Frau und religion: Gotteserfahrungen im patriarchat,

651

Book Ftevlews the right amount of background matcnal and provtdes the historical cootext ncccssary to encourage c~mpartsons wtth the U.S. movement. It also cstablishcs contmmty wtth the

wages for housework, violcncc and the womco’s movcmcnt, lcsbtan political strategies and women m the ecology

early women’s movcmcnt at the turn of the century. Thus, It traces back the unrcsolvcd conilict bctwccn the Left and feminism and, more prcciscly, bctwccn socialists and femimsts. Today a somcwbat similar situation, as regards socialism and the posttion of women, exists in East Germany whcrc women appear to participate equally in the labour fora-a situation which Amcncan women dream of-and yet, they have to bear the same ‘doublcburden’ each day and cxpcricncc a similar feeling of alicnsuon as women in West Germany and the U.S. Part One, ‘Breaking the Sikncc’. documents the development of women’s centers. femmist mcdta and literature m the FRG as well as the emergence of women’s voices in GDR prose and the formation of an ‘cmanapatory htcrary movement led by women. More of the latter ISpresented m Part Two, ‘The Way it is’, which explores the datly life and in Part Seven. ‘Struggles, Visions and Dreams’ Part Three, ‘Body Politics’, records the abortton campaign with whtch the movement began and prcscots an excellent sckction of essays on sexual politics. ‘We/man Hatmg’ (Part Four), combines essays on mstitutionalixcd hostibty toward women, includmg a thought-provoking piece about a famous German ‘tcrrorat’, Ulnkc Met&of; a aitictsm of the sensattonal press and advcrtiscmcot; and a d&us&n of the difficulbcs of mother/daughter rclationshtps. In ‘Rcportagc and Essay’ (Part Ftvc), fcmnusts portray the complexities of women’s datly lives. ‘Sisterhood (Part Six) documents the solidanty of the (mostly m&k-class) movement with women from the workmg class, ‘Dtrktsh imnugrant women, prostttutcs and others. Apart from the literary pies, the thcorcttcal essays on housework, motherhood (Part eight), fcmuust pohttcal strategies (Part Ten) and feminist methodology (Part Eleven) might be the most stimulatmg parts for a U.S. audieoce. Sii German soaal sciences have been kss dommatcd by positivistic methods, but have a tradition of an htstotical dialectic approach, German fcmmtsts focused early tn their devclopmcnt on a new theory of housework ‘fhis theory i&ally butlds on a Marxist analysis, but then scnously crihques It and creates some new tcrmmology The same is true for the attempts to develop a femintst methodology Staymg 10the tradttron of actton research and the htstorical dialectical view of cnucal theory, feminist scholars combmcd these elements with then cxpcncncc of acttvc involvement m the women’s movement In thii traditton, Maria Mtcs develop4 seven guidchnes m her essay ‘Towards a Methodology for Femimst rcscarch’ (Part Eleven). She not only demands research by and about women, but also research for women with the aim to bring about changes in the hvcs of women. Even parts of the political stratcgtcs of the women’s movement arc deduced from a Icfttst theory of soctcty as is clear m the speech of Hclkc Sanders (Part Ten)-now an international known filmmaker-at the oattonal conference of the West German SDS m 1968 Clearly, the authors did not shy away from presentmg politically complex sttuations, such as the situation of women m socialist countncs, or htdc the movement’s failure to deal adequately wtth issue concemrng Turktsh women in Germany, nor drd they silence controvcrstcs among West German fcmmists. Therefore, we learn about heated disputes within the West German movement about

‘Brcakmg the sikncc’ by German women is achicvcd cachtimc~bookilr~notonlybyGermaairtrbutalro Women’s Studies teachem.

movement.

