Feminist Theology and Meister Eckhart’s Transgendered Metaphor
This essay examines a key theme in the work of the medieval mystical theologian, Meister Eckhart, namely, the Father giving birth to the Son in the soul. It explores this theme in the light of feminist theology, and argues that Eckhart is deliberately applying to God a female act and therefore chara...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage
[2016]
|
| In: |
Feminist theology
Year: 2016, Volume: 24, Issue: 3, Pages: 275-290 |
| IxTheo Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality FD Contextual theology KAE Church history 900-1300; high Middle Ages KAF Church history 1300-1500; late Middle Ages NBC Doctrine of God |
| Further subjects: | B
Meister Eckhart
B Transgender people B Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint B Apophatic B Transgender B Birth B Feminist Theology B Metaphor B ECKHART, Meister, d. 1327 B Virgin Mary |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This essay examines a key theme in the work of the medieval mystical theologian, Meister Eckhart, namely, the Father giving birth to the Son in the soul. It explores this theme in the light of feminist theology, and argues that Eckhart is deliberately applying to God a female act and therefore characteristic. Criticisms of the efficacy of such female imagery are considered, but countered through a defence of what is argued to be Eckhart’s incontestable qualification of the male symbol through a metaphor based on a biological fact. In turn the image of women in the limited biological role of giving birth is critically examined, while Eckhart is argued in his life and work to have risen above any position that fixes and limits the roles and identities of women. Further it is shown that Eckhart has not simply substituted female imagery for male, thereby reinforcing binary gender opposition and any negative consequences that befall. Eckhart is rather shown to employ an androgynous and transgendered metaphor in that the male Father-God is simultaneously a female Mother-God. The nature and purpose of Eckhart’s transgendered metaphor is then explored in relation to its apophatic context. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1745-5189 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Feminist theology
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/0966735015627961 |