Dorothy Soelle on the existential origin of feminist theology

"Feminist theology arises, as does every liberation theology, from the experience of being wounded. It grows from the destruction inflicted on the lives of women, whether conceived in economic, political, social, intellectual, or psychic terms. It makes mutilations visible. It arises among women who perceive their situation and take common steps to change it, breaking out of the conventions and forms of the dominant theology and its pact with power. The pact which is made there tenders a cultural task for the church which contradicts its mission and its tradition: the church is supposed to make the victims of our situation invisible; and if this isn't possible, at least the causes of the misery should remain fatefully uncertain. Preachers may tell of Mary and Joseph but should not know the particular homeless in our own cities. They expound on the story of the paralytic and his friends, but whether those suffering from AIDS have friends, they don't know. They mention the 'hungry,' but the feminization of poverty remains outside of their horizon.

"In view of the real suffering of women, the theology and devotional practices of churches show up as strangely blind and ignorant. Among feminist women who have begun to reflect from the perspective of their wounds, there has spread astonishment concerning the dispassionate abstractness of masculine theology, boredom with biblical exegesis removed from experience and praxis, and revulsion against spiritless masculine administration within the institution. 'Therefore I ask God,' writes Meister Eckhart, 'to rid me of God.' There is no heresy but rather the petition for liberation from the prison of a language which is too small for God. Therefore I ask God my Mother--so I understand Eckhart today--to rid me of the God of men." (Theology for Skeptics: Reflections on God, Augsburg-Fortress, 1995), 39-40.