From a Broken Web: Separation, Sexism and Self

by Catherine Keller

Book by Keller, Catherine

Genres: Theology

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Catherine Kelle is a contemporary Christian theologian and Professor of Constructive Theology at Drew University's Graduate Division of Religion. As a constructive theologian, Keller's work is oriented around social and ecological justice, poststructuralist theory, and feminist readings of scripture and theology. Both her early and her late work brings relational thinking into theology, focusing on the relational nature of the concept of the divine, and the forms of ecological interdependence within the framework of relational theology. Her work in process theology draws on the relational ontology of Alfred North Whitehead, fielding it in a postmodern, deconstructive framework.

Reviews

[Teri Uktena · Rating 3 out of 5]

At this point the information is dated, although still a good starting point for someone who is wanting to understand women's spirituality. The arguments here are grounded in White Western/Christian culture and are rightly arguing against the assumptions that male experience is normative for all humans, psychology is right to other women (Freud among many others), history is right to prioritize male dominance and privilege and so on.

Since this was written so many things have entered into our consciousness such as the fact Western Culture is not normative or necessarily the epitome of human excellence, there are historical and extant examples of matriarchy and matriarchal cultures to compare with patriarchy, female perspectives are equal to and fundamentally different from male in both form and function, gender fluidity exists, Christianity is no longer the sole acceptable religion for theological discussion and so much more.

It's amazing to see how far things have progressed since this was published.