Estvo S amuel

W AYS IN WHICH F EMINISTAND W OMANIST ADDRESS T QUES ION OF SCRIPT HE T URAL AUT HORIT Y

W indhoek, December 2002.

CONTENT

a. b. c. d.

INTRODUCTION - 5 The Theme The Objectives - What Concerning this Assignment The Methodology Definitions

FEMINISTS THEOLOGIANS - 12 e. History f. The well-known Feminist theologians WOMANISTS THEOLOGIANS - 16 g. History h. The well-known Womanist Theologians WAYS IN WHICH FEMINISTS AND WOMANISTS ADDRESS THE QUESTION OF SCRIPTURAL AUTHORITY - 23 i. Feminists and the Scriptural Authority j. Womanist and the Scriptural Authority CONCLUSION - 25 BIBLIOGRAPHY-27

I. INTRODUCTION

a. The Theme The Theme of this study is Ways in which Feminist and Womanist Theologians Address the Question of Scriptural Authority. It is a reflection about Christian Leadership in churches today. b. The Objectives The aim of this study is to show how Feminist and Womanist Theologians Address the Question of Scriptural Authority in the church and how they interpret the so-called system of patriarch. What is concerning this Assignment? We are to introduce the theme of this assignment recommended by Professor Paul John Isaak concerning to the contextual Theology course. The theme is: Discuss ways in which feminist and womanist theologians address the question of scriptural authority. It is not easy to do such assignment, first because such area of studies in theology is now and second there is not much material about this issue. However it doesnt constitute any tremendous problem in American Universities where the problem are

emerged, and still for us considering the scarce resources in our hands. This issue is so much important for us because problem by gender/sexism persist almost extremely in our local churches where the patriarchal system (it is still the reality). To discuss this issue we start to define what we understand about feminist and womanist, we show some theologians and after this to see the ways in which they address the question of the scriptural authority. c. The Methodology Any student who does research wills necessary use any kind of Methodology. In this research it was found a good idea to do it using the historical method. The sources used in this study were several theological books, as well as the Bible. All books used in collecting and evaluation date are mentioned at the end of this study in the Bibliography. Because the student came from a country, where problems, position of women in the churches is not yet broadly discussed. The study has got four important chapters. The first one is the Introduction in which the student treats to introduce the theme, the objectives he had in mind, the methodology and definitions. On the second third chapters sought to raise some issues related to Feminist and Womanist Theologians, their history as well as the wellknown ones, and the forth chapter discusses the ways in which they addressed the problem of authority. The fifth chapter treats about conclusion and finally the bibliography.

d. Definitions d.1. - Feminist It is not easy to define feminism. There are several ideas about this meaning. Indeed this meaning can be seemed in the social, theological, psychological and economical viewpoint. According to Keane, feminist originally had been defined as having the qualities of female (Keane ca 122). Etymologically the word became from the Greek and us and () that means female (Jacobus 1909:906). Mine while serenity young tell us that the term is derived from (femina) Latin for woman, femininity refers to the quality or nature of the female gender (Young 1998:332). Montagu, however point out: the origin of the English word woman indicate that the female very right to social existence was determined in the light of her secondary relationship to the male, for the word originally women, that is wife man the wife of the man; in the fourteenth century the (f) was dropped and the word become woman and later on women (Montage 1974:42). In the social and secular viewpoint feminist comes to be defined as a male dominated worldviews. According to Ackermann Broadly Speaking, feminism can be described as a lived experience, a political struggle for liberation, butalso an intellectual activity which women share (Ackermann la 350). Nevertheless Fiorenzas viewpoint defines feminism as the critical praxis of emancipatory struggles of liberation (Ackermann ca 350). d.2. - Womanist The term Womanist has its origin in the word Woman. So womanist can be defined to have the woman quality. This term is used to describe the black women who wrestling against the racial discrimination, against slavery, against gender injustices. The term womanist was been coined in 1979 by Alice Walker, a black women writer who preferred this word

then feminist because this word (had its roots in black folk culture, for womanish an expression used by mother to describe daughters who were courageous, outrageous and willful (Keane ca.131 cf. Tuttle 1986:325, n.24). According to Keane, Walker did not regard the term womanist as better then feminist but only she preferred the sound, the feel and the fit of it.

