Power and Presence in Care: A Christian Feminist Theological Response to Melissa Raphael

Abstract

This article offers a theological response to Melissa Raphael’s The Female Face of God in Auschwitz from a Christian feminist perspective. Specifically, it details two challenges that Raphael’s conceptions of female care and power may offer to Christian feminist theology. Firstly, Raphael’s emphasis on the power of care for others, though a controversial care for many feminist theologians, may challenge Christian feminists to recognise care for others as something distinct from self-abnegation. Secondly, Raphael’s description of the presence of God in Auschwitz as markedly different from any Christian doctrine of incarnation may challenge feminist Christians to reconceive their doctrine.