Divine Women? Irigaray, God, and the Subject

One of the central themes of contemporary feminist literature is the exclusion of the female subject from the Western tradition. Luce Irigaray has made significant contributions to this literature. In this article I examine one aspect of Irigaray's work on the feminine subject, her discussion o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Feminist theology
Main Author: Hekman, Susan J. 1949- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage [2019]
In: Feminist theology
RelBib Classification:AE Psychology of religion
FD Contextual theology
KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history
NBC Doctrine of God
NBE Anthropology
Further subjects:B Process theology
B Luce Irigaray
B Female Subject
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:One of the central themes of contemporary feminist literature is the exclusion of the female subject from the Western tradition. Luce Irigaray has made significant contributions to this literature. In this article I examine one aspect of Irigaray's work on the feminine subject, her discussion of divine women. She argues that in order to achieve full subjectivity women must worship a female god that will give them the divinity that they lack, the divinity that the patriarchal god provides for men. I argue that this thesis is both counterproductive and incoherent. It perpetuates the male/female binarism that is at the root of patriarchy. It also fails to define the concept of a female god which is at the centre of Irigaray's argument. I conclude that the approach of process theology is much more successful in removing the maleness of God and providing women with a deity compatible with feminist beliefs.
ISSN:1745-5189
Contains:Enthalten in: Feminist theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/0966735018814670