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VOW
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Herstory and Heresy: A Womanist/Feminist Perspective on Jesus1 by Abby Noll Episcopal Action Briefing, The Institute on Religon and Democracy The church's traditional theology and practice are garbage Dr. Delores Williams declared that the special task of feminist theologians is to be the church's "theological garbage collectors," adding that"someone's got to take out the trash"--"trash" referring to the church's traditional theology and practice. Williams and the Reverend Dr. Carter Heyward were keynote speakers, with Bishop Barbara Harris from the diocese of Massachusetts as the chaplain, at a four-day conference entitled "A Feminist/Womanist Perspective on Jesus" sponsored by Kanuga Episcopal Retreat Center. Kanuga, located in the hills of Hendersonville, N.C., is supported by the several dioceses in North Carolina and the southeast. The Re-Imagining Conference was the best conference ever Undermining almost every basic tenet of classical Christian theology, the speakers presented their unsatisfying alternatives to the Christian story. Representing various denominations, the 60+ speakers and participants were largely informed about and sympathetic with the concerns of radical feminism. Many cheered when Williams referred to the notorious 1993 Re-Imagining Conference as the "best conference ever." The conference focused primarily on different "heresies"(term of self-definition embraced by conferees) related to Jesus. However, Heyward opened the first morning session with a premise of revisionist theology that relates to the nature of God. Feminist theology holds an immanent view of God, rejecting God's transcendence and sovereignty. Heyward shared her new discoveries about the "mutuality" of God with us. We're put here to help increase God There is "a love that is beyond God that God is even yearning for.
This yearning is a yearning for mutuality. God is in the depths of
the yearning-God is the yearning. This yearning led to Christ." She
continued, "The Christian Right is trying to fill that hole that can't
be filled...the only way to live fully is to embody God's own yearning."
According to this process theology that says, "God is growing," we are
"put here to help increase God." The Christian life is "not about obeying
the Spirit from
Feminist theologians pride themselves on the inclusive nature of their theology. Promoting an exclusively immanent view of God and upholding a universal call to "justice-love," Heyward expressed that the "kingdom of God is a very spacious place, no one is too different." Further, she claimed that "admission is entirely in the hands of the one entering." She qualified this later when she said, "We all come to God through Christ, though very few of us call him Christ. If we love others, we are living Christic lives." The exclusive claims of Christ are imperialistic Williams rejects the "imperialism" that is associated with "exclusive
claims" of Christ. When a participant asked her view of salvation,
Williams said, "I'm going to leave salvation alone." She would permit
individuals to say "Jesus is best for me" but any claim beyond such personal
relativism constituted classic imperialism, she said.
When Williams was asked, "How would you define evil?" her answer, "my
first
Myriad types of human sexuality defended Heyward, quick to defend myriad types of human sexuality, reinterprets
the meaning of Christ's "incarnation" as a sign of God's approval of all
that is sensual and physical. Heyward, in an offhand comment, poked
fun at the orthodox understanding of Christ's virgin birth, "as if Mary
couldn't have gotten pregnant by a man...." She further dismissed
the mysterious paradox of Christ's nature as man and God, to a "dualistic
reality" that "presupposes that Christ is very other than us." This, she
claims, is
The atonement is "Bull****" Feminist theologians especially deplore the atonement. In the most graphic instance, Heyward referred to a recent sermon she had heard on the atonement as "Bull****." Heyward admitted that as a priest, "the rubber hits the road" with the liturgy. She deletes "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us" when celebrating the Eucharist. Instead she teaches that we are the "living sacraments" of atonement when we show "compassion and non-violence." Forgiveness does not come through "blood sacrifices" but through compassion and solidarity. Likewise, Delores Williams said she cannot "condone violence" and consequently
rejects the "sacred" and "surrogate" violence of the atonement. An African-American,
Williams considers herself a "womanist," a term coined by Alice Walker
who said, "Womanism is to feminism what purple is to violet." The
African-American heritage, steeped in Gospel hymns and the blood of Jesus,
offers a stubborn resistance to Williams' rejection of the atonement.
She admitted that Martin Luther King, Jr. would "die all over again if
he heard me." In another anecdote, she shared about a rural black
woman who admonished her, "Don't mess with my Jesus." Williams earnestly
You can be a heretic, too After Delores Williams' exhortation to be "God-inspired heretics on behalf of the marginalized," the speakers and attendees joined in a song written by the conference coordinator, Rosemary Crow. Sung in the spirit of humor and good feminist solidarity, almost everyone joined the chorus "You Can Be a Heretic, Too." ____________________
* A transcript of an interview that Abby Noll conducted with Carter
Heyward
1. VOW elected to reprint this article because Delores Williams is listed as a speaker on theology at the Millennium Re-Imagining Gathering in October of 2000. She was also a Bible study leader at the Women's Ministry Program Area's "Conference on Economic Justice" that took place in March of 2000. In June, the General Assembly approved a Commissioners'
Resolution that allows staff (with a supervisor's approval) to participate
in the Re-Imagining conference using church funds that have been budgeted
for professional development.
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