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She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse » (10TH ANNIVERSARY)

Book cover image of She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse by Elizabeth A. Johnson

Authors: Elizabeth A. Johnson
ISBN-13: 9780824519254, ISBN-10: 0824519256
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Crossroad Publishing Company
Date Published: May 2002
Edition: 10TH ANNIVERSARY

Author Biography: Elizabeth A. Johnson

Book Synopsis

With a voice at once prophetic, poetic, and scholarly, Johnson shows how the traditional understanding of God as male can make room for the feminine God, and how the experience of women everywhere enriches our view of God and our spiritual lives.

Library Journal

As perhaps the best book of feminist theology to date, She Who Is is at once thoroughly orthodox, grounded in classical Christian thought, liberatingly contemporary, and rooted in women's experience. Johnson reviews the history of Christian language about God and explains the need for feminist language about God, thereby providing background for nontheologians. She then develops an inclusive and creative Christian spiritual doctrine. Highly recommended for all collections serving educated lay readers, theologians, and clergy.

	Illustrations
	Acknowledgments
Pt. I	Background: Speech About God at the Intersection of Mighty Concerns
1	Introduction: To Speak Rightly of God	3
	A Crucial Question	3
	Context: Mystery Mediated in History	6
	Purpose: Connecting Feminist and Classical Wisdom	8
	Plan	13
	Scotosis vs. the Glory of God	13
2	Feminist Theology and Critical Discourse About God	17
	The Lens of Womenás Flourishing	17
	Speech about God at the Intersection of Mighty Concerns	19
	Feminist Theology	22
	Critique of Speech about God	33
3	Basic Linguistic Options: God, Women, Equivalence	42
	Why the Word God?	42
	Why Female Symbols of God?	44
	Why Not Feminine Traits or Dimensions of God?	47
	Equivalent Images of God Male and Female	54
	Options	56
Pt. II	Foreground: Resources for Emancipatory Speech About God
4	Women's Interpreted Experience	61
	The Dynamism of the Conversion Experience	62
	Experience of Self Experience of God	65
	Moral Values	67
	Image of God, Image of Christ	69
5	Scripture and Its Trajectories	76
	A Hermeneutic of Revelation	76
	Spirit/Shekinah	82
	Wisdom/Sophia	86
	Mother	100
6	Classical Theology	104
	Divine Incomprehensibility	104
	Analogy	113
	Many Names	117
Pt. III	Speaking About God from the World's History
7	Spirit-Sophia	124
	Divinity Drawing Near and Passing By	124
	Forgetting the Spirit	128
	The Human Analogue	131
	Spirit-Sophia in Action	133
	Speaking about Spirit	141
	Speaking about God	146
8	Jesus-Sophia	150
	Wisdom Made Flesh	150
	Distorting the Christ	151
	The Human Analogue	154
	Jesus-Sophia in Action	156
	Speaking about Christ	161
	Speaking about God	167
9	Mother-Sophia	170
	Unoriginate Origin	170
	Eclipsing the Mother	172
	The Human Analogue	176
	Mother-Sophia in Action	179
	Speaking about God	185
Pt. IV	Dense Symbols and Their Dark Light
10	Triune God: Mystery of Relation	191
	Tradition and Its Discontents	191
	Freeing the Symbol from Literalness	197
	Directing the Symbol toward Meaning	205
	Female Metaphors	211
	The Symbol Gives Rise to Thought	215
	Speaking about the Triune God	222
11	One Living God: She Who Is	224
	"No Real Relation" and Womenás Sensibility	224
	Divine Nature: A Communion	227
	Bespeaking God's Solidarity with the World	228
	Female Metaphors	233
	Divine Being, Sheer Liveliness	236
	Speaking About the Living God: SHE WHO IS	241
	To Practical and Critical Effect	244
12	Suffering God: Compassion Poured Out	246
	The Apathic, Omnipotent God and "His" Critics	246
	Female Metaphors	254
	Divine Suffering	265
	Divine Power	269
	Speaking about the Suffering God	271
	Epilogue	273
	Notes	275
	Index of Authors	307
	Index of Subjects	313