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2. Womanist Theology
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| 37 2 Womanist Theology Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas Historical Backdrop In her sermon titled “Has the Lord Spoken to Moses Only?” Pauli Murray raises critical questions pertinent to the womanist theological project: “Does the future of humanity depend upon how quickly . . . feminine principles can be incorporated into our religious life and thought? Is God calling women to reassert prophetic leadership and ministry before it is too late?”1 Murray uses the story of Miriam, sister of Moses and Aaron, the first woman identified as blessed by God with the gift of prophecy. Foreshadowing much of the womanist vision, Murray’s invoking of Miriam’s prophetic stance as an example of how the questions of gendering power dynamics and perspectives with Black religious life may have always existed yet awaited women of great faith, courage, and wisdom to call attention to and ultimately end such injustice. The conditions and circumstances of our contemporary era are just as needful of a prophetic critique of the racialized and gendered oppression that still plagues Christianity, both Black and white. Furthermore, womanist theology reveals itself to be an organic discourse inasmuch as it is faithful to the church while also seeking to remake this most central and cherished institution. This is not viewed as an innovation by womanist theologians but is deemed a continuation of Black women’s traditional culture of struggle, survival, and celebration that represents the likes of womanistmusessuchasMariaStewart ,JarenaLee,SojournerTruth,HarrietJacobs, IdaB.Wells-Barnett,AnnaJuliaCooper,NannieHelenBurroughs,ZoraNeale Hurston, Pauli Murray, Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Septima Clark, and countlessothersinaffirmationofthemselvesoftheBlackcommunityandtheir relationshiptothedivine.Alsoembeddedintheworkofthesetheologiansisan emphasis on bringing together elements of Black literature, visual art, music, and sacred testimonies to make an urgent and impassioned plea to Black churches to address not only racism and classism in mainline Christianity but alsosexismandanti-intellectualisminthehistoricBlackchurchtradition. 38 | Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas Womanist theology was formed not only in a context in which white men controlled the public spheres of academia and the church but also within a generally embraced standpoint where, to use Gloria Hull’s words, “all the women are white, all the Blacks are men.”2 The same efforts within Black theology and feminist theology that were forging a discourse to deconstruct the normative gaze of white male dominance resulted in obscuring and obliterating the exigent realities and liberative aspirations of Black women within the church, academy, and society as well. During most of the 20th century and the development of Black denominations , Black studies discourse in general, and Black liberation theology in particular, alongside the establishment of the women’s movement, women studies in general, and feminist theology in particular, a dualism increasingly emerged between Black men and women on the one hand and white women and Black women on the other. After each of these movements and ideologies established itself in America off the sweat equity and grassroots activism of Black women, the hope was that the institutions and ideologies that emerged would be inclusive of all Blacks on the one hand and all women on the other. As these movements and discourses evolved, however, the roles and agency of Black women were exploited while their needs and experiences were ignored.3 From abolitionism to reconstruction to the civil rights movement to the Black power movement, a dualism between Black men and women increasingly emerged. While Black men found themselves at the helm of movements and institutions that were for, by, and about Black people, Black women continued to endure the stereotypes and oppressions of an earlier period. As if by divine appointment or by the inheritance of a male-dominated society, Black men deemed it proper for them to speak for the entire community, male and female. Consequently, the interests and concerns of Black women were divided and subverted. While Black male theologians identified tensions between white Christianity and a liberating gospel, that same gospel did not bespeak any concern for the liberation of women from patriarchal Christianity. The women’s movement and feminist theology proved to be little different in effect. From the popularized liberation of women from domesticity embodied by Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem to the political activism and theological discourse endorsed by Mary Daly to its present academic incarnation, there was a failure to acknowledge the realities of Black women throughout the three evolutionary waves of modern feminism. The interests of the movement were more geared toward the needs and concerns of pre- [3.239.13.1] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 13:15 GMT) Womanist Theology | 39 dominantly educated white...