Julian of Norwich: a Model of Feminist Theology

Abstract

All human discourse about God’s activity in relation to us quoad nos is based on bio-socio-culturally conditioned experience. Since both Scripture and subsequent biblical interpretation are shaped in androcentric societies, traditional Christian theology is mainly verbalised through male gendered Godlanguage. In the Hebrew Bible, God is overwhelmingly andromorphic, described with male metaphors as king, warrior, judge and patriarchal husband. In the New Testament, God is named Father and Christ is called Son and Lord. Correspondingly, the first male, Adam, is defined as Godlike human prototype, whereas the first female, Eve, is derived and therefore not theomorphic. Creational gender hierarchy is transposed to the order of salvation, with Christ as new Adam, and church/Mary as new Eve. This typology remains fundamental in Orthodox and Catholic Christology and ecclesiology.1 Between the 3rd and the 5th century, “feminist” church Fathers managed to include women as Godlike already at creation, in spite of nontheomorphic femaleness. Defining imago Dei as incorporeal and therefore sexless, this prerogative was attributed to women’s rational souls, without affecting creational male precedence.2 The ensuing conflict between women’s asexual equivalence and female subordination is axiomatic in theological anthropology until the 20th century.3