4. The Person in Feminist Theology
Feminists have been sharply critical of the traditional
identification of sin with pride and related to death, seeing this as a form of
patriarchy. According to Rosemary Radford Ruether the equation of sin and death
is not only wrong; it has contributed to the justification of evil. Following the pre-apocalyptic Hebrew view, Ruether sees our mortality, though
tragic, as natural, not related to sin. Instead, sin lies in the distortion of
relationship...and the insistent perseverance in the resultant cycle of
violence which lead to victimization and systems of control.
Writing as a feminist process theologian, Marjorie Hewitt
Suchocki takes a similar view of sin.She rejects the Augustinian/Niebuhrian view of sin as rebellion against God and
pride as the core form of sin. Instead she begins with the feminist critique by
Valerie Saiving, Judith Plaskow, and Susan Nelson and concludes that the
context of sin is the interdependence of creatures. Hence she understands sin
as rebellion against creation expressed as unnecessary violence. Since the
consequent nature of God is effected by the world, though, God experiences
human sin through such violence. But what accounts for the universality of sin
in an evolutionary perspective? Suchocki draws on the Irenaean /
Schleiermachian view that God-consciousness emerges in all of humankind in
tension with an underlying self-centeredness that precedes it and is required
for our survival in the world. Recent anthropological studies concerning human
origins beginning with the Pliocene era enhance this view. She also uses
Christoph Wassermanns claimthat human survival entailed violence, but such violence ambiguously included
life-enhancing as well as life-destroying behavior. In time, the transition from
mere ambiguous violence to actual sin occurred as early humankind gained the
ability to transcend its innate violent tendencies through empathy, memory, and
imagination.
Contributed by: Dr. Robert Russell
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