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Title: She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse by Elizabeth A. Johnson ISBN: 0-8245-1376-2 Publisher: Herder & Herder Pub. Date: 01 October, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Interesting for both, men and women, lay-people and clerics.
Comment: An excellent book that one should take enough time to read slowly and thoroughly.
Elizabeth Johnson starts by looking for an appropriate word in order to refer to the Divine. It is common practice to say that God is Spirit. An interesting thing about this is that the word "Spirit" has gradually shifted from being feminine in Hebrew, to neutral in greek and ultimately masculine in latin. This is not much of a surprise in a male-dominated world. In itself this does not necessarily indicate an improvement in the adequacy of our concept of God. But if we consider this particular history of the word, it may suggest that in order to improve our image of God, we need at least to integrate all three aspects: the feminine, the neutral and the masculine.
This will help us take into consideration the fact that God transcends all categories. It will help us deepen our perception of God as mystery.
The important for all those who try to link with the Absolute is to know that God is, more than to know exactly what she, it, or he, is.
Another interesting fact that the author points out in the same perspective, is that the Spirit as such, has never been given a proper name.
Spirit is considered more often than not as an impersonal power, like a blowing wind or a breath in motion.
The title of the book is a clear indication that the author approaches the mystery of God from a feminine point of view.
This is done in a constructive way, without being too aggressive. Even when she suggests that Christ's ability to be savior does not reside in his maleness, but in his huge and steadfast capability to love.
More challenging are her comments on the suggestion made by a number of authors, that the Spirit was, at least for some time, hypostatically united to Mary.
To my view, this offers a good way of understanding the Christian creed when it claims that Christ was conceived from the Spirit and born from Mary.
Altogether, this book is a good incentive for women, but also a real challenge for men.
As a follow-up I would recommend the reading of her more recent book "Truly our sister". Quite logically, after dealing in the present book, with the feminine in God she focuses in the new one, on Mary as a major symbol of the feminine in humankind who also enjoyed a unique relationship to the feminine in God.
Rating: 5
Summary: The world needs She Who Is
Comment: Johnson writes with an ultimate goal in mind, that of a transformation into new community. Her vision is one in which harmony with each other and with the earth are realized; an eschatological dream of a new heaven and a new earth where justice dwells and partnership reigns.
As a first step toward this vision her book offers theologicaly founded evidence for expanding our image of God. Language functions; selling a god of violence,or superiority based on maleness or color is not helping us to realize a vision of the kindom of God put forth by Jesus-one where all are included at God's loving banquet. Without this first step toward expanding God's image we humans will always be in violent dissonance with each other and with the earth.
I have read this book no less than six times, it has infomed my vision of the world and my personal goals in life. The language she uses is poetical and moves to the core of our being linking us with the holy.
Rating: 1
Summary: Some interesting insights....but based on faulty assumptions
Comment: I found the book to be an endless and somewhat unnecessary attack on classical theism. Her notions of pauline theology, based on a platonic dualism, have been shown to be baseless. The disparities and divisions of the church and society are not proven in her work to stem from classical theism, but are assumed. The church which she diminishes has worked to bridge culturally created divisions, which she fails to admit to. Her pandering into pantheism and panentheism are also disappointing, for she reveals her true intention of not reforming the church, but espousing a new religion.
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Title: Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints by Elizabeth A. Johnson ISBN: 0826414737 Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group Pub. Date: 01 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: From a Broken Web: Separation, Sexism, and Self by Catherine Keller ISBN: 0807067431 Publisher: Beacon Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1988 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: Theology in a New Key: Responding to Liberation Themes by Robert McAfee Brown ISBN: 0664242049 Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1978 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins by Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza ISBN: 0824513576 Publisher: Herder & Herder Pub. Date: 01 February, 1994 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: An Asian Theology of Liberation by Aloysius S. J. Pieris ISBN: 0567291588 Publisher: T. & T. Clark Publishers, Ltd. Pub. Date: 01 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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