Feminist Theology and the Challenge of Difference. By Margaret K. Kamitsuka

摘要

Pause. That is what Margaret K. Kamitsuka calls feminist theologians tondo in her theoretically sophisticated Feminist Theology and the Challange ofnDifference—to pause for self-critical reflection on how feminist theologiansnmight attend to difference more integrally, more systematically, and more radi-ncally in their scholarship. Despite “multicultural good intentions, productivendialogue across differences, and genuine collegiality among feminist theolo-ngians of various backgrounds” (26), feminist theologians nonetheless attendninadequately to difference, contends Kamitsuka. Overt appeals to “a commonnwomen’s experience” are, of course, now rare thanks to challenges fromnwomen of color and to the postmodern turn away from essentialism. However,nshe observes, a certain hegemonic normativity (primarily of whiteness and ofnheterosexuality) continues to shape the methodological and theoreticalnassumptions of most feminist theologies. The result has been, she says, thatnwell-meaning calls to “‘solidarity’ and ‘sisterhood’ have rendered manynwomen’s bodies docile just as the terms ‘lordship of Christ’ and ‘blood of thencross’ have done” (158). Kamitsuka thus proposes how feminist theology mightnborrow theoretical tools from postmodern and postcolonial thought “in ordernto theorize difference in relation to female, embodied moral agents” (4) withnimplications for not only methodology, but also hermeneutics and doctrine—nand ultimately for all “women’s survival, spiritual well-being, agency, andnhope”