ABSTRACT

Over the last two decades the rising feminist consciousness in the United States has led to changes in the sociopolitical spheres of contemporary life. Within the area of women and religion these changes are reflected in a variety of responses to male-dominated religious thought and practice. The challenge to patriarchal religion posed by feminist theologians is evident in three diverse approaches to existing tradition, which Christ has outlined as follows:

The views held by feminist theologians fall into three main types: in type 1, tradition contains an essentially nonsexist vision or intentionality that becomes clear through proper interpretation; in type 2, tradition contains elements of an essentially sexist vision: the nonsexist vision must be affirmed as revelation, while the sexist vision must be repudiated . . . and in type 3, tradition contains an essentially sexist vision and must therefore be repudiated and new traditions must be created on the basis of present experience and/or nonbiblical religion. (1982, 238)

The type I approach is most closely associated with the work of Russell (1974, 1976) and Trible (1973), while the second approach (type 2) is identified with the scholarship of Reuther (1972, 1985) and Fiorenza (1979). The type 3 orientation, the most revolutionary of the three perspectives, is represented in the work of Christ (1982, 1985), Starhawk (1979, 1982) and Budapest (1986) who hold a more radical view on the nature of male

dominance in religious tradition. These feminist thinkers, unlike the re­ formist theologians identified with the first two approaches, maintain that any faith that is premised on the imagery of a patriarchal god symbol is antithetical to the emergence of a feminist religious consciousness. As such they advocate the development of the feminine principle in the concept of the divine and a religious structure that is nonhierarchal in nature.