Elizabeth Fiorenza Women's Rights

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Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza “If they are right—and they certainly have the text on their side—that G*d is male, Lord, King, and Father because it is revealed in Scripture, then only elite males, but not wo/men and non-elite men, are made in the image of G*d”( Norton), Elizabeth Fiorenza stated in an interview conducted at Villanova University. This is one of the foundational beliefs of the widely recognized and respected feminist theologian. She currently serves as Krister Stendahl Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School. Her writings and theologies are Christian based although she identifies with the Catholic religion. She has collected several awards and recognitions during her lifetime including: becoming the first woman president…show more content…
When speaking of the matter in an article she wrote called “Changing the Paradigms”, she explained, “ Although I had completed two advanced theological degrees summa cum laude and published a book, my Doktor-vater refused to obtain a scholarship for me, explaining that he did not want to waste the opportunity on a student who as a woman had no future in the academy” (Fiorenza 796-800). However, she did not give up her quest to have women viewed as equals with rights to serve as men do in the church as priests, deacons, and theologians. During one of many speeches Fiorenza made she stated, “The recognition of wo/men as full ekklesial citizens with all rights and duties is central to this vision of a 'kindom' of priests, a radical democratic church. It demands a new theological articulation and self-understanding of ministry and church”. She went on later in the same address, “By the f-word, feminism, I mean a theoretical perspective and world-wide radical democratic movement that is inspired by the conviction that wo/men are people, fully entitled and responsible citizens in society and religion” (Fiorenza “Catholic New Times”). In the 1970’s, she was able to move to the United States and accepted a full-time position at the graduate level, which was uncommon among married women at the time but was granted upon her request. She battled prejudices and stereotypes that women were not capable of disciplined and logical intellectual work. She even found that many women accused her of male scholarship because of the logical-linear style in which she wrote the book In Memory of Her, although she only did so to prove women are capable of thinking and writing in such terms as our male
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