Elizabeth Johnson-Revisonist Method of Theology Essay

Elizabeth Johnson is perhaps unmatched of the most preeminent Catholic theologians of the bleak millennium. The fact that she is a woman religious who writes from a feminist place adds to her unique and distinguished career. This paper lead examine the revisionist method espoused by Elizabeth Johnson, in an enterprise to understand her approach to Christian feminism. An overview of revisionist methodology will be presented so as to understand the framework in which Johnson works.References to whatsoever of Johnson s writings will thusly be presented in an driveway to illustrate her revisionist method. Finally a survey of various critics will and so be presented in an effort to get hold what has made her method, approach and behavior groundbreaking in the scene of action of feminist theology. In its simplest form, revisionist methodology involves looking back at one s tradition in an effort to gain new insights into the situation at hand or to release what has been lost. In a more elaborate definition, David Tracey states that, In its planest expression, the revisionist model holds that a contemporary fundamental Christian theology can best be described as philosophical reflection upon meanings present in frequent tender mystify and language, and upon the meanings present in the Christian fact. 1 Tracy then outlines five theses that are intended to explicate this busticular model The premier(prenominal) dissertation defends the proposition that there are two sources for theology, common forgiving experience and language, and Christian texts.The second thesis argues for the necessity of correlating the results of the investigations of these two sources. The third gear and fourth theses attempt to specify the most helpful methods of investigation utilise for studying these two sources 1 David Tracy, Blessed impatience for Order The bracing Pluralism in Theology (New York The Seabury Press, 1975) 43. 1 (methods include phenomenology of relig ious dimension for human experience and language and historical and hermeneutical investigations for Christian texts).The fifth and final thesis further specifies the final mode of critical correlation of these investigations as an explicitly metaphysically and transcendental one. 2 If we apply the aforementioned description to our area of interest, then revisionist Christian feminism can be seen as seeking,to in return and critically correlate the central and liberating themes of biblical and Christian tradition with the experience of women in the contemporary situation. 3 In one of her most illustrious works, She Who Is, Johnson captures the essence of her revisionist Christian feminism in the metaphor of a lace footbridge,between the ledges of classical and feminist Christian tradition. Throwing a hermeneutical span from place to side may enable some to cross over to the trope of women s coequal humanity without leaving behind all the wealth of the tradition that had been th eir intellectual and spiritual home. 4 It clear already from this brief introduction, that Johnson employs the revisionist model of theology. usance is key to anyone employing the revisionist model and Johnson is no exception to this. Tradition is important for Johnson, but not necessarily in the sense that one should mindlessly adhere to every aspect of what we inherit. On the other hand, we cannot cat our heads the sand and deny the existence of tradition or avoid learning about it. We are all part of a tradition and it becomes part of our shared history and allows us ,to see far thanks to the tiptop of those who have handed on the 2 3 Tracy, Blessed Rage for Order The New Pluralism in Theology , 43.Shannon Schrein, Quilting and Braiding The libber Christologies of Sallie McFague and Elizabeth Johnson in Conversation (Collegeville Liturgical Press, 1998) 2. 4 Elizabeth Johnson, She Who Is The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse (New York Crossroad Publishing, 1992 ) 12. 2 tradition to us. 5 Johnson is respectful of tradition, with the understanding that it often needs to be analyzed to determine if is contributing to pain and suffering. In her book, Consider Jesus, the emphasis is not practiced on tradition, but on a living tradition.