Drawing on Eastern Orthodox theology and tradition, this session disrupts normative understanding of masculinity, offering critical readings of biblical scriptures, church fathers, and contemporary social phenomena through feminist lenses. From an eco-theological reading of Eve and theosis, to considering filmic cosmic temporalities in a critique of Maximus the Confessor, to questions about personhood in the Orthodox deaconess movement, to a constructivist pedagogy for combating male radicalism in the contemporary Orthodox Churches, each of these papers reflects on themes on tradition, adaptation, revival, and essentialism as they relate to gender, patriarchal normativity, and the Orthodox Church.
This paper offers a unique rereading of Eve from Genesis in light of Orthodox theology as a form of resistance to the sexism and misogyny in the contemporary Church. It departs from the dominant “Eve-new Eve” interpretation, in which Eve is the quintessential woman who brought sin through disobedience and the Theotokos is “new Eve” who brought the savior through obedience. This paper introduces an alternative interpretation, which it calls “shared theosis.” It argues that Eve, the Theotokos, and Mary Magdalene all seek communion with God at different points along a theotic journey of free will, discernment, and synergy. "Shared theosis" replaces the leitmotif of obedience from "Eve-new Eve" with theosis and characterizes the Eve-Theotokos relationship as continuity rather than contrast. It more fully reflects Orthodox eucharistic cosmology that sees the “world as a church" where the human person acts as a priest, bringing all creation into union with God.
The work of Orthodox theologian Elisabeth Behr-Sigel was key to the Eastern theological tradition beginning to take seriously the question of the ordination of women. This paper explores her legacy in this area, particularly concerning her call in The Ministry of Women in the Church (St Vladimir’s Seminary, 1991: 174) for deeper theological reflection on the priesthood. By exploring recent discussions of women’s ordination, such as those offered by contributors to the volume Women and Ordination in the Orthodox Church (Gabrielle Thomas and Elena Narinskaya, editors; Cascade Books, 2020), this paper uses Behr-Sigel’s observations to consider how developments in the area of the ordination of women to the diaconate are linked to the presbyteral ordination of women. For Behr-Sigel the women’s diaconate is not an alternative to the ordination of women to the priesthood but both should be part of broader theological deliberations on the practices of the Orthodox Church.
The trend of neo-traditionalism among converts to Eastern Orthodox Churches in the United States is a well-researched phenomenon that can be observed in idiosyncratic expressions of Orthodoxy unique to a North American context. In this paper, I will highlight pedagogical methods used in Orthodox catechesis which may contribute to these behaviors and ideologies. I will characterize these methods–which rely upon power imbalance, identity fragmentation, social isolation, and cultural hegemony–as pedagogically “violent” using Galtung’s theory of violence as consisting of direct, structural, and cultural dimensions. My analysis of the psychological impact of violent pedagogy draws primarily from Victor Turner’s theory of liminality in conversion, aided by the pedagogical insights of Paulo Freire and bell hooks. I will conclude by suggesting principles of non-violent pedagogy for Orthodox catechesis which may serve to create distance between Orthodox tradition and American neo-traditionalism, and to meet the pastoral needs of individuals drawn to neo-traditionalist ideology.
This paper tracks the construction of hegemonic masculinity across temporal disruptions through a phenomenon that I call ‘twins not-twins.’ First, I examine the religiously-racially premodern hegemonic masculinity of monks taught by Maximus the Confessor. Fourteen centuries later in the 2014 Christopher Nolan film _Interstellar_, I analyze the modern hegemonic masculinity of the film’s lead character Matthew McConaughey and himself (trapped in a black hole). Temporally, Maximus’s monks are multiple striving to be one; McConaughey’s character, Cooper, is singular split into two. Each are twins not-twins. I argue that the hegemonic masculinity produced through the monks’ divine pursuit and Cooper’s space pursuit are context-specific hegemonic masculinities that provincialize the idea of a stable touchstone by which other masculinities are theorized. Further, I examine the cross-temporal confluences of these premodern and modern hegemonic masculinities to situate dynamics in both sets of twins not-twins that are occluded by the tendency toward periodization.