Wiki Page, [1211_LCENWRD_A63D] - ENCOUNTERING THE WORD IN THE WORLD: Glossary

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2021-10-14T21:04:45+08:00

ANDROCENTRISM – male-centredness; takes the male human norm.

ANNULMENT – finding by a Church tribunal that on the day vows were exchanged at least some essential element for a valid marriage was lacking, such as one of the parties did not intend lifelong fidelity to the other person, or excluded children entirely, or one of parties was incapable of marriage (due to mental illness, or some psychological condition that prevented making the marital commitment – gross immaturity, homosexuality, etc.

CASTE – refers to a type of human; “each of the hereditary classes of Hindu society, distinguished by relative degrees of ritual purity or pollution and of social status.”

DIVORCE − dissolution of marriage

DUALISM – describes a view of the world and of relationships that divides reality into opposite categories and mutually opposed principles. Western philosophy and the Christian tradition have emphasized such dualisms as male-female, mind-body, culture-nature, spirit-matter, supernatural-natural, soul-body, agape-eros. Dualisms of this kind are hierarchical with one of the poles being viewed as superior to the other.

FEMINISM –awareness of the oppression of women in church and society and action to transform this situation.

FEMINIST THEORIES – provide a critical analysis of the forces that subordinate women to men. They have had a profound impact on the field of religion, both by direct influence eon the thinking of feminists in religion and by indirectly shaping the intellectual community in which feminist scholars participate.

GENDER – lived relationships between men and women through which sexual differences and ideas about sexual differences are constructed. Compare with sex.

HETEROSEXISM- is the systematic oppression and marginalization of a person or group due to their real or perceived same-sex orientation, preference or identity; it is the privileging and absolutizing of heterosexuality.

INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE – pictures humanity and the divine in such a way as to include honor, and do justice to diverse human experiences. There are three different strategies addressing these issues. The first avoids terms referring to gender, color or disability. Thus “people” replaces “brothers,” Parent replaces Father as a name for God, and all references to color or physical abilities are avoided. The second approach balances male and female terms, as well as, seeks positive images of darkness. Such worship language adds “sisters: to “brothers”, names God Mother as well as Father and explores the darkness of the womb or soil nurturing life as positive images. The third strategy called “emancipatory” takes a deeper look at language going beyond numerical balance to consider how language functions to free or oppress. It avoids stereotype gender associations (e.g. compassion with God the Mother or justice with God the Father), as well as, asks whether worship portrays God as taking the part of the poor and the oppressed that justice may be done. It emphasizes cultural diversity and draws connections between racism, sexism and other forms of injustice rather than focusing mainly on gender issues.

JUSTICE, SOCIAL – when the social, economic and political institutions in society enables individuals to participate fully in the shaping of their future.

LEGAL SEPARATION − an arrangement by which a couple remains married but live apart, following a court order.

LGBTQ – lesbian (a female who is sexually attracted to another female); gay (a man who is sexually attracted to another man); bisexual (a person who can be attracted to either the same or the opposite sex); transgender (a man who feels trapped in a woman’s body or a woman who feels trapped in a man’s body; when they undergo sex change, they are called transsexual); queer (an umbrella term sometimes used to refer to the LGBT).

MUTUALITY – in feminist liberation theology is the basis of right relation. It is a relational process in which all persons or parties are empowered, thereby experiencing themselves as able to survive, affect others creatively, and make a constructive difference in the world around them. Differences also play a creative role in mutuality; recognizing and respecting cultural, racial, ethnic, class, sexual, religious and other differences among women is basic to any mutually empowering relational process. In order to ascertain whether relationships are more or less mutual, a power analysis is often necessary: who, in the particular relational situation, has what kind of power (for example, economic, racial, sexual, physical, intellectual, emotional, charismatic, professional, intuitive)? Is the power being exercised as control, or is it being shared for the well-being of all? If the power for a time is controlling, such that of a parent over child, teacher over student, doctor over patient, one group of nation over another, is there a commitment on the part of all parties to become increasingly mutual? In other words, is there a mutually empowering relational dynamic at work in the relationship, transforming it? If not, it is not a right-relationship.

In the 1990’s, feminist liberation theologians have begun more explicitly to name the importance of the whole creation, not only its human members, towards a theological and ethical attentiveness to a mutuality that might be genuinely ecological.

OPPRESSION – systematic mistreatment of one social group by another.

PATRIARCHY (pamamanginoon ng mga kalalakihan)– is a social-economic-political system in which the head of the social unit (family, tribe, clan, church, plantation, etc.) is seen as the divinely established and absolute owner and ruler of the social unit, including all its members and parts. Because this head in the basic social unit of the family has been, at least in the west, the father-husband, there is a close connection among maleness, power, ownership, and domination on the one hand and femaleness, powerlessness, poverty, and subjection on the other.

POLYGAMY – practice of taking more than one spouse. When a man takes more than one wife, it is called polygyny; when a woman takes more than one husband, it is called polyandry.

SEX – Biological identity as male or female with which (most) individuals are born. In the 1970’s, feminists distinguish between gender which is a product of social construction and sex which is viewed as a kind of fixed substratum on which variable social constructs of gender developed. Nowadays however, this clear distinction is considered less tenable. Biological physical differences are themselves regarded as partly socially constructed and historically variable.

SINFUL SOCIAL STRUCTURES – structures and systems larger than individuals or groups, which have a life of their own, and which restrict our ability to do the good. e.g. sexism, racism, colonialism, imperialism, etc.

SOCIAL SIN (panlipunang kasalanan) – conscious and willful participation of a group or society in cooperating with sinful social structures, thus maintaining and perpetuating them and failing to do anything to change them even when this is already possible.

VIOLENCE, DOMESTIC – refers to any kind of behavior that a person uses to control an intimate partner through fear and intimidation. It includes physical, sexual, [psychological, verbal and economic abuse. Some examples include battering, name calling and insults, threats to kill or harm one’s partner or children, destruction of property, marital rape and forced sterilization or abortion.