Pope Francis himself has stated that the church needs a
"new theology of women." But what does that mean, exactly? And who
might write it?
By Emily Reimer-Barry, assistant
professor of theology and religious studies at the University of San Diego.
[Sounding Boards are one person's take on a many-sided
subject and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of U.S. Catholic, its
editors, or the Claretians.]
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A traditional Chinese proverb teaches that “women hold up
half the sky.” Women also hold up half the church.
This truth may have been on Pope Francis’ mind when he
told reporters in July 2013, “I think that we haven’t yet come up with a deep
theology of the woman in the church.”
A few months later, in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii
Gaudium, he elaborated that women make indispensable contributions to
society but also that “we need to create still broader opportunities for a more
incisive female presence in the church.” Pope Francis argued that the presence
of women must be guaranteed in the workplace “and in the various other settings
where important decisions are made, both in the church and in social
structures.”
The pope is exactly right: The church does need a deep
theology of the woman, but the question we have to ask is: How do we get there?
Are these just words, or are church leaders finally ready to begin to implement
a more gender-inclusive agenda?
Is the church ready to construct this deep theology of
the woman without running it through the clerical male filter? A new theology
of women cannot and should not be authored by men. Rather than a new theology
of women written by men, it is time for women in the church to have a voice in
the construction of the church’s theology of women.
Some might object to this proposal by arguing that the
bishops are the authentic teachers of the faith, that this is part of their job
description. But you can’t teach what you don’t know. Bishops in the Roman
Catholic Church are all male. Bishops cannot speak from experience about what
it means to be a woman in the church. So they must listen to and learn from
women.
If differences between the sexes matter—and in current
expressions of Catholic theology they do—then the bishops should recognize their
obvious limitations in this sphere of human experience and should welcome the
voices of women.
But how can we fruitfully structure this conversation? We
need a global consultation, led by female theologians and women religious,
tasked with listening and learning from stories of everyday women and the
social data that provides the context for those personal narratives. For this
major undertaking to be successful, the women leading this process should
adhere to the following five rules.
1. Consult widely.
Even the female researchers who might lead this project
need to learn from other women. We can’t speak about “women’s
experiences” in the abstract. No two women are exactly alike, and when we
recognize differences of citizenship, ethnicity, language, age, class, sexual
orientation, and all of the other distinctive ways in which women’s experiences
are formed and shaped, we then realize the difficulty of talking across these
areas of difference. So one of the most important considerations is that global
consultation is necessary, across all of the barriers that seem to divide us.
As researchers consult widely, it will be especially
important for them to listen to survivor stories, so they may learn from women
abused in intimate relationships; women who have lost children to war,
starvation, curable disease, or gang violence; women in vowed religious
communities who have been told that they are in grave error and in need of
reform; women whose labor is valued less than their male counterparts.
Ask these women—indeed, ask all women interviewed—what
they need to thrive. What do women, all around the globe, say they need to be
the fully flourishing human beings that God created them to be?
2. Don’t reinvent the wheel.
The idea of a global consultation is certainly daunting,
but we should remind ourselves that we would not be starting from scratch.
Women have been a part of the church from the beginning. And our faith
tradition contains stories of many remarkable women who shaped and passed on
the faith, even if most of their stories were told by men.
The researchers who undertake this project should receive
the fruits of the theologies that have already been developed by women in the
church. Some of these women identify as feminist, while some prefer other
descriptors. For example, many black women prefer the term coined by Alice
Walker, describing their work as womanist theology, while many Latinas prefer
to call their work mujerista theology.
Women have learned that doing theology from the
perspective of women is life-giving, challenging, and liberating work. The task
of feminist theology, as it emerged in its second and third waves, is not just
to offer critical perspectives of past theologies or to uncover the lost stories
of women but also to construct a way forward that is empowering of all.
Feminist, womanist, and mujerista theologians have
been doing this work in university classrooms, academic conferences, women’s
spirituality prayer groups, and in publications like this one. Unfortunately
their contributions have often met resistance from church leaders instead of
open engagement. If we are to seriously develop a new theology of the woman,
this new theology must incorporate what has been learned in this scholarship
over the past 50 years.
3. Seek common ground.
It would be tempting to focus exclusively on the
particularity of each woman’s story and the differences among women’s
experiences globally. But this task force should model cross-cultural
engagement rooted in a process that seeks to build consensus around contested
issues.
We should use our reason to reflect on our human
experiences in order to draw norms about what is right or wrong. This is the
natural-law approach to Catholic social teachings, which are addressed to all
people of good will. The new theology of women should try to build bridges of
understanding between women in different parts of the world and should seek
common ground.
Some issues might remain controversial for some time. It
might not be possible at this juncture to come to universal agreement on how to
promote women’s leadership in the institutional church, or how to best empower
women to make good choices in sexual relationships. But there are some issues
which should not be controversial. If women in the task force can emphasize
areas of agreement, these can be a fruitful foundation for further
collaboration.
A good starting point in this area is to combat violence
against women and the cultural expressions of this misogyny and disrespect: for
example, attention to sexual slavery and human trafficking and the
victimization of women in the pornography industry.
Other possibilities for building common ground include
making childbirth safer for women globally, equal access to primary and
secondary school education for girls and boys, and equal pay for equal work as
women work alongside men in most sectors of the economy.
4. Substantiate claims with evidence.
It might sound obvious, but this is an important rule for
this global consultation task force. Researchers should consult data beyond the
publications of the previous popes and councils. In crafting their new theology,
the authors should cite from a range of sources, build a case, and substantiate
their claims with evidence.
Too often Vatican documents on women contain simplistic
stereotypes (like the nurturing mother), platitudes (like the feminine genius),
or unsubstantiated claims (like the claim in Evangelii Gaudium that
women possess more sensitivity and intuition than men). If the descriptive
claims and normative conclusions of this new theology of women are to be taken
seriously, they must be defended, not simply asserted.
Those who are tasked with constructing this new theology
of women should avoid proof-texting from the scriptures or cherry-picking from
the popes. And avoid at all costs the phrase “As we have always taught, ….”
5. Write in an open and dialogical tone.
Finally, the authors of the new theology of women should
acknowledge the limitations of whatever new theology emerges and should
encourage others to build on their work. A new document is not to immediately
become the last word on the subject but would instead be a new point of
conversation, a new jumping off point.
If scholars write in an open, inviting tone, nuancing
their claims and not overstepping their legitimate authority, this new theology
is more likely to be well received by a broad audience. When this new theology
is presented in a popular form, it should be distributed widely, using the mass
media as a pulpit for teaching.
Let’s creatively use social media and the mainstream
press to build awareness of the equal dignity of women and the important
contributions women can make to society and the church.
If women do indeed also hold up “half
the church,” it is time to invite them to collaborate in the construction of
theology. Enabling and empowering women to construct the new theology of women
would be a good place to start. It is time to craft a process by which women
are at the table, speaking from their experiences, constructing a more adequate
theological anthropology that takes into account the voices of diverse women
across the
