Feminist Hermeneutics A Contextual Reconstruction

includes index and biblioraphy

CHAPTER 1: THE MYTH OF IDEAL WOMANHOOD: AN ANALYSIS OF ITS DYNAMICS IN MODERN INDIA A. WOMANHOOD AND ITS CONSTRAINTS ..... 1 1. An Analysis of the Rhetorical Dismissals of Indian Feminist Voices... 3 2. Patriarchal Censorship of Women`s Conduct... 6 3. Patriarchal Censorship of Women`s Motility.... 7 4. Patriarchal Censorship of Women`s Sexuality. ... 9 5. Cultural Dualism: The Material West and the Spiritual East.. 15 6. The Myth of Unchanging Cultural Continuities ... 17 7. Misconceptions Regarding Feminism... 19 B. THE FOUR-FOLD MYTHS.. .. 23 1. Myth of the Glorious Vedic Womanhood... 30 2. Myth of the Aryan Woman... 34 3. Myth of the New Woman ... 38 4. The Myth of the Beloved Daughters... 42 C. INDIAN CATHOLIC WOMEN.. 46 1. The Rhetorical Context... 47 D. RECLAIMING OUR HERITAGE ... 62 1. Employing Neologisms as a Strategy ... 64 2. Employing New Metaphors... 66 CHAPTER II: IN SEARCH OF A (NEW?) TRADITION: RECONSTRUCTING THE QUILT A. THE ILLUSION OF NARROW HORIZONS... 71 B. FEMINIST STRATEGIES OF INTERPRETATION AN OVERVIEW... 80 1. The Remedial Approach...84 2. Texts and Translations...86 3. Imaginative Identification ...88 4. Women as Authors ...89 5. Historical Interpretations...90 6. Socio-cultural Reconstruction...91 7. Text as an Ideological Construction...92 8. Women as Subjects...93 9. The Socio-Political Approach ...94 10.The Critical Rhetorical Approach ...96 C. FEMINIST THEOLOGY AND FEMINIST.... STUDIES IN RELIGION..99 1. Feminism...101 2. The Two-pronged Strategies of Feminist Theology.... 102 3. Feminist Consciousness ... 103 D. A HISTORICAL SURVEY OF FEMINIST ... BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION... 104 1. Women`s Counter Traditional Interpretations... 104 2. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and The Woman`s Bible.. 109 3. Critical Analysis of The Woman`s Bible... 111 4. Elisabeth Schiissler Fiorenza and The Afro-American Womanisl Tradition .. 112 5. Latin American: Elsa Tamez ... 120 6. Revisionist Approach ... 122 7. Liberationist Approach... 123 CHAPTER III: THE METHODOLOGY OF SCHLJSSLER FIORENZA: AN EXPOSITION A. METHODOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS.... 128 1. Method and Feminist Theology ... 129 2. A Paradigm Shift ... 131 3. The Life Historical Background to Schiissler Fiorenza`s Oeuvre ... 132 4. Methodological Postulates lor a Critical Theory oI`Liberation ... 134 B. CONCEPTUAL FORMULATIONS ....