Who's Afraid of Reverend Virginia Wolf? Feminism, Clergy, and the Role of Women in Reform Judaism and Catholicism

by Gregory Eran Gronbacher With topics such as same sex marriage and the recent Catholic Synod on the Family in the news, many of my Catholic friends have been blogging, posting, and engaging (often heatedly) in animated online conversations about gender and the role of women in religious life. As a Reform Jew, some of these conversations feel odd in the sense that our community has reached a degree of resolution and consensus concerning such subjects. That’s not to say that differences of opinion do not exist, or that matters are completely settled within the Reform and Liberal Jewish worlds, but for the most part, the subjects are not as controversial and heated as for our Roman Catholic friends. I would like to make some observations about the recent conversations. Let me start by saying that sex, gender, and feminism all have deep spiritual significance – this short essay is not an attempt to downplay the importance of these topics. Nor is this essay a criticism of my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters. While I don’t reach the same conclusions as many of my Roman Catholic friends concerning the role of women in religious life, I try to understand the theological context from which my Catholic friends operate. My goal in raising these issues is to promote dialog, understanding, and mutual respect. Gender & Theology Gender is a highly complex aspect of human experience, not only a matter of biology, but also influencing psychology, sexuality, and even spirituality. The iconography of gender is a theological notion that indicates that humans created in the image and likeness of God, are also engendered beings, and thus the significance of gender renders glimpses into, and causes considerations of, the Divine nature – and vice versa. Gender therefore serves an iconographic role – revealing something of the Divine mystery. As such, gender is inherently a theological consideration and cannot be excluded from any theology claiming the title systematic. Feminism & Theology Along the same lines, Feminism is a related theological reality that cannot be ignored. I’d argue that Feminism consists of three thrusts: the first is the affirmation of the dignity of women and the equality of their ontological value with men; the second, is to encourage and consider the perspective of women in the various disciplines, but especially the more subjective ones, such as literature, art, theology, and philosophy – by this, I mean, trying to examine the unique view of women; and third, to promote a society in which women’s rights are promoted and protected. For most of its history, Judaism was a patriarchal religious tradition, relegating women to a lower status than men. The traditional domain of women in Jewish life was the home, which although highly influential as a cultural institution, was a far cry from academic theology and the running of the synagogue. Once the feminist revolution burst on the scene in the 1960s, the liberal movements of global Judaism soon began to contemplate fully including women by ordaining women for religious leadership as rabbis. From its founding in 1968, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College opened its doors to women, ordaining its first female Rabbi in 1973. And one year earlier, the Reform seminary Hebrew Union College made the decision to ordain women. The Conservative Jewish movement sanctioned women’s ordination in 1983. In her influential book Standing Again at Sinai, Jewish theologian Judith Plaskow writes that the Torah, and Jews’ conception of their own history, have been written by and in the language of a male patriarchy in a manner that sanctions the marginalization of women, and must be reclaimed by redefining its content to include material on women’s experiences. Feminism from a Jewish perspective involves reclaiming and reimagining aspects of traditional Judaism with the added benefit of female experience. Jewish history is being rewritten to include women’s experiences. In a modern version of midrash, Jewish texts are being reinterpreted to uncover the woman’s point of view. Jewish theology is being rethought, and even the nature of God is being reconceived. Theology expresses itself in ritual, prayer, and liturgy. New Jewish prayers and rituals have been composed to reflect the experience of Jewish womanhood, such as in the siddur by poet Marcia Falk. Women’s prayer and study groups have sprung up, many meeting around Rosh Chodesh, the start of the lunar month, an occasion to observe the new moon and celebrate women’s bodily cycles. As Plaskow and Falk have indicated, Jewish women must reclaim Torah as their own. The task of any serious Jewish theologian must be to render visible the presence, experience, and deeds of women erased or suppressed in traditional sources. Jews must add to their telling the the stories of women’s encounters with God and tradition. We must expand the notion of Torah to encompass not just the five books of Moses and traditional Jewish learning, but women’s words, teachings, and actions hitherto unseen. To expand Torah, we must reconstruct Jewish history to include the history of women, and in doing so alter the shape of Jewish memory. This is the obligation of both Jewish men and women. Jews aren’t the only ones bringing feminist insights to bear on theology. In recent years, the influence of feminism has blended with Catholic theology to yield a ‘new feminism’ which rejects more secular temptations of only viewing gender in terms of power relations and politics and seeking theological ways of acknowledging and affirming the true genius of women in every aspect of the life of society and overcoming discrimination, violence, and exploitation. Much of the new feminism has roots in Pope John Paul II’s theologically-based exploration of gender presented in his Wednesday audiences between 1979 and 1984, and now compiled as the Theology of the Body. In this work, he describes his belief that men and women are formed as complementary human beings, whose dignity and worth are equal, but whose theological gifts are different and diverse. One need not fully agree with the entirety of Catholic theology to appreciate the profound philosophical, theological, and