II. FEMINIST THEOLOGIANS

The Class of People who considers themselves feminists is large and diverse, representing a broad range of different opinions and perspectives. (Sherwin 1995:47)

a. History The feminist Theology developed from the secular women movement of the 1960s. For this case is considered that Christian feminist theology is a branch of feminism. The feminist movements awaken theologians to problem related to race and gender, they criticize abuses in the church because the church far from condemning injustices perpetrated against women in social, political and economic life. The church practiced and practices its own forms of discrimination against woman (Keane ca 122). Some of their chief aims are: (1) To correct the imbalance between man and woman by promoting an alternative way of looking at life which takes seriously womans giftedness and womans experience;(2) not to feminize the world, but to make it more woman and hence more just (Keane Ca 122) Montagu pointed out: the liberation of woman means the liberation of man. As Richard Garnett put in many years ago, man and woman may only enter paradise hand in hand. Together the myth tells us they left and together they must return. (Montagu 1074:10). Feminist theology is not a monolithic system, said Keane. There are different streams in its middle but two are
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generally most considered. They are the revolutionary feminist and the reformist. The first stream is strictly radical. Some theologians of this stream advocated separatist approach because they found that Christianity and Bible are irredeemably because they are intrinsically based in favor of male and so fundamentally patriarchal (Keane ca 123) they rejected the Christianity and went to find religious emancipation by recovering the ancient goodness religious (or by inventing news one). This viewpoint is defended for feminist such as Naomi Ruth Goldberg, Carol Christ, Mary Dale, Susan Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Elizabeth Cady Staton. Such feminist based their analysis and activism in Marxism and liberal political ideology. The reformist feminists in spite of recognize that Biblical language is male centered they are aware that they have to persist in their effort to bring about gradual change and reform. They acknowledge that it will take a lot more time to correct the ill resulting from centauries of male domination (Keane ca 124). b. The well-known feminist theologians Feminist theologians beyond to be engaged in a protest, criticism and revision of history they have been engaged too in reformulation of the whole Christian theology (McGrath 1993:223). Women really are willing to recover their place whether in social, religious, political or economical sphere i.e. in all society. Before the ninetieth and twentieth centuries, many and very important names appearanced in the theologians her story. Some of these names we enlisted like follow.

1. Margaret Fell

She was been society member. In 1667 she influenced George Fox Quakers leader and his wife the found at the Society of Friends and she wrote a tract entitled women speaking justified, approved and allowed by the scripture (Richardson & Bowden 1984:210). This woman can be considered the first feminist theologians although for many scholars this place was attributed by Elizabeth Cady Staton (Richardson & Bowden 1984:210). 2. Sarah Grimke (1792-1873) Books: (1) Epistle to the clergy of the southern states (1836) (2) Letters on the equality of the sexes and condition of women (1838) Grimke was a Quakers member, an abolitionist and feminist. She argued women rights advocate in society theologically and biblically. Grimke on basis in Genesis 1:27, defined women equality with men in the original creation, exemplified by their common possession of Imago Die. She pointed out: Both women and man were given denomination in the original creation (Richardson & Bowden 1984:210). According to Lewis, Grimke was the sixth in a family of 14 children. In the epistle to the clergy of the southern states (1836), she gave a refutation of biblical argument favoring slavery. Denounced by congregational clergy in a pastoral letter, she wrote: letter on the equality of the sexes and condition of woman (1838) one of the first scriptural defenses of women rights (Lewis 1995:479). 3. Elizabeth Cady Station (1815:1902) Staton was an American Philosopher and abolitionist woman considered a pioneer in the feminist theologians studies. She gave impetus to further studies by woman with her publication in two parts in 1895 and 1898 her feminist analysis and critique of the Bible Women Bible (Richardson & Browden 1984:210). With Gage and

Anthony, Staton was considered as a radical antichurch activist (Young 1998:359).

4. Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826-1898) Book: Women, church and state (1893) Gage was criticized by use of the bible as an instrument of male domination (Richardson & Browden 1984:210). Gage was an American feminist and antichurch activist, the most considered radical of the surface triumvirate formed with her, Cady and Anthony. She formed the antichurch women national liberal union in 1890 and contributed to Statons women bible (young 1998:359). 5. Mary Dale Books: (1) The Church and the second Sex (1968) (2) Beyond God the father (1973) Dale in the church and the second sex seems to analyze the effects the exclusion of and negative anthropology about woman in shaping the theological understanding of God, nature, sin, grace, Christology, redemption and ecclesiology. She worked on the same hand with Rosemary Radford Ruether in her Religion and sexism (1974). Dale in her second book Beyond God The Father worked in the same approach as Starhwk in her book The Spiral Dance (1979). This second book of dale was concerned with religion and spirituality. She and Starhwk feel that Judaeo-Christian tradition is inherently patriarchal. They argued that women should abandon Judaism and Christianity and seek alternative traditions outside them, by returning to ancient religions with female symbols for the divine and by returning to ancient religions with female symbols for divine and by drawing on their own experience (Richardson & Browden 1984:211).

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6. K. E. Borresen (1968) Book: Subordination and equivalence: The Nature and Role of women in Augustine and Thomas Aquinas (1968) Her book is a critical agenda of the masculinity bias of Christian Theology that excluded woman both from ordained ministry and from higher theological education (Richardson & Browden 1984:210-211). 7. Rosemary Radford Ruether This feminist theologian worked many in-groups. In 1979 with McLaughlin they wrote women of spirit. With Rosemary Keller they worked on Women and Religion in America in three volumes. According to choice this work is of considerable significance because it contains rare documents available (Ruether & Keller 1981: see notes in against cope). The Lutheran forum pointed out: Read this book. It is marvelously provocative (See notes-Ibid). In same way in which worked Clark and Richardson (1977) Ruether drawn up her work of protest and critique. McGrath pointed out that the work is embodied in a number of collections of historical and modern texts that emphasize the problematic character of the bible and the Christian tradition with regard to women (McGrath 1993:221-222). 8. Elisabeth Schssler Fiorenza Books: (1) In memory of her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian origins (1983). (2) Searching the scriptures (2 vols. 1993, 1994). Elisabeth S. Fiorenza in her In memory of her affirms the possibility of feminist theology within the

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JudaeoChristian. Such as Rosemary R. Ruether and McLaughlin in their book Women of spirit, Elisabeth S. Fiorenza seeks to uncover the more fundamental meaning the concepts of Jesus Christ, human personhood, sin and redemption that criticize the deformation of these concepts as tools as male domination (Richardson & Browden 1984:211). In her searching the Scripture she collected some essays of nineteenth century American feminists: Sarah Grimke, Matilda Joslyn Gage and Elisabeth Cady Staton. Young said that in those essays they show a scathing critique of patriarchal biblical religion and its debilitating effects on women status (Young 1998:433). Fiorenza worked in those essays and gave to the women bible more credibility in middle of the scholars.
9. Marija Gimbutas (1921 1994).

