Marginal Christianity

They do not deserve your sympathy in any way!” So Ares screams at Diana Prince, Wonder Woman, pushing her to drop the tank she holds threateningly over the evil Dr. Maru, her alter ego in the film, and then unleash her righteous anger on all humanity. He is desperate for her to give them what they deserve. Diana, however, somehow experiences an “aha” moment, a revelation, that “It’s not about deserve.” It’s about love. I think about this scene often in our world, oh so desperate for someone else, some other group, to get what they deserve. -Most of us want ISIS to get what we think they deserve. -Others want Donald Trump to get what they think he deserves. -Some want the poor and sick to get what they believe these people deserve, as in “Diabetics don’t deserve heath care”. -Many still think homosexuals deserve to hear that “God hates fags!” -Others believe the 1% deserve the judgment they will receive from God for their injustices. -And on it goes . . . Yet, “It...

Monika Hilder’s book The Feminine Ethos in C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narni a challenges the claim that Lewis presented a traditional, patriarchal view of women in The Chronicles as well as the assumption that a non-patriarchal view of women presents them with more masculine traits and capacities. Instead, she makes a persuasive case that the latter is faulty and that when read properly The Chronicles present a “radical theological feminism” that is genuinely liberating. This reflection is spurred by the wonderful film “Wonder Woman” released last weekend. It is the best superhero film I’ve ever seen. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not but a small step toward the far more profound “radical theological feminism” we find in Lewis’s stories. Monika Hilder claims that we tend to use the same paradigm to develop ideas of female equality that we want to reject. What do we think “successful” women are? In what does such “success” consist? Is it the Type A, charismatic, mag...