| This dissertation argues that theological discourse, constructed according to a masculinized logos, discounts the feminine. Within the context of philosophy of religion, I suggest an alternate notion of logos, and align it with a feminine rhetorike. To accomplish this, I integrate the work of Luce Irigaray and classical rhetorical analysis to suggest an “other word,” critical for feminist theology. Articulations about a dynamic rather than fixed nature of language recall the introduction of style with its complexity of figures in rhetorical discourses. Such a notion presents a model for feminine theological discourse that relies on Luce Irigaray's philosophy of difference. Setting a course and negotiating turns of my own, I show how the early Christian appropriation (“borrowing”) of a masculinized logos forsakes women and how the appropriation (“homecoming”) of a “pre-originary” logos begets the gift of rhetorike.; A commonly accepted contemporary philosophical term, logos was ripe for use by the early Christians. With its linguistic link to the Stoic “word” and the Platonic “divine mind,” the borrowing of logos as both “word” and “thought” fit easily into pre-existing categories that reflected notions of divine unity and implied a masculine engenderization. This is a crucial insight for contemporary theology, for discourses appearing to be universal (or even “feminist”) often are not. Rather, they are encoded masculine and reflect a system based on oneness, unity, balance, and proportional equivalence. Such attempts at unification also imply dualisms that, from an Irigarayan perspective, continue to allude to the “logic of the same.”; Luce Irigaray's regard for the fluidity of feminine subjectivity, discourse, and style evokes early accusations toward the feminine rhetorike. Such accusations also recall Bruce Lincoln's articulation of an earlier logos that lacks “fixed meanings.” Since women are excluded in cultures developed under the rule of logocentric unity, these moves presuppose diversity—a quality that includes a place for feminine discourse.; The alignment of rhetoric and a pre-originary logos reconceptualizes the notion of Logos, offering a constructive, discursive, rhetorical model for feminist theology. In addition, the realignment of logos with rhetorike offers hopeful possibilities for other discourses of liberation. |
