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Women-Church: Theology and Practice of Feminist Liturgical Communities

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Rosemary Radford Ruether (born 1936) is an American feminist scholar and theologian.

She states in the "Acknowledgments" section of this 1985 book, "This book is a collective creation that reflects the contributions of many people in the emerging movement of women-church and feminist liturgies." She later adds in the Introduction, "This book on women-church is written from the perspective of religious feminists who seek to reclaim aspects of the biblical tradition, Jewish and Christian, but who also recognize the need both to go back behind biblical religion and to transcend it. Women-church embraces a liminal religiosity... This book is also written out of a recognition that Christian feminists cannot wait for the institutional churches to reform themselves..."

Here are some representative quotations from the book:

"Women have to withdraw from male-dominated spaces so they can gather together and define their own experience."

"Women-Church is the Christian theological expression of this stage of feminist collectivization of women's experience and the formation of critical culture."

"Modern pagans tend to exhibit an impatience with historical accuracy in these matters, a desire to make do with myths that serve their present purposes, such as an easy equation between worship of ancient Goddesses and a feminist religion that empowers women as autonomous persons."

"If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again!"