Emily Dickinson said: 'If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.' I feel somewhat the same way about theology. And so I suspect I'm reading serious theology at the moment: Sarah Coakley's Powers and Submissions: Spirituality, Philosophy and Gender. This is a really profound book. In short, she argues for 'an inalienable surrender ('submission') to God, that.... must remain the secret ground of even feminist 'empowerment'.' (prologue)
She writes 'The message here is not, of course, one of submission to the 'world' - in the various senses of 'worldly' power that we have already entertained. On the contrary, it is about a very subtle, and one might say sui generis , response to the divine allure that allows one to meet the ambiguous forms of 'worldly' power in a new dimension, neither decrying them in se nor being enslaved to them, but rather facing, embracing, resisting or deflecting them with discernment.' (p. xviii)
To make a strong and passionate case for wholehearted submission (even to God) is a daring move in feminist theology... so far she has me spellbound... I have my mouth open even when I'm shaking my head. The top of my head is taken off!
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