Reflections on our Mission

A philosophical investigation into the restoration of the feminine perspective in Theology and its implications for humanity.

I was just sitting around looking at our blog, when I really started to take a look at that subtitle you and I made up when we first created this. We sort of created the statement in a hurry, but not too much of a hurry that we didn't conciously know and choose the words that we wrote. However, now that we're sort of settled in, I think it warrants an examination of those things we are specifically trying to do.

A Philosophical Investigation

From an outside perspective, it might not appear that we are quite as textbooky 'philosophical' as could possibly be, but our goal was to really examine these questions that philosophy poses at the heart of itself - meaning, being, existence, purpose and God. And that many times philosophical examinations and ways of thinking about such things are quite limited in their scope because of the particular masculine bias perhaps inherent in what is considered philosophy, philosophical discourse and relevant philosophical components. What you and I wanted to do, was investigate a little more into what philosophy was and has been, and what it could be, if it indeed can be more than it already is. That philosophy is in some way, we feel in our guts, missing something that we can't always even accurately put our fingers on.

Some of it may be related to the handling of mysticism, to non-pointed, abstracted, delinated approaches, to the exclusion of the relationships,concrete, and personal, or just to the de-emphasis of a particular way of thinking about the way to examine who we are ourselves.

So then the first part of our goal, is to examine our own ways of knowing in as open and complete a philosophical manner as possible.

Into the Restoration

We are clearly then working under the assumption with this phrasing that the perspective we are trying to rediscover for ourselves has indeed, at one time, existed. For this to be the case, it could either have existed because others in the past explored it to such a depth already, or, as is more likely the case in my opinion, because it always existed from the beginning of time, only waiting to come to full realization of its potentiality.

Of the Feminine Perspective

Here we are definitely asserting that there is such a thing as a feminine perspective, which may vary from individual to individual, but is a certainty in this world under God -- that we are created "male and female", and that this itself has particular significance for both our philosophical investigation and any 'restoration' we are attempting to make. As classifying the perspective as feminine, we are also giving it sexual attributes, or a gender connotation. This might pose as a complication because there are many who would point out to us the social construction of gendered terms like 'feminine'. But I think that you and I would posit that we speak in reference to the feminine as encompassing all that a female in her dignity in the image of God is called to be, both in her specific aspects (your and I's feminine perspective) and the general aspects (the perspective of 'woman', which, as we believe there is a distinctive quality and dignity of woman as there is of man, can be assessed in that general sense).

The word feminine is then attached to the noun 'Perspective' -- literally meaning, 'to look through' something, a way of looking at, all around, through and of something. Our endeavour again is completely tied back to this notion of our ways of looking and understanding.

Our ways of looking and understanding are valuable to know in isolation, but it is also crucial to put them to some purpose, as follows in the subtitle:

In Theology

In particular, you and I are specifically concerned with what this means in the Catholic Church's traditions and teachings, Christian philosophical understandings, and how it plays out in the world - all crucial components of "the Study of God". We want to, in general but not always necessarily, gear our philosophical investigations about the feminine perspective to this subject which captures your and I's hearts and motivates us to do what we do - that we have the motivation, desire, and impulse (and hopefully the grace) to learn what we can for ourselves and what other use we can put it to.

We also seem to be asserting here that Theology for at least some part has lost these components of the feminine perspective that we are trying to restore in it (again, even if they only existed in Theology in its broadest inclusion of potentialities). Whether that be because of the development and history of the subject and the discourse, its subjects, its speakers, etc. can certainly also be a subject of discussion.

And its Implications for Humanity

This last part is my favorite, for I am always looking for the context and the implications of these abstracted concepts and ideals. What does this mean in real life --- for you, for me, for my mom and dad, for your best friend, for the little girl in India and the old man in Peru, for your great-great-great-grand niece not yet born and my great-great-great-uncle who has since passed away. The word as we're using it is literally referring to all the folds and complexities of life, for us "to involve, tangle, and connect closely". (hehehehe, it's going to be fun :D )

And also, what does it all mean and how it will it impact, not just the world, but Humanity. Humanity as understood as men and women in not just our bodies, or souls, but entire being past, present, future and eternal under God. This word is so important for us, I think, in light of what the Catholic Church teaches -- that woman is the model for all humanity, and the Virgin Mother as the whole of humanity in perfection. :)