Christaphanies
Christaphanies. Revising christology from the perspective of women in different cultures.
This study, Christaphanies, is meant to contribute to the ecumenical feminist debate on christology. In the early years of feminist theology the christological debate was still an issue for white, Western feminist theologians. In the mid-1980s this changed. Women from the so-called Third World, and eventually black women from North America as well, spoke out and criticised the Eurocentric character of Western feminist theology. Proceeding from their personal, religio-cultural and socio-political context they presented their own christological models, in which their experience of racism, colonialism, sexism and poverty featured prominently.
In this book I consider some of these feminist christological models. The focus is mainly on the contextual differences and the concomitant diversity of experiences and images of oppression and salvation, which present a hermeneutic challenge for an ecumenical feminist revision of christology. The underlying idea is that it is no longer possible to treat particular experiences of salvation as absolute at the expense of “others”. Such a view is not feasible, it is argued, if one takes mutual differences and the concomitant critical perception of those “others” in the christological discussion at all seriously. Consequently one’s personal notions of oppression and salvation are subjected to on-going self-criticism, in the hope that ultimately only that which contributes to a good life for all will be recognised as messianic.
Despite the fact that women’s experiences and their reflection on these determined the feminist theological angle from the outset, I could not avoid the impression that their christological quest remained heavily indebted to the “patriarchal legacy”. I delved into the christological discussion conducted in (mainly European) theology over the past two centuries to gain greater insight into the continuity and discontinuity between traditional and feminist christological approaches. One resemblance that struck me was the latent anti-Judaism inherent in both these groups’ interpretations of Jesus. Feminist theologians unsuspectingly adopted the rules of the “patriarchal” dogmatic christological game. Like their “fathers”, they sought the foundation of their Christian identity in the past, in the “innovation” embodied by Jesus in contrast to “archaic” Judaic patriarchy. The anti-Judaism inherited from their theological “fathers” proved to be inextricably linked with the way their Christian identity had to be constructed, namely in contradistinction to “the other”. This analysis results in the proposition that in order to avoid anti-Judaism in a revised feminist christology, one has to abandon the traditional definition of Christian identity.
This insight helped to convince me that if a feminist revision of christology is to be more than just a variation on the existing dogmatic game, it would have to be combined with a revision of the epistemological premises of that game. In this regard three closely interrelated themes are explored. The first is that of the origin of Christian identity. I advocate a relational concept of Christian identity, based on a changeable rather than a fixed identity. Such a flexible concept of identity would no longer search for its roots in the past but would look for these in an as yet unrealised future. For christology this means that the legitimation of Christian identity should no longer be the person of Jesus and the Jesus movement that grew around him, but that the biblical stories recounting the visions of that movement should serve as an inspiration to start looking for a Christian identity that is still to be defined.
The second theme relates to the title of this book - Christaphanies, or appearances of “Christa” - and the concomitant search for messianic stories and images in women’s everyday lives. “Christaphanies” underscore the need for a gender-specific definition of what women in diverse contexts experience as doom and salvation, as oppression and emancipation. Besides calling for the necessary suspiciousness of partriarchal concepts of salvation in the Christian tradition, “christaphanies” in the framework of a “hermeneutics of creative actualisation” invite playful, creative messianic imagination. This happens with due regard to God’s ongoing revelation in history and the belief that women, like men, are created as imago dei: that they can come forward as representatives of divine salvation, as happens in several of the christological models outlined in this study. Here, too, the “christaphanies” centre on the diverse expectations and images of salvation cherished by Christian women in different cultures. To avoid turning specific images of salvation into absolutes once again it is essential that women should meet and communicate about their contextual experiences of oppression and salvation. Elements of divine revelation and opportunities for new theological interpretations of Christ are to be found in such interaction, in encounters with divergent experiences, rather than in predetermined truth claims.
In so doing - and this brings me to the third theme - it is not a logic of sameness and a striving for theoretical harmony but a practical “dissonance” that breaks down the thought pattern fixated on unity and creates scope for a relational style of knowing. Making mutual differences fruitful, recognising the “otherness of the other” whilst not losing sight of the global emancipation of women calls for a rethinking of the relation between particularity and universality. The third theme focuses on this problem and proposes the concept of interactive universality.
