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Patriarchy is in the news these days. There is also an enormous body of scholarly research on patriarchy. What we really need is a feminist Galileo -- someone who can show that patriarchy is not part of "the natural order of things" and is, in fact, a damaging aberration that inhibits human development. Some names come to mind -- for example, real scholars such as Catharine MacKinnon, Max Dashu, Claudio Naranjo, Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Jo Freeman, and Jo Ann McNamara.
Do you know about a good, recent summary paper or short book that could be used as a "primer" by a 61-year old male trying to get his feet wet on the subject of patriarchy? Do any names of male scholars come to mind?...
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Here are a few additions to your list of women scholars who could definitely contribute to a dialog on patriarchy:
Jane Schaberg, Carol L Meyers, Pheme Perkins, Elaine Pagels, Toni Craven, Carla Ricci, Beverly Mayne Kienzle, Pamela J Walker, Karen L King, and Ross Shepard Kraemer.
Of course there are many, many more who belong on that list. A much larger list can be put together from the "Contributors" and/or "Bibliography" sections of such works as (1) Carol Newsom and Sharon Ringe's Women's Bible Commentary, (2) Beverly Kienzle and Pamela Walker's Women Preachers and Prophets through Two Millennia of Christianity, (3) Carol Meyers' Women in Scripture, and other works.
Bart Ehrman's recently revised
book, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian
Writings, Third Edition, provides an excellent, short summary in his chapter
on "From Paul's Female Colleagues to the Pastor's Intimidated women: The
Oppression of Women in Early Christianity" (pages 395-407). For a more
comprehensive treatment of Christian women's struggle with patriarchy, the best
may still be Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza's In Memory of Her: A Feminist
Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins. Of course, there are many
other good works on the subject, some of which are listed at http://www.bibletexts.com/bibliogr/12his-nt.htm.
See also Katharine C. Bushnell's 1930 groundbreaking (but largely ignored) God's
Word to Women (originally Oakland, CA: Katharine Bushnell, Publisher, 1930;
currently NY: Christians for Biblical Equality, 2003). A very interesting but
brief biography of Bushnell is available at http://www.icwhp.org/katherine_bushnell.htm.
Her thesis regarding head coverings in 1Co 11:2-16 has been recently rearticulated
by William P. Welty at http://williamwelty.com/docs/rethinking_the_veil.pdf.
Hopefully this provides some food for thought.
Copyright
1996-2004 Robert Nguyen Cramer
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