Books: (1) The Gods and Goddesses of old Europe: 7000 3500 B.C. (1974) (2) The language of the Goddess (1989) (3) The civilization of the goddess (1991) Gimbutas was born in Vilnus, Lithuania. She became as an anthropologist afterward leading figure in the study of the Goddess. Educated in Lithuania, Austria, and German. In 1964 she became also as a professor of European Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. In her books she had any especially important influence on contemporary feminist goddess spirituality (young 1998:370). 10. Barbara Welter and Ann Douglas Book: The creation of feminist consciousness (1993) Both were American historians. They approached the subject about the feminization of religion, and they understood in terms of women numerical, organizational, and theological influence in the churches. However, They

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gave a sophisticated treatment to this subject (Young 1998:433) 11. Deborah Sawyer Book: Women and Religion in the Christian Centuries (1996). First

Sawyer emphasizes the pluralistic context of early Christianity and its relationship to Greco-Roman culture and Jewish religion, providing a comparative analysis of divergent female religions imaginary and customs (Young 1998:433).

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III. WOMANIST THEOLOGIANS

Womanist theology and goddess religion have challenged history at its deepest level, redefining traditional sources and questioning the nature of historical evidence. African-American scholars have created a new historical canon in retrieving their spiritual foremothers, drawing upon slave narrative, poetry, and spiritual autobiographies. As Jacquelyn Grant has argued, confronted with a history of acute objectification and disempowerment, the unlearning of black women tradition of spiritual and political resistance is a major factor in creating a transformative womanist theology (Young 1998:434).

a. History When the feminist and black movements emerged they should not include in their agendas, the matter of black woman. Doing so, they have betrayed the black women (Radford-Ruther 1975:25). Was in North America where firstly the back women took up the gauntlet, especially in struggle for their rights. Black women had been hurt physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually, but until they had forgiven their oppressor, and had been reconciled to them, they would never be truly free. Whether emancipation was been conceded to the slaves in North America, in the mean time the womens problems were a lot. There were seemed
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problems like education, poverty, racism, classism or gender, etc (Keane ca 131). As we said the term Womanist was been coined by Alice worker in 1979 and it had its roots, in black folk culture, for womanish (see definitions). Womanist theology starts from women experience (such as the feminist), which is reflected upon theologically. In this theology the abstract idea are not generally the focus of interest, there is not, as is the case in the certain classical form of theology, a sharp line drawn between the sacred and the secular-everything lies within the provident care of God. Womanist theologians remain true to the spirit of the women movements in using the selfdescriptive term womanist. New and creative forms of theology need new terminology, new symbols and a new inclusive language to express adequately the needs of women of all races. They have heard themselves called the sons of God or worse still, the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Keane ca. 132-133). Black or womanist theology has it origin in the black consciousness. However to refer to the womanist theology is to refer to the back women theology or theologians in the approach we think better to exclude the African women theology or hermeneutics. b. The Well Known Womanist Theologians Such feminist and womanist also took up their gauntlet first in the United States and now in Africa as well and they gave their contribution in developing the theology in their story. In this step we havent so much information because books about womanist are not enriched yet in named the well-known womanist theologians in the world now. However we really pointed out the followings: 1. Angela Davies

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Book: Women, Race and Class (1981) Davies is an activist in North American in her country. In 1988, she turned professor of philosophy. She wrote authoritatively about the plight of the black women triple bondage in her book. In the book, she pointed out: black women were not newcomers on the scene (Keane ca 131). 2. Sojourner Truth She was mystic and abolitionist. In 1851 she make a speech in a women Right Convention. Delivered her legionary Aint I a Woman? Keane pointes out:
She spoke of women moral strength and the power of women collective effort to establish justice for black women. She believes that Moral values, asserted by back women who give credence to the black Judaeo-Christian tradition, honor reconciliation as highly as liberation (Keane ca 132).

