Spiritualising the Sacred: A Critique of Feminist Theology

This article submits feminist theology to a two-pronged theological critique. First, the article notes the overwhelmingly critical nature of feminist theology, and suggests that this concentration on critique at the expense of construction is itself a weakness of feminist theology. Further, it argues that the feminist critique tends to construe Christianity in a way which distorts the more complex realities of the faith, placing too much emphasis on the textual nature of Christianity. Second, the article argues that feminist attempts to construct new theologies are flawed because of their dependence upon the contentious notion of 'women's experience' and their consequent failure to engage with the traditional resources of theology. The article concludes with the suggestion that much feminist theology is dependent upon an influential post-Christian strand of religiosity, and that it uncritically appropriates the latter's unhelpfully individualistic, monistic and idealist stance.     

The Hindu World – Edited by Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby (eds)

Book reviewed:
The Hindu World , Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby (eds), Routledge 2004 (0-415-21527-7), xi + 657 pp., hb £120     

Feminist Philosophy,Pragmatism, and the “Turn to Affect”: A Genealogical Critique

Recent years have witnessed a focus on feeling as a topic of reinvigorated scholarly concern, described by theorists in a range of disciplines in terms of a “turn to affect.” Surprisingly little has been said about this most recent shift in critical theorizing by philosophers, including feminist philosophers, despite the fact that affect theorists situate their work within feminist and related, sometimes intersectional, political projects. In this article, I redress the seeming elision of the “turn to affect” in feminist philosophy, and develop a critique of some of the claims made by affect theorists that builds upon concerns regarding the “newness” of affect and emotion in feminist theory, and the risks of erasure this may entail. To support these concerns, I present a brief genealogy of feminist philosophical work on affect and emotion. Identifying a reductive tendency within affect theory to equate affect with bodily immanence, and to preclude cognition, culture, and representation, I argue that contemporary feminist theorists would do well to follow the more holistic models espoused by the canon of feminist work on emotion. Furthermore, I propose that prominent affect theorist Brian Massumi is right to return to pragmatism as a means of redressing philosophical dualisms, such as emotion/cognition and mind/body, but suggest that such a project is better served by John Dewey's philosophy of emotion than by William James's.     

World without End: Christian Eschatology from a Process Perspective – Edited by Joseph A. Bracken (ed.)

Book reviewed:
World without End: Christian Eschatology from a Process Perspective , Joseph A. Bracken (ed.), Eerdmans 2005 (0-8028-2811-6), ix + 232 pp., hb $30.00/£18.95