Critique ThePosition of womanin the Christian trinity Luce Irigaray and Rosemary RadfordReuther as a model

Abstract

The feminist theology of the French philosopher Luce Irigaray and the American theologist Rosemary Radford Ruether focused on criticizing and analyzing the Christian religious discourse, especially the doctrine of the Trinity. They realised that the Persons of the Holy Trinity are patriarchal and masculine, so God - the Father, Christ - the Son and the Holy Spirit are all male. Thus, both philosophers noticed the absence of the feminine in that holy trinity, as it was described as a source of sin, evil and a cause of collapse, so it was excluded from religion and the Church, and even from the practice of religious customs and rituals.

According to Luce Irigaray and Rosemary Radford Ruether, this situation created a social hierarchy in Western society, in which the woman was the lowest, the relative, the slave, the evil, and the body. However, the man was the supreme, the absolute, the master, the good and the intellect. He considered as the god who requires complete obedience and Absolute submission.

Hence, Los Irigaray called for the necessity of achieving complementarity between what is divine masculine and what is feminine relative and respecting the difference between the sexes, both in the image of God. On the other hand, Rosemary Radford Ruether, called for the establishment of absolute equality between the male and the female, as it is the true will of God on earth.  She rejected the existence of social duality and the domination of the male sex in the family and society.