Powers and Submissions: Spirituality, Philosophy and Gender

In this volume, Sarah Coakley confronts a central paradox of theological feminism–what she terms the paradox of power and vulnerability . Drawing together an essential collection of her work in this field. Powers and Submissions explores this theme, offering an original perspective on contemporary feminist thought.

Gender theory has in recent years given an increasingly nuanced account of the worldly powers that serve to stifle human flourishing. However, feminist theology ha been loath to acknowledge that form of surrender to divine power which can alone sustain authentic human freedom, and chasten the abusive will to power in both women and men. Powers and Submissions tackles their question of how these narratives of divine and human powers should be disentangled. Coakley examines this issue through the lens of spiritual practice, philosophical enquiry and doctrinal analysis, arguing that contemplative practice must be sustaining matrix of any truly liberative human empowerment.

Powers and Submissions will be of interest to those working and studying in the fields of feminist theory, philosophy of religion, systematic theology and spirituality.

Acknowledgements.

Preface.

Prologue: Powers and Submissions.

Part I: The Comtemplative Matrix.

1. Kenosis and Subversion: On the Repression of "Vulnerability" in Christian Feminist Writing.

2. Traditions of Spiritual Guidance: Dom John Chapman OSB (1865–1933) on the Meaning of "Contemplation".

3. Creaturehood Before God: Male and Female.

Part II: Philosophical Interlocutions.

4. Visions of the Self in Late Medieval Christianity: Some Cross–Disciplinary Reflections.

5. Gender and Knowledge in Modern Western Philosophy: The "Man of Reason" and the "Feminine Other" in Enlightenment and Romantic Thought.

6. Analytic Philosophy of Religion in Feminist Perspective: Some Questions.

Part III: Doctrinal Implications.

7. "Persons" in the "Social" Doctrine of the Trinity: Current Analytic Discussion and "Cappadocian" Theology.

8. The Resurrection and the "Spiritual Senses": On Wittgenstein, Epistemology and the Risen Christ.

9. The Eschatological Body: Gender, Transformation and God.

Index.

Sarah Coakley is Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr., Professor of Divinity at Harvard University. She previously taught at Oriel College, Oxford, and at the Department of Religious Studies, Lancaster University. She is the author of Christ Without Absolutes (1988); the editor (with David A. Pailin) of The Making and Remaking of Christian Doctrine (1991), and editor of Religion and the Body (1997). She is currently working on a systematic theology, the first volume of which will appear as God, Sexuality and the Self: An Essay ′On the Trinity′ (forthcoming).

"I am tremendously impressed by Sarah Coakley′s book. It makes a bridge between the naive prephilosophical version of crucial beliefs and current work on feminist theology which is very arcane to the outsider. Sarah′s clarity of expression and her tough style of argument are a delight. It is wonderful how well these separate essays follow on one another and have so much continuity." Mary Douglas <!––end––>

"In this set of extraordinarily erudite essays Sarah Coakley shows us that not only is Christian feminism crucial for constructive Christian theology in our day, but equally important Christian feminism can and does make a contribution to non–Christian feminist thought. In Powers and Submissions Coakley draws on the riches of the Christian tradition as well as contemporary theology to challenge the tendency in modern theology to separate theology and prayer. What a wonderful book. " Stanley Hauerwas, Duke University

"Such an intense and often understated vision – rich, subtle, and refreshing in its integrity– makes this a most unusual and very welcome book." Michael Barnes, The Way

"There is a real delicacy of interpretation in these essays which takes its lead from a present problematic, but which allows itself and its own terms to be questioned by what is found in pre–modern material." Theology

"Spanning theology, philosophy of religion, and feminist theory, Coakley′s essays have import for scholars and advanced students in all three areas." Religious Studies Review

"Such an intense and often understated vision – rich, subtle, and refreshing in its integrity – makes this a most unusual and very welcome book." The Way

"...Coakley′s work is exemplarily dialogue. Indeed, the abiding impression is of a brilliant and magnanimous hostess who is given to bring together the sort of people who would not ordinarily have anything to do with each other. Like an ideal hostess, she listens generously to each and tries to construe what they say in the best possible light, but she has strong and clear views of her own, which she ultimately articulates with considerable persusive authority." Khaled Anatolios, Weston Jesuit School of Theology

"Anyone interested in genuine dialogue between the Christian theological and spiritual traditions and contemporary concerns will find this collection to be stimulating and very rewarding reading." Khaled Anatolios, Weston Jesuit School of Theology