Very early in the feminist theology movement, Carol Christ
proposed names for these two points of view. In a 1977 article, she
suggested that those feminists who sought to transform religion from
within could be called “reformists”, while those who sought to develop a
new, non-traditional feminist form of religion could be called
“revolutionaries”.3 This distinction is also central to the 1979 collection
WomanSpirit Rising. In their introduction to the book, Christ and coeditor
Judith Plaskow wrote:
While feminists agree on the general outlines of the critique of
Jewish and Christian theology, … they very much disagree on the
reformability of the tradition. For some, the vision of
transcendence within the tradition is seen as an authentic core of
revelation, pointing toward freedom from oppression, a freedom
they believe is articulated more clearly and consistently within
tradition than without. Others believe that the prebiblical past or
modern experience provide more authentic sources for feminist
vision.