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3. Mary McLeod Bethune and Nannie Helen Burroughs These womanist are runs churches, schools for black and were impelled by a prophetic sense of purpose. 4. Alice Walker Book: In search of our Mothers Womanist Prose (1983). Garden -

Walker was a writer and she was known because herself coined in 1979 the term Womanist for the black theologians. 5. Dolores Williams Book: Sisters in the wilderness: The challenge of womanist God-Talk (1993). Williams gave a great contribution on the womanist interpretation of the Bible. About her discovery, see the following chapter in the matter concerning to the womanist scriptural authority. 6. Kelly Brown Douglas This womanist theologian wrote an essay in 1992 entitled Teaching Womanist Theology: a Case Study. There are many others womanist theologians such as Katie Cannon, womanist and ethicist who gave their contribution to develop womanist theology. Cannon wrote in 1988 Black Womanist Ethics and in 1993 she wrote an important essay in journal of feminist studies in religion entitled womanist perspectival discourse and cannon formation. Unfortunately the books in our hands are not yet poor in showing us the name and work of many womanist theologians. Mine while names as like as Emilie Townes, Marcia Riggs, Jacqueline Grant, Karen Baker-Fletcher and

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Cheryl Kirk Duggan (Young 1998:1054) had given their contribution in this field.

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IV. WAYS IN WHICH FEMINIST THEOLOGIANS ADDRESS THE SCRIPTURAL AUTHORITY.

AND WOMANIST QUESTION OF

At the end of the day, feminist/womanists do not intend to eliminate traditional or much loved expressions from the scripture or elsewhere, but rather to enrich and expand theological language and imaginary by including words that are acceptable from a gender and racial perspective (Keane ca 133).

The problems of scriptural authority lead us to some questions such as: By what principles in which feminist and womanist interpret scripture? What difference does it make? a. Feminists and the scriptural Authority Among the feminist theologians we have two streams in which they addresses their approaches about feminist theology. In knowing this streams help us to understand very well what feminists think about the scriptural authority. a.1. Different streams of Feminist Theology Keane said that Feminist Theology is not a monolithic system. But, in general we could say that feminist theology is either revolutionary or reformist (Keane ca 123). Feminist theologians like Mary Daly, Elizabeth Cady Staton, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Susan Anthony, Downing and Christ belonged to the group, which was called revolutionary feminists or
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radical feminists. Such theologians appeal women to leave out the Christianity and to find religious emancipation by recovering the ancient goddess religious (or by inventing new ones). They understood that Bible and Christianity (the scripture) are irredeemably male-centered. For them, its language and origins in the patriarchal culture of antiquity and the way has been used down the centuries to discriminate against women rot it of authoritative status for women (Ackermann ca 351). However, reformist feminists considered another group. Belonged to this group theologians like Rosemary Radford Ruther, Letty Russell, Phyllis Trible, Elisabeth Schssler Fiorenza, Denise M. Ackermann, and others who defend positively the authoritative of the scripture. In her feminist interpretation of the Bible, Letty M. Russell said that Fiorenza maintains that only the nonsexist and nonandrocentric traditions of the Bible and nonoppressive traditions of biblical interpretations have the theological authority of revelation (Russell 1985:1). The scholars Ruether, Russell, Trible as well as Fiorenza all of them recognized the authority of the scripture in their lives. Ruether e.g. in her hermeneutic started with womens experience of oppression in which according to her the critical principle of Feminist Theology is the affirmation and the promotion of full humanity by women (Ackermann ca 352). According to Russell, this principle and in what concerning to that of Fiorenza raise the issue of our understanding of biblical authority and canon (Russell 1985 1985:16). Ruether principle according to Ackermann is hardly new and rests on the theological concept, that all of humanity is made in image of God. It is, however a central theme in feminist theology (Ackermann ca 134). Thus, Ruether can say the word of God comes as a critique of these elites, calling them to reform their ways in order to be faithful to divine injustice. Really she discerns a liberating prophetic critique running thought scripture, which places god on the side of those who are oppressed and marginalized by the ruling elites (Ackermann ca 352).

