Theology Today - Vol 32, No. 1 - July 1975 - BOOK REVIEW - Human Liberation in a Feminist Perspective

117 - Human Liberation in a Feminist Perspective - A Theology

Human Liberation in a Feminist Perspective - A Theology
By Letty M. Russell
Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1974. 321 pp. $3.95.

Letty Russell's contribution to the literature of liberation theology does not begin with this book. The kind of wholistic approach and liberating thought that infects this book was present in her earlier works, Christian Education in Mission and Ferment of Freedom. All possess these characteristics in common because all stem from her own experiences as pastor with the oppressed in East Harlem, as ecumenical writer and teacher and as woman in church and society. Regardless of her setting, Letty Russell has invested her energies to understanding "the meaning of God's action in situations of oppression" (p. 2 1). Her understandings are far more than intellectual in nature. They have evolved from her constant action and reflection in the context of real-life endeavors. They have suggested concrete and practical actions. In the language of liberation theologies, they have produced praxis "action that is concurrent with reflections or analysis and leads to new questions, actions, and reflections" (p. 55). Russell's books reflect this method: each one builds on the reflection and actions of the one before. The product is always in the midst of a greater process. The latest work is no exception. It is offered as another part of her "journey toward freedom," not as an exhaustive theology of liberation.

Its peculiar perspective is feminist because that is where Letty Russell finds herself on the frontier of liberation now. Its perspective is feminist because feminism is one legitimate part of the wholeness which God intends and for which the universe yearns. It joins other liberation perspectives not to turn inward upon itself but to focus on human liberation as God's work.

Part of the task of liberation theology is to help oppressed people surface a "usable past." In the Judeo-Christian world view and in modern understanding, the world is understood as historical. Humans and events are viewed as changing and changeable. Experiences from the past serve to form identity and to shape the present and future. Oppressed people generally suffer from a lack of historical identity or from a negative one because the oppressors are those who write history. The oppressed become "invisible" and dehumanized. Sexist language is one obvious example of this process and one where the "traditional" church is the prime offender. Women must search for a "usable past" in the midst of extreme androcentrism, wherein they are practically ignored or forgotten. Russell, however, suggests that there is a significant difference in what is "traditional" and God's Tradition. The possibility for a usable past and future for all people lies in God's mission, which she calls "the Tradition." The Tradition is

118 - Human Liberation in a Feminist Perspective - A Theology

God's handing over of Jesus Christ into the hands of all generations and nations until Christ hands all things back to God" (p. 77). By participating in this process, the oppressed can point to past and present moments in world history when God acted and acts on behalf of oppressed humankind to liberate them. Such memories become a -usable past," free people to act in the present, and evoke hope for a usable future. Russell calls upon the church to speak and act in ways that enable all people to find a place for themselves in God's universal mission. To do less is a betrayal of God's Tradition.

Themes now familiar to readers of liberation thought surface again in this work. Conscientization, humanization, and dialogue are reflected on theologically as Letty Russell interprets them in the light of God's mission and against the experiences of Third and Fourth World people. Conscientization, that process made famous by the work of Paulo Freire, is explored for its analogy to a more traditional Christian experience, conversion. Russell points out that both experiences involve a new view of self, a radical reorientation, and change of life-style. Both lead to a "whole new understanding of the meaning of life which leads to rebirth as a person" (p. 123). Though different because conversion stresses God's initiative and conscientization stresses human initiative, still conscientization holds the promise of new life in human relationships that can be a sign of God's shalomatic purposes. Both turn lives toward liberation. For Russell, liberation comes closest to a modern definition of salvation. If the church's participation in God's mission is called evangelism, then evangelism's task, according to the liberation praxis, is "to do and tell liberation" (p. 125). All the doing and telling being done by the church or any liberation movement is subject to the corrective of God's greater act of eschatological liberation that ultimately transcends all narrow or partial evangelisms.

Coming to true humanity, as Russell defines it, is a process that has three ingredients: participation in understanding and shaping one's world, belonging to a supportive community, and being accepted by oneself and others as subject, not object. The biblical roots for humanization begin in the Old Testament concept of shalom wherein togetherness with God and his purposes restores the relationship of created personhood. The New Testament affirms Jesus as a representative of true humanity breaking decisively into history. The difficulty of the incarnation for women lies not so much in Jesus' maleness but in his servanthood. Servanthood as the model of true humanity creates problems for any oppressed group seeking a glimpse of what it would mean to be fully human. Russell's study of diakonia reveals no biblical indication of inferiority or subordination. "Diakonia is the acceptance of someone else's life project as your own scenario or story" (p. 140). It indicates that full humanity involves being free for others in love and service. When people are free for themselves and others and accept others as subjects, then the domi-

119 - Human Liberation in a Feminist Perspective - A Theology

nation-subjugation relationship is replaced by a genuine partnership. Oppressed people in their journey toward freedom may not reach servanthood immediately. There may be the need first to provide identity and hope in supportive communities. Sisterhood, from Russell's perspective, may precede servanthood, but if it is part of God's mission, sisterhood is only a stopping place on the way to servanthood.

Genuine dialogue is impossible when there is oppression because there is a one-way use of power. Dialogue emerges as the style of any community where life is shared and all persons are viewed as subjects. The church must have such a dialogical relation to the world. It is not a religious group, structure, or place. It does not work from a preconceived notion of its role. Rather, it seeks to interact with the world and to "participate in God's traditioning activity" (p. 158). From that participation, the church is to glean its shape and function. Letty Russell calls this "open ecclesiology" and distinguishes it from 'ecclesiocentric" ecclesiology by its concern for People rather than structure. Genuine dialogue may seem an impossibility in our pluralistic world. It demands that all transcend their ethnicity and learn to see and think and feel from other perspectives.

Letty Russell does write from a feminist perspective. Yet, the book reveals her own encounter with other perspectives. The struggles and experiences of women inform her reflections, but the invitation to journey toward freedom is not the possession of any segment of people. The ongoing revolution which strives toward freedom is God's. This book is testimony that Letty Russell has caught a vision of that revolution and joined it.

Gail Deason
Central Atlantic Conference
United Church of Christ
Montclair, New Jersey