Feminist New Materialism and Process Theology: Beginning the Dialogue

Abstract

For many years feminist theologians have found much in common with process theology. As a consequence a robust tradition has developed that links feminist theology with many aspects of process theology. An important element of this tradition is the attempt to draw similarities between postmodernism and feminist process theology. In this article I argue, first, that the connection between feminist process theology and postmodernism is philosophically problematic and, second, that another contemporary feminist approach, the new materialism, provides the basis for a more fruitful dialogue between feminist theology and process theology. My goal is to extend this dialogue.

She Climbs Toward the Light: Karen Armstrong’s The Spiral Staircase in a World of Displaced Women

“…4 The binaries that are contradictory and contrary in the deep structure go through various transformations so that meaning is possible at the surface level. 4 One notable way to think about resolving dualisms and binaries is through process theology: if Armstrong’s arduous personal journey results in compassion, it is the relational and interdependent world views of the God of unsurpassable love (Hekman, 2017: 201). However, the use of the semiotic square is particularly helpful for this article, in that it can account for ways to explore Armstrong’s ‘quartets’ in the memoir: quartets that discover those contrary and contradictory relationships.…”