Feminist theology, Christianity and the problem of patriarchy : toward an alternative perspective

For the last fifty years, feminists have debated whether a feminist Christian theology is even achievable. Post-Christian feminists maintain that it is impossible to reverse the 'sexist society' permeating Christianity, while reformist theologians struggle with how to articulate a commitment to feminism in spite of it. The aim of this thesis is to recast the debate in an e effort to reconcile feminism and faith. Bernard Lonergan's dialectical philosophy provides a useful framework for reworking the basic tensions between Christian and post-Christian feminists. In particular, the historico-religious triad of progress, decline, and redemption reconstructs patriarchy as a symptom of a broader form of systemic bias that is reversible through knowledge born of faith. By way of philosophical exegesis, the objective is to bolster the particular aims of reformist feminism, namely recovery from gender bias, and show that there is a place for feminists in the Church. The remote goal is to develop an alternative existential critique of patriarchy that is legitimate in both the secular and theological realms and contribute to the task of bridging the gap between faith, traditional religion, and feminism