Rosemary Radford Ruether gives 1998 Sprunt Lectures; says ‘Flesh became Word not Word became Flesh’

An analysis by C. Powell Sykes

In a controversial decision, radical feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether was invited to give the 1998 Sprunt Lectures at Union Theological Seminary (Va.). The content of her lectures, delivered Jan, 26-28, shows the reason for the controversy.

In 1911 James Sprunt, a ruling elder at First Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, N. C., created a foundation at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia "for the authoritative presentation to the students of the particular subject or subjects which, at any given time, may be occupying the attention of the Christian world." This year’s lectures marked the first time the lecturer was a radical feminist.

Ruether, who teaches theology at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., is considered a pioneer in the field of feminist studies. Her Ph.D. is in classics and patristics, and she has received 11 honorary doctorates. The speakers who introduced her prior to each lecture called her "doctor of the Church," "pastor," "brilliant," "pioneer," "path-breaker," and "a considerable privilege to introduce." In several instances she was received with roaring applause and tears of joy.

Sexism and God-Talk
Ruether’s theology is probably best encapsulated in her most important book, Sexism and God-Talk, the tenth anniversary edition of which was published in 1993. There she writes, "the heart of my understanding of inspiration and religious authority [is] God did not just speak once upon a time to a privileged group of males in one part of the world, making us ever after dependent on the codification of their experience." The conclusion of this logic is expressed, "Feminist readings of the Bible can discern a norm within Biblical faith by which the Biblical texts themselves can be criticized. To the extent to which Biblical texts reflect this normative principle, they are regarded as authoritative. On this basis many aspects of the Bible are to be frankly set aside and rejected."

Cut off from the corrective of Scripture, Ruether’s teachings spiral out of control, and out of the boundaries by which Christianity has historically defined itself:

On monotheism – "When speaking of the understanding of the divine of the ancient Near East, I speak of Gods and Goddesses … rejecting the traditional Western usage that left them lowercase to signal that these were false deities and not the true (Judeo-Christian) God."

On the uniqueness of Jesus – "Christ, as
redemptive person and Word of God, is not to be encapsulated ‘once-for-all’ in the historical Jesus." On atonement – silence, except to say, "Jesus’ crucifixion is seen as the consequence of . . . confrontation with falsified religion at the right hand of oppressive political power."

On salvation – "God opts for the poor to overthrow unjust relationships … The nonpoor and the privileged can join the Church only by joining God in this preferential option for the poor, by identifying themselves with the cause of the oppressed."

If some of these themes sound familiar, they should; many of them were expressed at the infamous ReImagining Conference in 1993, about which the 1994 General Assembly said by a vote of 98.9%, "some of the theological content … not only extended beyond the boundaries of the Reformed theological tradition but also beyond that tradition’s understanding of what makes faith Christian."

A delightful and engaging speaker, looking very much the grandmother that she is, at the Sprunt Lectures Ruether managed initially to suppress many of these heretical themes by historically tracing the development of feminism from the early Church to the present. In this fashion, much like a newscaster, she was able to give centuries-old views without revealing her own.

Paul’s two schools
In an idiosyncratic piece of biblical exegesis, Dr. Ruether claimed that Galatians 3:28, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus," did not originate with Paul. Instead, the apostle was quoting an earlier baptismal formula he did not fully comprehend and certainly did not promote. This, she said, is evidenced in I Corinthians, most of which was written to silence women. The factions of I Cor. 1-3 are, she says, women. Chapter eleven "cuts women down to size."

Ruether further asserted that women are the target of Paul’s attempting to restrict the gift of ecstatic speech in chapters twelve through fourteen. This was all most women could do in worship, she claimed. In the body analogy of the Church in chapter twelve, women are the unpresentable parts, the genitalia that must be covered, as commanded in chapter eleven.

Ruether said Paul’s Corinthian letters made the factions so much worse that two schools of Pauline thought broke apart and could be traced in and beyond the New Testament. In the first, women could preach and remained celibate, and thus, "in control of their own bodies." This school is seen in the non-canonical "Acts of Paul," which features a woman, Thecla, who hears Paul’s call for chastity, and breaks off her engagement. She preaches and escapes from the hierarchy of her family. Thecla even baptizes herself.

The second Pauline school is intent upon silencing women and spiritualizing equality into a realm that has not yet arrived. It may be found in Ephesians, but has its best expression in I Timothy, where women must submit to a double reinforcement of hierarchy, "last in creation, first in sin."

Augustine, Luther, and Calvin
Lecture two focused on the Medieval Church, affirming women in cloistered communities run by women but sanctioned by men. According to Reuther, the important roles many of these women played in supporting men, such as Jerome, have been suppressed by patriarchy. Most of their writings have been lost or destroyed. Their greatest enemy was the misogynist Augustine, whom Ruether called "that great Church Father who has given us so many dubious gifts."

