hermeneutics should be to move away from androcentric texts to their socio-historical contexts.

Kyriarchy – a term coined by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza – as the social domination of elite men over less privileged men and women, explains how kyriocentric arguments operating in Christianity and Judaism legitimize subordination and exploitation. One cannot allow the history and theology of female oppression, as perpetuated by patriarchal biblical texts and clerical patriarchy, to erase the history and theology of struggle, life and leadership of Christian women. In conclusion, feminist theology has to become aware of interconnectedness between Church-cultural patriarchy and theological texts and traditions, because that could contribute to our understanding of how the patriarchal Church creates misogynistic theology in order to marginalize women and remove them as theological and Church subjects.