Feminist Theologies for a Postmodern Church: Diversity, Community, and Scripture

Feminist Theologies for a Postmodern Church: Diversity, Community, and Scripture. By Loraine MacKenzie Shepherd. American University Studies, Series 7: Theology and Religion, vol. 219. New York: Peter Lang, 2002. x + 252 pp. $29.95 (paper).

Loraine MacKenzie Shepherd's starting point in Feminist Theologies for a Postmodern Church is her experience of having "often felt daunted by the use of scripture," especially while serving as the "first lesbian, albeit closeted, minister" in United Church of Canada congregations in the years surrounding that church's 1988 decision in favor of the ordination and commissioning of lesbian and gay persons. Such experience raised questions such as "How could scripture be helpful when its diversity allowed people to choose passages that supported their pre-formed decisions?" and "Did we need to move beyond a liberal model of inclusion in order to allow all voices to be heard?"(pp. 3-5). Proceeding from these and related questions, and concerned especially about the ways in which liberal assumptions about inclusion and diversity further marginalize gay and lesbian persons in Protestant churches, Shepherd aims to develop "a feminist theological method that more adequately addresses issues of diversity and marginalization within Protestant churches" (pp. 8-9).

She works toward this method, in the books first part, by examining alternative responses to the "crisis of authority" as seen in four feminist theologians: critical modem (Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza), poststructural (Mary McClintock Fulkerson), postcolonial (Kwok Pui-lan), and postliberal (Kathryn Tanner). In the books second part she examines United Church documents on sexuality from 1960 through 1988, identifies and evaluates the dominant theological methods employed in those documents, and offers her proposal for a more adequate feminist theological method. Her writing is clear and her judgments about other authors and church documents are fair, and her four chapters on alternative responses to the crisis of authority provide a good sampling of the diversity in feminist theology today. Her constructive proposal is suggestive, but warrants further development and a fuller discussion of its implications if employed by churches. As she generally assumes at least a moderate level of knowledge about current epistemological and hermeneutical debates, this book is likely most useful for more advanced courses in theology and religious studies.

One significant problem is that Shepherd tends to equate "liberal" and "modem," and addresses only liberal assumptions and approaches as sources of the marginalization of people in church and academy. Certainly, the United Church documents she examines are primarily liberal in their assumptions and approaches. Nevertheless, Shepherds case would be strengthened by acknowledging that postliberal assumptions and approaches are also modem, that since the early twentieth century postliberalism has shared significant features with liberalism (that is, the tendency to unitary thought and use of historical-critical biblical interpretation), and that, while not dominant in United Church of Canada documents, postliberal views have also shaped the debates about sexuality and the marginalization of gay and lesbian persons in it and other Protestant churches. Shepherd aptly criticizes liberalism, but liberalism is not alone in its bondage to the various evils of modernity. Addressing those evils adequately will require a more complete assessment of their sphere of influence in church and academy than Shepherd provides, but her work here does contribute to that larger task.

MICHAEL BOURGEOIS

Emmanuel College

Toronto, Ontario

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