Up to the mid 19th century the ideal image and thought about women in general, about their being and proper role had been their obedience and moral piety. However, having participated in evangelical revival movements in the 19th century, women's cons ...
Up to the mid 19th century the ideal image and thought about women in general, about their being and proper role had been their obedience and moral piety. However, having participated in evangelical revival movements in the 19th century, women's consciousness was changed and became aware of their positions and rights in society and churches. For the first time they raised the question and argument about their rights and church ministry. During the period of 1960 and early 70's, awakened to their rights, that is, to 'feminism', those women who belonged to Judaeo-Christian religion began to realize how their religious tradition has been sexist-discrimination. Since then they have developed, so to speak, a second wave of feminism.
Women achieved and developed these 3o years, concerning various issues about women, church, sacrament, worship, etc. In the late 1960's there began to emerge worship forms of typical feminism, women's liberating worship services, feminist liturgical movement. Women's liberating worship service began to be developed in feminist discoveries of symbols concerning God-relationship and expressions, and feminist use of biblical texts and forms. The basic question underlying these feminist movement and forms of expression is that of justice, the problem of injustice in discrimination and exclusion of women from religions leadership for worship services. The basic situation that led many feminists to charllenge the unjust painful patriarchal dominations in the church traditions justified by theology and led them to develop liberating worship services and new liturgical forms to the development of feminist theology, critical of male dominating theology.
This study has explored the historical backgrounds and contexts of the efforts and aspects of the attempts at feminist liberating worships and new liturgical forms, and has attempted at the explication of the significance of the feminist movements, assertions and theology, and also has critically reexamined and analysed critically the problems of those feminist assertions and theology. Especially, this study has tacked the problem of masculine language applied to God in worship services, such as 'Gog the Father,' much discussed among feminist theologians. In their attempts at formulating feminist language over against the traditional masculine, they have shown problematic tendencies in discarding certain important biblical texts. On the one hand, While on the one hand this study has tried to show the significance of feminist efforts to reformulate God-Language, on the other has tried to show possibilities to reinterpret the biblical masculine language as inclusive of feminist liberating language. Finally this study has attempted at an egalitarian reform and transformation of church worship forms, that would have implication for social reform and transformation toward egalitarian society and the world.