Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza

In Memory of Her and Paul the Apostle

In the reconstruction of early Christianity in In Memory of Her, Schüssler Fiorenza discusses Saint Paul at great length. She explores his epistles as well as the narrative of his ministry in the Acts of the Apostles. Some see the relationship between Paul the Apostle and women as misogynistic, pointing to controversial passages about women's subordination, their necessary silence in church, and more. Schüssler Fiorenza rejects this notion and delves deeper into the stories to find the true Paul and his relationship with women.

She discusses the many encounters Paul has with women throughout the canon and in apocryphal works, noting that throughout, Paul saw the women as equals both as people and in ministry. Particular attention is spent on the Acts of Paul and Thecla, a story that, despite having Paul's name in the title, is primarily about the holiness and ministry of his extraordinary female companion.^[7]

To home in on the source of this reconstruction of gender equality, Schüssler Fiorenza turns to one of Paul's core theological verses, Galatians 3:28: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." Schüssler Fiorenza sees this statement as "a key expression . . . of the theological self-understanding of the Christian missionary movement which had far-reaching historical impact."^[8] It also combatted the Gnostic understanding that "becoming a disciple means for a woman becoming ‘male,’ ‘like man,’ and relinquishing her sexual powers of procreation, because the male principle stands for the heavenly, angelic, divine realm, whereas the female principle represents either human weakness or evil."^[9] In Paul's Christian communities, women did not have to become like men to be holier; they simply had to follow Christ. From Schüssler Fiorenza's perspective, this declaration in Galatians is a confirmation of the legitimacy of, among other marginalized populations, women in ministry.

She also discusses the household codes found in Colossians 3:18–4:1 and 1 Peter 2:11–3:12, as well as what can be pieced together from Ephesians. She asserts that the households and the "church" housed in them would have originally been spaces of gender equality but as Christianity grew and faced increased pressures to conform to the Greco-Roman culture, sexism would have started to creep in. Coequal roles in ministry, like the early office of bishop, were considered to be "socially volatile [situations]."^[10] This, combined with a desire to take church power out of the hands of wealthy women, led to the introduction of patriarchy to the Pauline church.

While the oft-quoted misogynistic restrictions and verses were a part of Paul's epistles in some form, Schüssler Fiorenza insists that they existed to help ease tensions between the fledgling church and the surrounding culture, as well as ward off the perception of being a cult. However, post-Pauline and pseudo-Pauline communities “[drew] out these restrictions in order to change the equality in Christ between women and men . . . into a relationship of subordination.”^[11]

But She Said: Feminist Practices of Biblical Interpretation

Schüssler Fiorenza's work But She Said is both an expansion of her earlier works as well as a venture into developing feminist biblical interpretations. By this endeavor, Schüssler Fiorenza seeks to tend a feminist practice of interpreting biblical texts in ways that aid women's struggles for freedom and to create space for this re-seeing of biblical texts to occur.^[12] Key to Schüssler Fiorenza's goal is the deconstruction of a limiting theology that dominates the landscape of biblical interpretation. More than merely naming the patriarchal disposition of traditional, limited biblical ideologies, she exposes their elitist, racist and classist nature, thus identifying them as kyriarchal (master-headed).^[13] By pointing out the flaws of this limited perspective, she purposes that the kyriarchal biases of past interpreters may not be passed down into contemporary biblical discourse.^[13] Schüssler Fiorenza furthers this purpose by engaging in conversations with feminist theories and the process of biblical interpretation. A key element of Schüssler Fiorenza's contribution to biblical interpretation from this book is the presentation of interpretation as a spiraling dance. Schüssler Fiorenza uses the analogy of a dance to portray her approach, including feminist strategies of biblical interpretation and rhetoric of liberation, since interpretation is not accomplished in a purely linear fashion but, rather, consists of strategies that must be repeated much like the steps of a dance.^[13] Rejecting claims to objectivity and neutrality, Fiorenza's approach to biblical interpretation highlights the social and historical positions of both the reader and text, thus recognizing that all readings of texts, throughout history, are influenced by different perspectives and interests.^[14]

In the latter section of her work, Schüssler Fiorenza articulates a vision for a community by which a feminist reading of the bible can take place. This ekklesia of women should be upheld by radical equality and be a space by which feminist struggles for transforming societal and religious institutions can become realized.^[15] As a theoretical and real community of biblical interpreters, the ekklesia^[α] is a structure that pushes against interpretations that have led to domination. The ekklesia of women is a place marked by plurality, critical reflection and a commitment to liberation.^[14][16]