The Insider/Outsider Debate - New Perspectives in the Study of Religion - George D. Chryssides

The Insider/Outsider Debate - New Perspectives in the Study of Religion - George D. Chryssides

Chapter 13: Between Institutional Oppression and Spiritual Liberation: The Female Ordination Movement in the Catholic Church and its Utilization of Social Media

The Insider/Outsider Debate - New Perspectives in the Study of Religion - George D. Chryssides

Lyndel Spence [+-]
University of Sydney
Lyndel Spence teaches International Global Studies at the University of Sydney. From 2008- 2010 Lyndel completed a Bachelor of International Global Studies at the University of Sydney, majoring in sociology and winning the Raewyn Connell Prize in Social Theory. She received her PhD, titled Breaking the Stained Glass Ceiling: Intersectionality and the Female Ordination Movement in the Roman Catholic Church in 2016. Her core research interests are religion, community, resistance, globalisation, social justice, human rights, identity and gender and she maintains a keen interest in both classical and contemporary social theory. Lyndel has collaborated on the creation of a new sociology textbook with Pearson Education Australia, and currently has several journal articles in the process of being published. She also has a dedication for social justice, and is currently the Secretary of the NSW Amnesty International Women’s Network.

Description

The female ordination movement within the Catholic Church is a dynamic and forceful example of the paradoxical binary of institutional oppression and individual liberation operating within the contemporary religious sphere, as it campaigns for a more inclusive and accountable Catholic Church. The members of this movement are thereby placed in a precarious condition of both being excluded from the institutional Catholic Church, and belonging to a renewed, yet institutionally unrecognised Catholic community. Drawing on feminist theology and a feminist epistemology, this chapter highlights the results of qualitative research conducted with members of this progressive religious movement, providing insight into their experiences of both repression and liberation. Further, through critical discourse analysis, this chapter explores the effectiveness of social media in connecting women across the world who are facing institutional religious repression and who are seeking support from likeminded faith believers. Social media are used by groups involved in the female ordination movement to subvert the dominant attitudes towards women within the Catholic Church and to provide an alternative form of religious expression for disaffected Catholic women. These groups are thereby able to mobilise women into a solidary international religious formation which empowers women who have experienced suppression or subjugation from the Roman Catholic Church.

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Citation

Spence, Lyndel. Chapter 13: Between Institutional Oppression and Spiritual Liberation: The Female Ordination Movement in the Catholic Church and its Utilization of Social Media. The Insider/Outsider Debate - New Perspectives in the Study of Religion. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 249-269 Oct 2019. ISBN 9781781793442. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=27466. Date accessed: 07 Oct 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.27466. Oct 2019

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