Situating reading, shaping divinity

As an activist and political rhetorician, Luce Irigaray continually positions her work vis-à-vis communities of women who are struggling against the oppressive logic of phallocentrism and its conception of the divine, yet her audience has been and continues to be academic feminists whose disciplinary interests rarely lead them to construct liturgies and socially-enacted rhetorics designed to test the practical force of Luce Irigaray’s theological reflections. Such is not the case, however, with feminist theologians whose peculiar ecclesiastic commitment requires them to locate their reflections in the context of active, worshipping communities. Thus, it is possible that feminist theologians could help to provide Luce Irigaray’s writings with the audience they need but are institutionally, culturally, or stylistically unable to reach, an audience both to encourage and to challenge her stances. -- Abstract.