SlGRtLiBa~uruut and m

NERAD

FMI.I UND RELIGION: GOITESERFAHRUNGEN IM PlsnunCHAT,cdued by Elisabcth Moltmann-Wcndcl, 266 pages. Frankfurt am Mam, Fischer Taschcnbuch Vcrlag. 1984 Pncc 12.flOSF

Upon contemplatmg a move to the United States for religtous reasons, Malwida von Mcysenbug rcflcctcd in 1858. ‘One said to ooesclf, that the ocean would be no Qvidmg lute oow, rather a lure of commumcation between brothers [and sisters], who wantcd to work in thesamewayonthebigt~of~~ogthe~spirit always more from the yoke of supcrstitlon . . : (pp.149,150).

tgnorrnce

and

Frau Moltmann-Wend&s latest book, Frau und Rehgwn Gottemfahrungen ifn Patriarchal, can serve as soother such line of communicattott bctwccn people who are otherwise scparatcd by the Atlantic &can and their own contincotal confinement. Unique m its format, the book reveals a kgacy with the past us each of its five sections: Christianity as the religion of freedom; conflicts with the church; early cxper5l?nces; rcfkctions on a scar& for whokncss; praxis and program Wnh a maJority of the sclcctions coming from the midmnctccnth and early twentieth ccnturics, the function of the work is to disinter early feminist writings and link these hterary anttquiucs with modem pubbcations l Engrossing in its format, the manuscript reeks to describe the rclauonship of women to a patriarchal and ‘pathological church, a masculine rcbgtoo, and an cnculturatcd Chnstianity and to delineate women’s rcsponscs of rehgtous praxis, piety and program. The sclcctions come prcdommantly from West or Bast German sources, secondarily from American, and in singuhu instances, from Swedtsh and British ones. The colkction is feisty enough with its ChGnrSof outspoken contributors, but its

poetic and pictorial punctuations cnhvco it even further Concluding its array of authoresses, an appcadi~ provides fascmating btographical data. A few art&s highhght ‘expcricnccs of God m a patnarchy’ umque to a specific culture such as confirmauon in the German state church or the evangelical

D~akomsscnhihtsc, others spotlight a particular feminist fight (see ‘Kampf gcgen Prostitution’ by Josephme Butler, lSa9) Most of the cootributions relate to the overarching theme of women acting and reacting to ‘the patriarchal overburdening of the Christian wad&m (p.14). In this scholasuc smorgasbord of theologrcal, exegctxal, histoncal and social offc~gs, the followmg treatments are

* Inchtding those of Mane-Augusta Neal, Lctty Russ&, Mary Daly, Nclk Morton, Dorothcc !%llce and Rosemary Radford Ructhcr.

652

Book Reviews

memorable: Reactmg to the teachmgs of such men as Herr Professor der I%eologie Jacob m K6mgberg and Pastor von Nathunus, Hqdwig Dohm wrote a hvely defense m 1872 includmg such observations as thts sample: ‘The good men preach to us that we live under therr dominance as we Bd in Paradise In vam we shout ourselves hoarse that we ate from the Tree of Knowledge and that we are no longer worthy of Paradise Ltke the Angel m Paradise, the man-that model of compassion and goodness’-holds the flammg sword m his hands, but not m order to dnve us out, rather, agamst our will, to keep us there ’ (p&j), tracmg the higher position of women in early churches and sects, Lydia Sttiker concluded in 1907 ‘The church has now developed itself from the church of the spint to the church of words, not to menbon the letter, from the church of free servtce by each indtndual member to the church of stnct order and rule v&h a whole class of hierarchical, offictal servants, the church has become a church of lmalel pnests ‘. (p 103), describing her estrangement - from Protestantism. Ehsabeth Gnauck-Kiihne wrote m 1900 ‘Mamage is At the calling of women, rather only one among others. This positton can not be accepted by Lutherans, who follow Luther’s teachmg that woman IS created for the man, for marriage Everything depends on the woman pleasing the man . If you do not please a man-then-woe to youl-you have lost your calhng and career-what are you then m the world” (pp 172, 173), dealing with Epheslans 5. 22-23 and the position of married women VIS-&-wstheir husbands, Eltsabeth Malo mferred m 1891 ‘If I were not mmdful at all times that Paul ISthe greatest rehgmus genius among the servants and messengers of Chnst and a decent character of the first order, I would be tempted to find tn thts passage the greatest masculine arrogance, of which only an Onental IS capable. Even with all due respect for the Christ-parallel, I would still be tempted to call this passage a blasphemy ’ (P.91) There are moments when we intuit a connection wth generations preceding In a city as old as Basel, Switzerland, one is overcome by the thought Desldenus Erasmus, Fnednch Nietzsche, Hermann Hesse, or Karl Barth strode on these stones Or wttrng m the country church of one’s ancestor, one bears m mmd she stood at thrs altar and walked down ths aisle A similar sense of contmutty with the past IS evoked by thts latest of Frau Moltmann-Wendel’s works other women have come this way For those of us who are making a femmme ptlgnmage, alone or m the abstract If not actual company of other women, the awareness that others trudged and trod this path along before us can be a humbling and humane one JEANNE STEVENSON-M• ESSNER