The paradise of the convent was overthrown by the advent of the Reformation, according to lecture three. Luther and Calvin inherited all of Augustine’s hatred toward women, though because of the advent of many strong women monarchs in the 16th century, among them Mary and Elizabeth, the conflict became much more pronounced. Women-affirming communities were to be found at the time among humanists and left-wing Christians, particularly Quakers.

Following this lecture the one voice at Union to challenge Ruether’s paradigm was raised. Professor of Church History Mark Valleri cited several instances of women who claimed to be freed by the teachings of Luther and Calvin. Ruether countered that it did not matter what those women said, as the misogyny of Luther and Calvin was clear in their own writings. No other objections were voiced.

The history of feminism
During the final lecture Dr. Ruether first traced the history of feminism in the 19th and 20th centuries, referencing a broad movement that included Quakers, Shakers, Abolitionists, Women’s Suffrage, ERA, and the peace and ecological movements. In 1998, she said, Christian feminist theology is global, influenced by many religions. Some of her own views, shared by radical feminism and expressed in Sexism and God Talk, were given.

"Redemption is about liberating women and all victimized people from violence and from injustice."

"Redemption does not mean sending down the divine from some higher spiritual world where God is located, into a bodily world we find is alien to God, but rather perhaps it means the welling up of authentic life in a true creation transforming us from death-dealing to life-giving relations. It is to say ‘Flesh became Word,’ not ‘Word became Flesh.’ God is not the power of dominating control from outside but the ground of life-giving relations and their ongoing renewal."

"[What is] the role of suffering and the cross in redemption? What kind of suffering is redemptive? Is the passive suffering of victims redemptive? Doesn’t the mandate that women and other victims such as slaves, impoverished people, that they should accept suffering in order to be ‘Christ-like,’ simply prolong and justify violence rather than overcoming it? Some theologians, such as womanist Delores Williams, have answered this question by decisive rejection of the idea that the cross, or Christ’s suffering, is redemptive. It is not Jesus’ suffering and death but His life as a praxis of protest against injustice in solidarity in His life, it is this praxis that is redemptive."

"Although the figure of Jesus remains resiliently central to Christian feminist theology, many Christian feminists would also reject Christological exclusivism. The Jesus who takes the side of the poor, who celebrates the life of the marginalized, is key to the feminist paradigm of redemptive process, but this does not exclude, but rather embraces parallel paradigms in women’s experience and in other cultures and religious traditions."

Reactions
Following the lectures Dr. Douglas Ottati agreed to be interviewed for the Presbyterian Layman regarding the selection of Rosemary Radford Ruether as the 1998 Sprunt Lecturer. He gave four reasons for the invitation: 1) She is at a mature point in her career after having written on a variety of topics over a long period of time. 2) She is internationally known. 3) The fact that a ten-year anniversary edition of Sexism and God-Talk has recently been published indicates that it is an important work and "required reading in feminist theology." 4) She understands herself as a Christian theologian in conversation with the historic Christian tradition and scriptures.

When asked what he would like to say to the readers of the Layman, he replied, "For better and worse, and I know that not everybody agrees with me entirely, I think one of the important things to say about Christian theology is that it involves a conversation with a great cloud of witnesses, extending backwards in time to many different places and locations, and extending outward in space to many different places in our contemporary world. That conversation is important to sustain and nurture on seminary campuses, and that sometimes means that people are invited to participate in that conversation with whom not everyone agrees."

Not everyone indeed. Dr. William P. Wood, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a former trustee of the seminary said, "As a member of the Board of Trustees, I was part of a group on the Board who were opposed to the invitation to Rosemary Ruether to deliver the Sprunt Lectures. A motion was made by W. T. Thompson IV and me to withdraw the invitation to Rosemary Ruether as Sprunt Lecturer. The Board debated that motion and the motion was tabled. As a Trustee, I was opposed to Rosemary Ruether coming to Union Seminary as part of a distinguished lecture series such as the Sprunt Lectures. In my opinion, the views she has expressed in writing are simply outside the boundaries of the Christian faith, and she should not have been invited to come to a Christian seminary."

According to Wood, Louis Weeks, President of Union-PSCE, "enthusiastically endorsed her coming as Sprunt Lecturer." In a parting shot at his critics following the lectures, one of whom has been professor of Theology Emeritus John Leith, Weeks was quoted in the January 31, 1998, edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch as saying, "She is one of the pioneers in feminist theology. Her works have been used here for more than 20 years. John Leith…used her books here in the 1970s."

Leith has responded in a letter to the newspaper, "This statement by Louis Weeks is misinformation and leaves the wrong conclusion. If I used her books in the seventies, it was as a reference or an illustration, as I used many books by Christians, dubious Christians and non-Christians. I never used her books to teach Christian doctrine. I was dismayed that the faculty and administration, with the concurrence of the Board of Trustees, invited Rosemary Ruether to give the honored Sprunt Lectures, a person whose recent writings have denied every basic Christian doctrine from creation to redemption."

C. Powell Sykes is pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Burlington, N.C., and a 1988 graduate of Union Seminary.

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