The Use of Female Experiences in Feminist Theology: Corporality, Culture and Language

Abstract

In order to present a reading of theology that focuses on the female experience, theologians' attention was drawn to three areas. In the first area, the history of Western Philosophy has always regarded female corporality as corresponding to nature and, by portraying rationality as the exclusive right of men, forbade women from studying theology. Feminist theologians seek to open the way to the realm of rationality while recognizing feminine corporality. Moreover, it is in this area that feminist theologians observe the female body as a source for the reflection of feminist theology, extending the experiences they gain through their bodies to various theological realms, and even reinterpreting the feminine aspect of God. In this regard, they also introduce new religious rituals with the aim of creating an atmosphere focused on corporality experiences in order to give a religious aspect to events specific to the female body. In the second area, poststructuralist feminist theologians pay attention to cultural pluralism and consider the impact of different cultures on female experiences of religion. Here, an attempt is made to provide a multicultural interpretation that covers a wider range of women, given the characters in the sacred texts that reflect female experiences of non-Western cultures. In the third area, on one hand, the language of sacred texts is gendered and creates a masculine image of God in the minds of believers, and on the other hand, the writing of these texts by men has largely neglected feminine experiences. The present study, as fundamental and applied research, intends to examine using of female experiences in feminist theology as a practical theology in terms of the three realms proposed.

Keywords

• feminist theology
• gender and religion
• religious feminism
• religious patriarchy