Speaking Out: Feminist Theology and Women’s Proclamation in the Wesleyan Tradition

What is the place of women in the Church? Often, secular feminists see little connection between Christianity and feminism because of the way the Church, in its various manifestations and constructions, has marginalized women. Other religious traditions, such as goddess-based worship, Wicca, and other nature-based spirituality embrace female voices and leadership; some women have left the Church in order to discover these alternative ways of envisioning and speaking of the Divine. There is, however, a long connection between Christianity and women’s active roles within the Church. Feminist scholarship opens the door for the study of women and their alternative means of proclaiming their relationship with God, from early Christianity to the present. It is a way of recovering an often-overlooked aspect of the Church, of including other voices that dominant religious history may seek to silence or treat as peripheral.