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By women experience as a key to hermeneutics or theory of interpretation said Russell and continues we mean precisely that experience which arises when woman become critically aware of these falsifying and alienating experiences imposed upon them as woman by a male dominated culture (Russell 1985:114). For her (Russell) the Bible is Scripture, or sacred writing, because it functions as a script; or prompting for life (1985:138 and Ackermann ca 352) because it opens up possibilities of new life. According to her the authority of Bible rests not in authority understood as domination, because authority seems in the form of a hierarchy or pyramid and it is exercised over community. This authority as partnership she said expresses a feminist understanding of reality as a circle of interdependence (Ackermann ca 353). Phyllis Trible, a biblical scholar who in her work focuses on the Hebrew Scripture1, employs a literary critical a approach (Ackermann ca 353). This implies that Hasel called the feminist new hermeneutic that brings to the Bible a principle of selectivity. Regarding this hermeneutic Hasel point out:
Certain portions of the Bible may be selected as authoritative, namely those that agree with present-day social, philosophical, and cultural norms or present life situation. In the words of Phyllis Trible, the principle of selectivity may be seen in the separation of descriptive and culturally conditioned texts from prescriptive and existentially valid ones, so not all scriptures is authoritative. Trible states precisely, feminist employs canons within the canon (Hazel ca 2). For Ackermann this process or journey through the scriptures brings the reader face to face with the fact that the bible is a minor of both the horror and the holiness of life (Ackermann ca 353).

By Elizabeth Schssler Fiorenza, feminist hermeneutics had most development. She devoted her life in studies of the scripture. Ackermann pointed out: No feminist theologian has devoted any time, skill and
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According to Russell thus the Hebrew scripture present us with a dynamic and moving language that criticizes the social injustice heaped upon those groups with whom the prophets identifies: the poor rural Israelite farmer over against the rich urbanite, and the enslaved Jewish people over against the great empires of antiquity (Russell 1985:119).

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painstaking scholarship to the hermeneutical question than Elizabeth Schssler Fiorenza (Ackermann ca 353). In spite she recognized that, the Bible is the source for women religious power as well as for their religious oppression throughout the history of Christianity at the present (Ackermann ca 353). She finds her hermeneutical center of feminist biblical interpretation in the concept of Womenchurch and then she sets out her critical feminist interpretative model that must be both feminist-critical and historical-critical in which, instead of accepting biblical authority unquestioningly, start with a hermeneutics of suspicion (Ackermann ca 353). Such hermeneutic according to Hazel, insists on suspicion rather than acceptance of biblical authority and he continuous saying that a feminist critical hermeneutics of suspicion places a warning label on all biblical text: caution! Could be dangerous to your health and survival. This shift in authority from the bible to its readers (who for feminists are women) means in feminist theology to denounce all texts and traditions that perpetuate and legitimate oppressive patriarchal structure in the word of God, for contemporary communities and people (Hazel ca. 2). Fiorenza not only appeals to suspicion but also by a hermeneutics of re-vision - according to it, the reader must investigate biblical texts in form to obtain more comprehension. Finally by her Bible is the historical prototype of faith and life (Ackermann ca 354). b. Womanist and the Scriptural Authority
Womanist theology is based in favor of community and consequently is less concerned with selfinterest or self-aggrandizement. The common cause or sisterhood is seen as primary. Furthermore the movement is cyclic and democratic-as apposed to the pyramidal structures of male hierarchical models. Womanist theology is also mission-minded (Keane ca 1433).

