Feminist theology is a movement, generally in the Western religious traditions (mostly Christianity and Judaism), to reconsider the traditions, practices, scriptures, and theologies of those religions from a feminist perspective. Some of the goals of feminist theology include increasing the role of women among the clergy and religious authorities, reinterpreting the male-dominated images of God, and including more female imagery among the myths and language of the faith.
Feminism has had a great impact on many aspects of religion. In liberal branches of Protestant Christianity, women are now ordained as clergy. In Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism, women are now ordained as rabbis and cantors. Within these Christian and Jewish groups, women have gradually become equal to men by obtaining positions of power; their perspectives are now sought out in developing new statements of belief. These trends have been resisted within Orthodox strains of Judaism, the Catholic Church, conservative Protestant denominations such as the Southern Baptists and the Missouri Synod Lutherans and also Islam; all these denominations forbid women from being recognized as religious clergy and scholars in the same way that men are accepted; though Islam allows women to become imams, they may not lead men in prayer and are rare in most parts of the world.
See also
Women are approaching equality to men in liberal Christian and Jewish groups. They often find that a glass ceiling exists when it comes to income and positions of power.
Last updated: 10-21-2005 23:30:56