anthropological insights outlined. In 1988, John Paul II reinforced these themes in his apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem (On the Dignity and Vocation of Women). In this letter, John Paul II called on women to value their 'feminine genius' as mothers and caregivers as well as their participation in theology, politics, and economics. The pope describes the ‘feminine genius’ as including empathy, interpersonal relations, emotive capacity, subjectivity, communication, intuition and personalization – gifts not limited to women, but expressed in unique ways by women. Following John Paul’s lead, contemporary Catholic theology continues to wrestle with the genuine gifts of women to society and the church. Jews and Catholics have similar and vastly different views on God. While Divinity is understood by both Catholicism and Judaism in similar terms – a creator God of power, kindness, mercy, love, justice, and the source of life – Judaism’s radical monotheism is not the Trinitarian vision of Catholicism. For Judaism, the notion of the incarnation is, for lack of a better term, absurd; for Catholics, Jesus is the fullness of the revelation of God. Given the Christian centrality of the notion of incarnation, Jesus’ maleness therefore colors the nature of the revelation that Christians claim. For Catholics, Jesus’ maleness is inescapable. While most Catholic theologians would admit that Divinity transcends gender, the reality of Jesus emphasizes key aspects of the masculinity of God that they believe have implications for the structure of the church. Jews also have a tradition of understanding God in masculine terms, as Father and King, but present in the Jewish texts are also understandings of God as mother and God as feminine. It is arguably easier for the Jewish philosophy of God to transcend gender than it is for the Christian tradition. Feminine imagery of God enhances the Jewish understanding of God, which should not be limited to masculine metaphors. All language that humans use to describe God is only a metaphor, but which metaphors we chose matter, and we gain insight into God’s nature as well as our own when we speak of both the feminine and masculine aspects of Divinity. Many Catholic theologians would concur, but Jesus’ maleness adds perspective that cannot be ignored. Jews and Catholics have similar and vastly different views on the role of clergy. Within Judaism, rabbis occupy a place of honor and respect, serving the community as teachers, as leaders, and as spiritual guides. Yet there is no strong sense of the rabbi symbolically representing God in a distinct sacramental way within the community along the same lines as Christian priesthood is symbolic of Jesus. Both rabbi and priest play vital leadership roles and are honored, but the ontological understandings of the nature of each differ. As such, the notion of the Rabbinate is broader in relation to gender than the Roman Catholic priesthood, offering no sense of contradiction to women serving in the role. The iconography of rabbi benefits and is expanded in a positive way through the inclusion of women. For many in the Catholic world, gender is an inescapable historical reality of Jesus’s incarnation and is therefore foundational to the understanding of Catholic priesthood. In this light, the Catholic Church has attempted to offer cogent reasons for ordaining only men. Again, it was John Paul II who attempted to explain something of the iconography of gender, the role of the priest as an icon and symbol for Jesus, and the obvious maleness of Jesus. Such teaching attempts to explain that the maleness of the priesthood is much more than simply the “exclusion of women.” Clergy, Priesthood, and Power Power is expressed and structured differently within the Catholic and Reform Jewish communities. Catholicism is hierarchical, Judaism is much more egalitarian. The typical Catholic parish is under the authority of priests who are under the authority of bishops. The typical synagogue is under the authority of both the rabbi and lay leadership, with the rabbi being an employee of the synagogue in the majority of situations. Both priest and rabbi can be highly influential blessings to any community. Yet, while from a theological perspective, priesthood is primarily understood as a role of service to the community of faith, it would be naïve to claim that the priesthood does not stand in relation to centralized power within the Catholic community. The typical priest wields far broader control over community life than does the typical rabbi. Women cannot be priests or bishops – the central authority roles within the church. It goes further; women are markedly under-represented on pontifical councils and theological commissions. In general, women are not in primary leadership roles within the Catholic Church. Yes, women are present as nuns, as theologians, as parish leaders, as mothers, and so on – roles not to be underestimated in terms of influence. Yet such positions do not generate authoritative theological teaching or exercise religious authority in any wide sense. In Reform Judaism, women are represented in leadership roles, both theological and practical. Going Forward Sadly, some of the recent Catholic online conversation has included input from those of a more traditionalist bent who have claimed that women involved in leadership and liturgy to any degree are a distraction, at best. These same critics claim that the presence of women on the altar, in liturgy, in leadership roles – all lead to the devirilization of the Church. Thankfully, not all Catholics are traditionalist. Rebecca, my fellow blogger, and a Catholic woman animated by the New Feminism, would do us all a favor by writing on these themes, here on this blog. For me, as a Reform Jew, women are not a distraction, they are a blessing. To hear a woman’s perspective, to engage with women in prayer, to benefit from how women approach and lead liturgy, their particular form of feminine wisdom – have been great positives. This blog originally appeared at A Space In Between. Gregory Eran Gronbacher has undergraduate degrees in theology, philosophy, and politics and graduate degrees in philosophy and theology. A Jew by Choice, Gregory lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with his husband John, and is a member of Temple Emanuel.