Feminist theology, a milestone

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Fiorenza, In memoria di lei - Una ricostruzione femminista delle origini cristiane,
[In memory Of Her - A Feminist Reconstruction of Christian Origins], Claudiana 2022

I was finally able to read this text. This book, mentioned in all feminist biblical writings in recent years, had not been reprinted since 1990.

The title recalls the episode in which Jesus tells the woman of Bethany, who is anointing him, that she would be remembered throughout the world with the Gospel (Mark 14:9). Everyone remembers Peter, the reaction of Judas, but they have forgotten the woman who performs that prophetic sign-action and with her all the women protagonists in the Jesus movement and the Christian mission of the first century.

Certainly some positions of thought that have been superseded since 1990. However, it is certain that Schüssler Fiorenza’s book remains a milestone for the reconstruction, remembrance and highlighting that the Bible is not the male narration of God’s action, but the story of men and women as equals who handed down the project of love and mercy on humanity from generation to generation.

Today, too, all of us are called to move from an androcentric reading of New Testament texts to an understanding of the history of women in early Christianity!