Throwing the book at him: Feminist counter-narratives to evangelical apocalyptic theologies 1973-2003
by Dare, Jennifer K., Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, 2009, 333 pages; 3377355

Abstract:

The once-marginalized Evangelical Christian voting bloc has risen to a position of national vocal and voting power in the United States. The theology which informs this rise to power, particularly apocalyptic Reconstructionist theology, insists on rewriting the Constitution of the United States in accord with a specifically Evangelical social world view which reinforces patriarchy and marginalizes women. Using political methods to achieve religious aims, adherents to this theology are interested in enforcing their cultural patterns as national law. This theology was, and is, predicated upon the Christian fear of abjection, a feminization of enemy ideology, and an enmity for feminist ideology. Prompted by the passage of Roe v. Wade in 1973, and retransmitted via pop culture Christian apocalyptic fiction such as the Left Behind series, this apocalyptic Christian theology has created, coded, and calcified a folk religion of eschatology, as well as enforcing Reconstructionist social schema, in the United States. The majority of the texts examined in this dissertation are examined in terms of a narrative, fictional, feminist response to troubling social conditions extant in the United States from 1973 to 2003, conditions exacerbated by the infiltration of Christian apocalyptic theology into the political arena. These feminist texts have attempted to overwhelm the edifice of Christian apocalyptic theology with a multiplicity and complexity of stories about the End of the World, telling stories about this End which carefully and knowingly contradict the dominant narratives of Christian apocalypse. These feminist texts demonstrate through their imagined societies different ways of relating to ourselves and to each other, and thus promulgate a cultural authority which does not ostensibly trouble the dominance of “legitimate” religious and cultural doctrines, but acts subtly to influence, inform, and sometimes transform theologies and ideologies. The major works examined include Jerry B. Jenkins and Timothy LaHaye's Left Behind, Octavia Butler's Parable of the Talents, Susie McKee Charnas' Walk to the End of the World, Shari S. Tepper's The Gate To Women's Country, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale , Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing, and Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time.

 
AdviserMary E. Wood
SchoolUNIVERSITY OF OREGON
SourceDAI/A 70-09, p. , Oct 2009
Source TypeDissertation
SubjectsWomen's studies; American literature
Publication Number3377355
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