IN THE SHADOW OF THE PAST PSYCHOLOGY PORTRAYS THE

SEXES, edlted by MInam Lewm Columbia Press, New York 1984 Pnce $30 00

Umversny

This book contains a vanety of mformatlve, enhghtenmg. and sometlmes unsettlrng exammatlons of psychologists’ portrayals of sex differences over the past century In heu of covenng atI thirteen essays or cntlquemg a select few, this review highlights themes that reappear across chapters with the aim of tracmg the book’s vlslon of the past and of

where we might go from here Most of the chapters are authored by women, and the focus IS on conceptions of women’s natures and women’s roles The stage IS set by Barbara Hams, who examines the economic and pohtical forces that contnbuted to the 19th century dlvtsion between public and pnvate life, and of tmddle-class women’s relegation to the pnvate, domestic sphere The women’s sphere entaded not only nurturance, but also moral wperionty (virtuosity, forbearance, and sexual passinty), and mtellectual mfenonty Mlnam Lewm, in a bnef and articulate review of evolutionary theones, notes that women’s morahty was linked wtth their supposedly greater mtuttlon and sensltlnty, capacities which Darwm ranked lower than abstract reasoning abdlty on the evolutionary scale The view of women as less mtelhgent than men was presumably proven by Darwm’s cousin, Francls Galton, m 1869, and that ‘fact’ was not much challenged untd some fifty years later with women’s entry mto psychologtcal research Rosahnd Rosenberg, m a chapter drawn from her tmpressive Beyond Separate Spheres, details the contnbuhens of Leta Holhngworth to the decline of mstmctlvlst assumptions. One assumption was that menses has a dehhtatmg effact on women’s mental abihties Holhngworth was the first psychologist to questlon and to disprove the belief that menstruation interferes with women’s cogmtive performance In so doing, she contended that m&y of h& more eminent conten&ranes, psychologists such as Thorndike and J M Cattell. held a double standard of sctentific proof. these liberal, free-thmkmg expenmentahsts condemned grand theones of mstmctsexcept when it came to sex differences Rosenberg’s chapter IS unique m providing a close study of the social networks and institutions wthm which psychologcal theones rose and fell Once these particular histones are revealed, the conservatism of theory and research becomes much more understandable, profound, and real With the exccptlon of Hollingworth’s husband, none of the Columbia psychology faculty had had women as classmates m college or m graduate school, and they mamed women who adhered to the traditional female role The social SCtence faculty of the Umverslty of Chlcago were an exceptton In this regard, but that institution’s influence was less felt in empirically-prone psychology than m soctology Psychology’s shift, m the 192Os, from mstmctlvist to environmentalist theones may be attnbuted in part to women’s increasing partlclpatlon m the field, as well as to the reformist splnt between the world wars This progressmsm was exemplified m utopian tracts by to value psychologists whose ‘sclentdic commdment neutrahty did not seem to mhlblt advocacy of particular soctal Ideals’ (Morawskl. D 98) In a thounhtful essay on psychologists“ conceptlois df the Idei family,- Jdl Morawskl comoares the utoman vlslons of G S Hall, W McDougal and-J B Watsoi Despite thetr dtfferences on the nature-nurture Issue. these men &d not questton the universality of the nuclear famdy or women’s cental role within It They also concurred that psychologlcal experts should employ their supenor knowledge to momtor the mothers of the new social order Most vocal on this theme was Watson, whose advlce on chddrearmg was widely dlssemmated through such popular magazmes as Cosmopolrran, Harperk and McCalls It IS clear, both from Morawskl’s essay as well as Ben