Womanist started their hermeneutics in the history of the slavery, racism, poverty or they awaken theologians to problems related to race and gender in order to find a deep
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innate understanding of social, cultural and political environment in which black people live (Ackermann ca 355). God made both (blacks and whites) in his image, so the humanity forgot this concept and the blacks were subdued in several slavery and they lived in extreme poverty. Ackermann cited Fiorenza who argued that blacks were not seen as full human; as African they were classified as heathen savages to be saved through enslavement; and as christians, white and black, they were expected to believe that slavery was divinely willed in the Bible (Ackermann ca 355). Many scholars made special attention in this approach and they underlined important tasks in their hermeneutics, of liberation. Yet Ackermann remained us that Dolores Williams worked in this tradition and recounts making a startling discovery. Dolores found two traditions for interpreting the Bible in the black community. (1) A Black Liberation Hermeneutic that claims god as the liberator of the poor and oppressed-that she calls the liberation tradition of African American Biblical appropriation. (2) A Black Liberation Hermeneutic that lays emphasis on female rather than male activity. This femalecentered hermeneutic she calls survival/equality life tradition of African American biblical appropriation. With this Ackermann points out that Williams finds a biblical prototype for African American women experience in the figure of Hagar the slave woman who cast into the desert by Abraham and Sarah (Ackermann ca 355). Whole efforts for the blacks were coming into the Bible where they found the way to drive their struggle for liberation. Williams tells us about the black-church a place in part invisible because it was rooted in the soul of the black people so that was the black visible denominational churches where the black people was in control. Williams finds guilty of sexism and poor leadership on that visible African-American denominational churches. The blackchurch played a vital importance in the life of the slaves that was developed biblically teachings, which resonate

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with the socio-economic and political experience of black women and men. Those teaching helped them to understand who Jesus is for them and helped to form a powerful impetus for liberation. Whole efforts for the black women were coming into the Bible, where they search the Scripture in order to learn how to dispel the threat of death in order to seize the present life (Russell 1985:40). Ackermann finally points out: the prophetic and liberating tradition in the Bible remains the central authority for womanist theologians as it does for most liberation theologies (Ackermann ca 356).

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V. CONCLUSION

As we find that both feminist and womanist suffered serious consequences from patriarchal system as well as in secular society in the church. Because perpetuated male domination in all spheres of the life, women both whites and blacks addressed critical approaches against the patriarchal system appealing it to balance the rules in society and church by considering that whole the humanity was made by image of God. Unfortunately patriarchy cannot be toppled and this forces both feminists and womanists to take the gauntlet and struggled for their rights. The Bible is taken for them as base for their approaches, by fact that the Bible was used to halt the emancipation of women and slaves. Feminist and womanist reflexions still claim the Bible as the source book for their theologies, because it has the power to speak to the lives of women today. To have an idea that about them the Scripture is authoritative, so let us remind what Russell said: For me the Bible is Scripture, or sacred writing, because functions as script, or prompting for life (Ackermann ca. 352).

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

ACKERMANN, Denise M., Feminist and Womanist

Hermeneutics. FERGUSON, Singlair B., WRIGHT, David F., INNELL, James, New Dictionary of Theology. IY series. Intervarsity Press. Ontario 1998. FOWLER, H.W. and FOWLER, F.G. Concise Oxford Dictionary. Clarendon Press. Oxford. 1911. HASEL, Gerhard F., Biblical Authority and Feminist Interpretation. http://www.e-historicist.com JACOBS, Cindy, women of Destiny. Ontario 1998 JACOBUS, Melancthon W.D.D., A Standard Bible Dictionary. Funk & Magnalls Company. New York.1909. LEWIS, Donald M, The Blackwell Dictionary of Evangelical Biography. Vol I., Oxford. 1995. McGrath, Aliester E., The Blackwell encyclopedia of Modern Christian though. Cambridge. Massachusetts 1993. 7011p. MONTAGU, Ashley, The Natural Superiority of women. Mac Milan Publishing Co., Ltd. New York. 1974.268 p. RICHARDSON, Alan and Browden, John, A New Dictionary of Christian Theology. SCM press Ltd., London, 1984.607 p. RUETHER, Rosemary Radford & KELLER, Rosemary skinner. Women & Religion in America. Harper & Row, publishers. New York.1981. 434p. RUSSELL, Letty M., Feminist Interpretation of the Bible. Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1985.140p. http://www/.pinn.net/~sunshine/booksum/russell1.html. YOUNG, Robert LL.D. Analytical Concordance to the Bible. Funk & Magnalls Company. New York. 1910. KEANE, Marie-Henry, Feminist and Womanist Theology.

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