Power For: Feminism and Christ's Self-Giving

Feminist theologians have established that the self-giving doctrines can disempower women and other oppressed persons, teaching passivity and evasion of one's own self-development. Christ's kenosis, or self-emptying on the cross offers a central example of sacrifice for others to the detriment of one's own self-care. And yet, in contrast to previous feminist theologies, this book argues for the power available in self-giving. This feminist christology affirms that we come into ourselves through our own kenosis. Drawing on diverse sources, including traditional voices like Luther or Balthasar, contemporary feminist theologians such as Rosemary Radford Ruether or Marcella Althaus-Reid, and studies of abuse survivors, the book explores passionate self-giving as a power for divine and human revelation, a power for resistance of abuse, and a power for the continued anointing of Christic presence in a postmodern context. Self-giving engages a force that differs from both the "power in mutual relation" common to feminist theology and the "power over" of patriarchal thought. Christic self-giving conveys a power for: for God's thriving in the world, and for our own.

Introduction: Dangerous Doctrine\1. Christ's Self-Giving and God's Power Over Us\2. Beyond "Power Over:" Relational Christology\3. Power for Ourselves: Kenotic Erotics\4. Beyond "Power With:" Martyrs and Masochists\5. Power for Resistance: Abuse and Self-Giving Care\6. Power for Christ: Self-Giving and Incarnation