Toward a Renewed Anthropology

Abstract

As indicated by the range of topics included in this issue of TS, the new feminism, popularly known as the women's liberation movement, 1 presents a serious challenge to the areas of language, interpersonal relationships, work in the world, and ministry in the Church. Beneath all these topics, however, lies a crucial issue for theology as a whole: an adequate understanding of what it is to be human. As the Dutch phenomenologist F. J. Buytendijk has correctly noted, "it is of the essence of human being always to be either man or woman." 2 This differentiation of the human race into two sexes, which most feminists take to be a primal and paradigmatic differentiation, 3 demands an adequate understanding of the distinct dimensions of female as well as male existence. Moreover, it demands that the perspective of each sex, with all the experience, history, insight, and imagination which is its own, contribute to the description of human being and of God which grounds a theological anthropology.It is the contention of feminists that the prevailing ideas about what it means to be human have been male-oriented and male-shaped. This is what is meant by "sexism." Theology, no less than any other discipline, is being called to an examination of consciousness; for this reason, everyone engaged in the work of theology needs to listen to the rising chorus of feminist authors. To facilitate this encounter, we intend to survey here books and articles of the past ten years that have pushed forward the frontiers of consciousness about the mystery of humanity, male and female. My survey will deal with publications that do not have a consciously religious framework; Anne Patrick will concentrate on specifically religious publications, works which address more directly the question of an inclusive theological anthropology through interpretations of Scripture, tradition, and church practice. Feminism itself is an elusive and much-disputed term. 4 Here it is used 1 For an excellent overview of the movement, see Donald McDonald, "The Liberation of Woman," Center Magazine 5 (May-June 1972) 25-42. For a very different approach, see also Jo Freeman, "The Origins of the Women's Liberation Movement," in Changing Women in a Changing Society, ed. Joan Huber (Chicago, 1973) pp. 30-49. .4 Beverly Harrison has recently developed a distinction between "hard" feminists (those who reject the two-human-natures theory) and "soft" feminists (those who recognize a special nature in women and want to "feminize" the public world). See "The New Consciousness of Women: A Socio-Political Resource," Cross-Currents 24, 4 (Winter 1975) 445-62. 725