In Memory of Her by Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza
"In Memory of Her" by Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza is a pivotal work in feminist theology that reexamines early Christian history through the lens of women's experiences and contributions. First published in 1983, the book employs feminist critical hermeneutics and historical-theological methods to challenge traditional narratives that often marginalize women's roles in Christianity. Schüssler Fiorenza argues that early Christian texts, largely written from a patriarchal perspective, have historically omitted or downplayed women's activities and leadership, thereby distorting their contributions to the faith. She posits that the Jesus movement originated as a "discipleship of equals" and that the social structures of early Christian communities allowed for women's leadership and participation.
The author critiques the character of biblical authority, particularly in the writings of Paul, highlighting the dual nature of his impact on women's roles—both promoting a vision of equality and enforcing patriarchal norms. Central to her thesis is the concept of the "ekklesia of women," which envisions a counter-structure to patriarchal traditions, advocating for women's spiritual-political rights within the church. Schüssler Fiorenza's work not only seeks to recover the historical narratives of women but also inspires contemporary women to form supportive communities that resist sexism and promote liberation. Overall, "In Memory of Her" serves as a foundational text for those interested in the intersection of feminism and Christian studies, emphasizing the need for a more inclusive interpretation of religious history.
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In Memory of Her by Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza
First published: New York: Crossroad, 1983
Genre(s): Nonfiction
Subgenre(s): Biblical studies; exegesis; hermeneutics; theology
Core issue(s): Church; discipleship; justice; scriptures; social action; women
Overview
In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins is one of the earliest and best-known books by Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, a professor at Harvard Divinity School. In this very technical and dense study, Schüssler Fiorenza seeks to reclaim early Christian history as women’s history and to reveal biblical traditions as the history of both women and men. These goals help her to answer questions regarding women’s activity in the early Christian movement and to restore the memory of early Christian women’s sufferings, struggles, and power to contemporary readers. She integrates her training in feminist theory, biblical exegesis (specifically of the New Testament), and historical-theological critical methods to achieve her goals. In the process, Schüssler Fiorenza offers a groundbreaking study of Christian origins, or, more specifically, a fuller vision of early Christian communities that includes women as important historical actors. First published in 1983, In Memory of Her has been translated into many languages.
In the first part of the book, Schüssler Fiorenza introduces a specific set of interpretive methods, or her feminist critical hermeneutics (methods of study), and aligns herself with liberation theology. Liberation theologians question the seeming objectivity and value-neutrality of academic scholarship and have consistently stressed that historical, political, and cultural presuppositions, beliefs, and structures influence all scholarly works. They also argue that wherever oppression and domination occurs, one is engaged either for or against the oppressed or marginalized. Accordingly, Schüssler Fiorenza asserts that biblical interpreters and scholars, too, must resist the notion that they offer purely objective analyses and become engaged scholars. Toward this end, Schüssler Fiorenza employs a critical methodology for biblical interpretation that empowers women in their struggles against dominant, oppressive religious structures.
In distinguishing her feminist approach to biblical studies from the more traditional and masculine-centered (androcentric) ones, Schüssler Fiorenza discusses the significance of the methodological principles of biblical interpretation (hermeneutics) offered by Elizabeth Cady Stanton in The Women’s Bible (2 volumes, 1895 and 1898). Stanton conceived her project on the assumption that biblical texts are androcentric; that is, they transmit patriarchal values and biases and have been consistently interpreted from a male perspective. While Schüssler Fiorenza’s own feminist critical method acknowledges the primacy of androcentric texts in early Christian history and biblical traditions, her method does not assume that these masculinist texts offer fully reliable reports or adequate reflections of the reality of which they speak. Her hermeneutical approach attempts to reconstruct the antiwoman texts by examining both that which is stated and that which is unstated regarding women in early Christianity. This approach also demands acknowledgment of the androcentric nature of both the historical situations described by biblical texts and the later processes of their transmission, editing, and canonization.
Schüssler Fiorenza asserts that androcentric language in biblical studies—particularly the description of women in the Christian scriptures—tends to mention women only when their behavior presents a problem or when women are exceptional individuals. She contends that a more historically adequate translation and interpretation of biblical texts—the one she prefers—focuses on not only the inclusive functions of androcentric language but also its limitations. The broader yet more nuanced interpretations of women’s personal and political experiences of both oppression and liberation become the criterion for reconstruction of early Christian beginnings.
In the remaining chapters, Schüssler Fiorenza examines the roles of the women who were part of the Jesus movement in Palestine, who were within the early Christian missionary movement, who were present during the growth of house churches, and who were part of the eventual episcopal hierarchy within the Christian Church. In each case, she provides a fuller historical awareness of women’s lives within the various contexts. Schüssler Fiorenza also portrays the early Jesus movement as a discipleship of equals. Addressing anti-Semitic tendencies in much Christian (including feminist) scholarship, she suggests that the early Jesus movement is better understood as a renewal movement within Judaism that was an alternative to the dominant patriarchal structures, rather than as an organized form of opposition.
