Rosemary Radford Reuther at Union Seminary

RICHMOND, Va. - January 26-28 Union Theological Seminary (VA) will have to face up to its controversial invitation to radical feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Reuther to deliver its prestigious Sprunt Lectures for 1998. The controversy over the invitation broke out in November 1994 following a split faculty vote of nine to six to have Reuther deliver the Lectures.

 By Parker T. Williamson

 When the invitation was extended, the controversy quickly spread to the alumnae and has been simmering ever since. With Reuther’s visit to Union now imminent, the controversy threatens to flare up again and cause more trouble for an already troubled institution. (See story, p. 4.)

The controversy surrounding Reuther is symptomatic of a much larger struggle for the "theological soul" of Union Seminary. Her candidacy for the Sprunt Lectureship revealed how deeply Union’s faculty is divided. Whereas Reuther’s candidacy enjoyed the vigorous support of the faculty’s liberal wing, confessionalists and evangelicals were united in opposing it. By defending the faculty vote in her favor and extending Reuther the invitation, President Weeks cast his lot with the liberals.

Theologically, Reuther is known to stand at odds with fundamental beliefs of the Christian faith. As previously reported by the Layman (Sept./Oct., 1995), she has led worship in which prayers have been offered to pagan goddesses such as Sophia, Gaia, Isis, Great Mother Goddess, Lady Asherah of the Sea, and numerous others.

For Reuther, "radical feminism ... announces the ‘return of the Goddess’" (Sexism and God-Talk [Boston: Beacon Press, 1983], p. 134). In place of the Triune God of Christianity, therefore, she speaks of "God/Goddess," which is Matrix, the "great womb in which all things are generated" (p. 48). To Reuther, the earthly Jesus was a liberator who struggled against hierarchy in a manner "remarkably compatible with feminism" (p. 135). It was the early church who obscured Jesus, by transforming him into the "once-for-all" disclosure of God (p. 122). Salvation is accomplished by us humans; for males, it is conversion from sexism; for women, it is liberation from male sexism (chap. 7). And the Christian hope of life after death is a myth: at death, each person returns to nature, or Matrix, that great womb of being (pp. 257-58).

Reuther is also known for her advocacy of "Women-church" (Women-Church [San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985]). Women-church is an autonomous "base-community" within existing churches. It constitutes a "feminist counterculture." Its purpose is to redefine the boundaries and content of what it means to be the Church (pp. 62-63).

The Sprunt Lectures each year provide Union Seminary with the opportunity to showcase itself to church and students but especially to alumni/ae. This year, it is the bifurcation of Sprunts that stands out: whereas in the worship services the Reformed faith will be proclaimed, in the lectures a radical feminist perspective that fundamentally undercuts this faith will hold sway.