ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a research which lie in the cross-disciplinary study of literature and theology, and particularly in bringing feminist insights to bear upon the way in which the relationship between these disciplines is constructed in academic debate. It might be supposed that this would entail a meticulous attention to the definition of terms – 'What is theology?', 'What is literature?' This indeterminacy might be thought to raise serious problems for the researcher. However, any reader of the extensive writing on literature and theology will soon become aware that whatever disciplinary definitions are being offered these are of secondary importance to what is implied by the supposed difference between the two categories. The chapter illustrates ways in which the heuristic understanding of literature as feminine can be used with deconstructive and disruptive effect to critique two significant trajectories in contemporary theology. It explores how theologians with significant ethical concerns about nature of theological discourse are employing literature as a means of destabilizing discipline.
