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Feminist theology is a movement found in several religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Neopaganism, Baháʼí Faith, Judaism, Islam, Christianity and New Thought, 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 clergy and religious authorities, reinterpreting patriarchal (male-dominated) imagery and language about God, determining women's place in relation to career and motherhood, studying images of women in the religions' sacred texts, and matriarchal religion.
Women in Judaism have affected the course of Judaism over millenia. Their role is reflected in the Hebrew Bible, the Oral Law, by custom, and by cultural factors. Although the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literature present various female role models, religious law treats women in specific ways. According to a 2017 study by the Pew Research Center, women account for 52% of the worldwide Jewish population.
Thealogy views divine matters through feminine perspectives including but not limited to feminism. Valerie Saiving, Isaac Bonewits (1976) and Naomi Goldenberg (1979) introduced the concept as a neologism. Its use then widened to mean all feminine ideas of the sacred, which Charlotte Caron usefully explained in 1993: "reflection on the divine in feminine or feminist terms". By 1996, when Melissa Raphael published Thealogy and Embodiment, the term was well established.
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Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to make the religious, legal, and social status of Jewish women equal to that of Jewish men in Judaism. Feminist movements, with varying approaches and successes, have opened up within all major branches of the Jewish religion.
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The feminist movement has affected change in Western society, including women's suffrage; greater access to education; more equitable pay with men; the right to initiate divorce proceedings; the right of women to make individual decisions regarding pregnancy ; and the right to own property.
Feminist Jewish ethics is an area of study in Jewish ethics and feminist philosophy.
The following is a timeline of the history of feminism.
Marcia Falk is a poet, liturgist, painter, and translator who has written several books of poetry and prayer.
Martha A. Ackelsberg is an American political scientist and women's studies scholar. Her work focuses on the nature of power and its relationship with communities. Cases used in her research include feminist activism in the United States and the Mujeres Libres, an anti-fascist women's organization during the Spanish Revolution of 1936.
Siddur Nashim: A Sabbath Prayer Book for Women is a feminist siddur written in 1976 by Naomi Janowitz and Margaret Wenig of the Brown University Women's Minyan. It is the first siddur to use female imagery and pronouns to refer to God.
References
- ↑ "B'not Esh Founding Letter". Jewish Women's Archive.
- 1 2 3 Ackelsberg, M. A. (1986). Spirituality, Community, and Politics: B'not Esh and the Feminist Reconstruction of Judaism. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 2(2), 109-120.
- ↑ Plaskow, J. (1995). Spirituality and politics: Lessons from B’not Esh. Tikkun, 10(3), 31-32.
- ↑ "Judith Plaskow". Jewish Women's Archive.