One implication of these reflections is that the crux of christology is no longer situated exclusively in a reinterpretation of the person and ministry of Jesus. The crucial question is that of the meaning of salvation, liberation and redemption in continuity and discontinuity with Christian tradition. Here christology is no longer just the umpteenth variation on the game of the “historical Jesus” versus the “Christ of the church”, but is a concept that allows scope for the stories of people joined in a common search for answers to the question of what divine salvation and oppression mean for present-day people in all their diversity. Such a christological model calls for a relational concept of identity in which mutual differences are seen as enriching rather than threatening. Negative definitions of the other make way for an intersubjective search for salvation and a good life for everybody. Thus the spotlight is not on faith in Jesus but on the faith of Jesus.
The book is divided into four chapters:
Chapter I gives a historical outline of the quest for the historical Jesus over the past two centuries. The chapter comprises three sections.
In the first I deal with the 19th century Leben-Jesu-Forschung. The course and eventual failure of the attempt to reconstruct Jesus’ life historically is described with reference to Albert Schweitzer's famous Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung. Schweitzer demonstrates that these so-called historical descriptions of Jesus’ life are ultimately no more than the modern projections of their respective authors.
In section 2 the focus is on the development of the christological debate after World War I. Following the failure of the Leben-Jesu-Forschung the emphasis fell squarely on the “Christ of the church”. This over-accentuation led to renewed interest in the problem of the historical Jesus in the 1950s. Under the influence of developments in the field of hermeneutics proponents of the so-called New Quest took a different route. To them the historical Jesus was inextricably linked with the kerygmatic Christ, expressed in their motto: “The crucified one is the risen Lord”. Finally I take a brief look at the latest quest for the historical Jesus, which is raising the question afresh: who was Jesus in reality? Sophia christology is examined as an interesting discovery in this context.
The last section looks into the quest for the historical Jesus in the perspective of liberation theology, which emerged in the early 1970s. Its image of Jesus as the liberator of the oppressed is reflected in feminist christological models with a liberation theology slant. Against the background of the liberation movements of the 1960s and the development of a political and liberation-theological hermeneutics the christological model of the black North American theologian James Cone is explored in some detail. In the midst of the struggle against racism he looked for the salvific significance of Jesus and arrived at the christological concept of a black Christ. In chapter III, section 6 it becomes clear what a major influence Cone's christological model had on womanist christological concepts.
Chapter II deals with christology from a feminist perspective. It starts with an introduction to early developments in feminist theology and the emerging discussion on christology among North American and European feminist theologians. Some attention is paid to the charge of anti-Judaism which Jewish women levelled at the feminist reinterpretation of Jesus. It is claimed that this anti-Judaism was a legacy of the theological “fathers”, who set up Christian identity in opposition to Judaism. Feminist theologians adopted this contrasting definition of Christian identity; the point is illustrated with reference to an example. This is followed by a detailed discussion of the christological models of the Catholic theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether and the Anglican theologian Carter Heyward, both North Americans. In a feminist, liberation theology perspective both of them, in continuity and discontinuity with the Christian tradition, look for a christology that transcends the dualistic, hierarchical pattern of “us and the others”. In so doing they call into question the epistemological basis of traditional christology and go beyond a mere reinterpretation of Jesus within the accepted frame of reference.
Chapter III deals with the christological models of African, Asian and Afro-American (womanist) theologians. The first three models are those of Third World theologians who joined the (female) network, Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT): Mercy Amba Oduyoye (Ghana), Virginia Fabella (Philippines) and Chung Hyun Kyung (South Korea). The fourth christological model presents the christological views of North American “womanist” theologians. On the basis of these different christological concepts I sketch an image of what women in their respective contexts experience as doom and salvation, oppression and emancipation. The interrelationship of the various forms of oppression on grounds of race, skin colour, culture, sex, class, et cetera is explained, as well as the implications this has for their perception of christology.
Chapter IV deals, firstly, with the similarities that emerge between the christological models discussed in the preceding chapters. Then the emphasis shifts to the differences between them and the consequences these have for the conception of christology. Finally I explore three interwoven themes which strike me as pertinent to a feminist christological revision and which were briefly raised in the preceding chapters.
The first theme is the search for a relational, intersubjective Christian identity that rejects the adversarial thinking of the “fathers” and regards mutual differences as enriching rather than threatening that identity.
The second theme pertains to “christaphanies”. The word, whose meaning is defined in some detail, underscores that a feminist revision of christology should look for creative, “women-aware” stories and images that express the contextual diversity of women’s experiences of oppression and salvation, both past and present. The theological implications of this approach are examined in some detail.
The third and last theme deals with the problem of the relation between particularity and universality. I advocate an encounter-based interactive universality that recognises the “otherness of the other” and takes the concomitant mutual differences and dissonances as a starting point for joint reflection and action.
