'WHEN GOD IS MANLY, ALL MEN ARE GOD-LIKE': A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF THE PROTESTANT CHRISTIAN FEMINIST MOVEMENT

The central methodological question addressed in this study is how to synthesize the various perspectives on social movement rhetoric into a cohesive model. It is argued that studying the rhetoric of social movements requires an examination of how reforming collectivities use persuasive discourse to create the ethos of movement. The ethos of movement can be divided into at least four dimensions: the image of moving towards something, the image of moving from something, the image of moving against something and the image of moving with others.; This model is applied to the study of the Christian feminist movement. Christian feminist have attempted to create their movement ethos by moving against non-inclusive language, moving towards a vision of an androgynous world, moving from the bonds of sexism through consciousness--raising worship and moving with others by presenting feminism as a logical extension of Christianity. Opponents of the movement have attempted to rhetorically challenge the ethos of the movement by arguing that the vision of the movement threatens orthodox Christianity, its attack on religious language deserves ridicule, its diagnosis of sexism is too radical and its supporters are naive or demonic.; Studying this movement and the resistance to reform it has experienced leads to the conclusion that the foundational agreement about how language should work in Protestantism is changing. This shift in the way Protestants view the importance of the past, present and future, the way they view the relationship of religious experience and the Bible and the way they view the proper function of religious language has led to the inability of liberal and conservative Christians to communicate with each other.