Schüssler Fiorenza also applies careful exegetical, historical, and theological analysis to the early Christian missionary movement in order to determine women’s activity therein. What she concludes is that the organizational elements of the early Christian missionary movement (such as particular forms of religious propaganda and the reciprocal patronage system of Greco-Roman society) provided a social framework that made women’s leadership roles not only plausible but also logical. With these assumptions, Schüssler Fiorenza portrays the early Christian missionary movement as a charismatic phenomenon that insisted on the religious equality of believers as sisters and brothers. This recovery of women’s activity in the life of the early Church, however, is not easily derived from biblical texts. Schüssler Fiorenza notes that the inconsistencies in New Testament sources indicate that early Christian standardizing, editing, and compressing processes on biblical texts followed certain androcentric interests and perspectives, thus producing the historical marginality of women.
Christian Themes
In her reconstructive efforts, Schüssler Fiorenza challenges traditional views of biblical authority by revealing the biases of biblical authors. She asserts that the early Christian writers transmitted only a tiny portion of the possibly rich traditions of women’s contributions to the early Christian missionary movement. She suggests that this duplicitous omission was due, in part, to the bitter struggle for or against women’s leadership that occurred during the time of the canonization of the Christian scriptures.
In addition, Schüssler Fiorenza discusses the mixed impact that the apostle Paul had on women’s leadership; she reminds the reader not to oversimplify Pauline theology. On one hand, Paul’s writings inscribe a “democratic” vision of equality in the Spirit; on the other hand, he imposes patriarchal submission on women, in such areas as worship and marriage, as the “Word of God.” Here, the author advances a theory of interpretation that tries to unravel the patriarchal politics inscribed in the biblical text. Accordingly, she suggests that one ascertains theologically whether scriptural texts function to inculcate patriarchal values, or whether they must be read against—even freed from—androcentric linguistic structures. When the later occurs, these texts offer a liberating vision of Christianity.
Another significant theme in Schüssler Fiorenza’s work is her development of the theological concept of the ekklesia of women. For her, this concept stands counter to the patriarchal religious structures and formations that occurred throughout Christian history. Her usage of ekklesia emerges from an understanding of the initial egalitarian social relations of the followers of Jesus, or a “discipleship of equals.” She argues that this notion was replaced by a hierarchical, patriarchal ecclesiastical structure during the second or third century following Jesus’ life and ministry. She notes that as a term translated as “church” in the Christian scriptures, ekklesia is not so much a religious as it is a civil-political concept, indicating an assembly of free citizens coming together in order to decide their own spiritual-political affairs.
The historical import of this term for Schüssler Fiorenza is that women in a patriarchal church are denied these spiritual-political rights, individually and as a group. For the author, ekklesia is as much a symbol of hope as it is an indicator of structural realities for contemporary Christian women. With this concept, she envisions a feminist Christian spirituality that both expresses the liberating experiences of contemporary women and recovers the memory of their foresisters, whose legacy has been buried beneath patriarchal structures. Her feminist spirituality calls women to gather together as the ekklesia of women who seek freedom from the sins of sexism and other antiwoman language in biblical texts. Women should live for one another and in solidarity with all who are impoverished and marginalized. As with the early Christian communal self-understanding, the democratic nature of Schüssler Fiorenza’s contemporary vision of ekklesia is not simply a theoretical ideal; it is, rather, an active process moving toward greater equality, freedom, and responsibility—toward communal forms of human interactions that are free of domination.
Sources for Further Study
Eisen, Ute E. Women Officeholders in Early Christianity: Epigraphical and Literary Studies. Translated by Linda M. Maloney. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2000. Provides evidence for women holding offices of authority in the first several centuries of Christianity.
Kraemer, Ross S. Review of In Memory of Her. Journal of Biblical Literature 104, no. 4 (December, 1985): 722. One of the few reviews available on this difficult and dense book.
O’Connor, June. “Rereading, Reconceiving, and Reconstructing Traditions: Feminist Research in Religion.” Women’s Studies 17, nos. 1/2 (1989): 101. A thoughtful essay that examines In Memory of Her along with Bernadette Brooten’s Women Leaders in the Ancient Synagogue (1982), Rosemary Radford Ruether’s Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology (1983), Pat Holden’s Women’s Religious Experience (1983), and Theodora Carroll Foster’s Women, Religion, and Development in the Third World (1983).
Parson, Susan Frank, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. A critical guide to the field of feminist theology, describing some main features, concerns, and questions raised by international scholars.
Schottroff, Luise. Lydia’s Impatient Sisters: A Feminist Social History of Early Christianity. 2d ed. Translated by Barbara and Martin Rumscheidt. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000. Argues that women in the early church were fully participating members in the body of Christ and that it was only as the church institutionalized that they were assigned subservient roles.