"What are the main aims and messages of feminist theology?"

Feminist Theology emerged in the early 1960's from within both the Christian and Jewish communities. The original feminist theologians from these fellowships compared the experiences of men and women and it then became apparent (to them) that these experiences were 'different'. They also realised that all experience was from that of men, and began to explore theology from a women's perspective. This then became an ongoing process of going into detail of the different types of experience. For example, a heterosexual women, a homosexual women, a bi-sexual women, a blind women, a pregnant women etc. The list is infinite as there are so many different combinations and possible experiences.

Because of this, the aims and messages of Feminist Theology are difficult to explain and outline as many different points are trying to be made from many different angles. These 'angles' or aims are derived from different sources, mainly the bible, but more recently from modern statistics and experiences. But as I have said, there is no 'one' experience, and the Feminist Theology movement continues to stress this and the fact that women's experiences are important too. Ad they believe once this is recognised by men, women will finally be seen as equals and given the same rights.

Feminist theologians do many different things to try to achieve there goal, and prove their point. They look at the Bible and show times when women are treated badly, (which occur many times!) they then may go on to explain this and change this or even be so radical as to erase it completely. The emphasis is on the bible though, as it the basis of Feminist Theology. Nowadays, this lays the foundation for the arguments the Feminist theologians use. They now try to raise awareness of cruelty and violence against women in modern society, as well as using figures from years previous to compare these figures. These Theologians are trying to demonstrate how even though women's role in life today has changed, i.e. employment, reproductive practices, sexual practices and family structures - the way they are seen and treated has not. Although they have increased status in society, they still experience sexism, which has not evolved at all and resembles that shown originally in the bible.

"Feminists such as Daley have argued that language was an effective way of keeping women away. Do you agree?