Abstract

This essay contains a brief analysis of five ways the terms 'essentialism' and 'essentialist' have been used and defined both traditionally and in recent Western European and North American feminist Christian theological texts. Given these possible meanings, several of which contradict each other, the author also explores the political and epistemological consequences of using the terms. She suggests that rather than indicating a theologian's metaphysical assumptions, they seem to function to discredit the epistemic competence of any theologian so characterised. She also asks why it is the case that only some feminist Christian theologians are so characterised, when, given the multiple meanings of 'essentialism', everyone is vulnerable to being named an essentialist.