In this collection, continental and diasporan African women interrogate the concept “sacred text” and analyze ways oral and written religious “texts” intersect with violence against African-descended women and girls. While the sanctioned idea of a sacred text is written literature, this project interrupts that conception by drawing attention to speech and other embodied practices that have sacral authority within the social imaginary. As a volume focused on religion and violence, essays in this collection analyze religions’ authorization of violence against women and girls; contest the legitimacy of some religious “texts”; and affirm other writing, especially memoir, as redemptive. Unraveling and Reweaving Sacred Canon in Africana Womanhood arises from three years of conversation of continental and diasporan women, most recently continued in the July 6-10, 2014 Consultation of African and African Disaporan Women in Religion and Theology and privileges experiences and contexts of continental and diasporan African women and girls. Interlocutors include African traditionalists, Christian Protestants and Catholics, Muslims, and women embodying hybrid practices of these and other traditions.

This book surveys a broad panorama of Christian and African traditions to discover and assess the components that will illuminate and motivate a Christian and African ethic of women’s political participation. The author’s primary lens for diagnosing the problems faced by women in Africa is Engelbert Mveng’s concept of “anthropological poverty” that results from slavery and colonialism. It affects women in unique ways and is exacerbated by the religious and cultural histories of women’s oppression. The author advocates an interplay between the sacredness of every individual’s life, a salient principle of Christian ethics, and the collective consciousness of solidarity distinctive to African cultures. This interplay can, in turn, foster a more enlightened approach to African masculinity. Using a “sophialogical” hermeneutic, this in-depth study undertakes a moral imagination through narrative criticism. It argues that the existential reality of African women must be addressed as an essential element in the development of Christian socio-political ethic. The righteous, solidaristic, and resistant anger of women can transform patriarchy and inform Catholic social teaching. The author draws on The Circle of concerned African women theologians, postcolonial theorists, inculturation theology, African males, and Jon Sobrino's liberation theology to present an innovative Christian ethic that will radically affect the lives of African women and inform feminist theology.

The year 2020 marks the centenary of the passing of the 19th Amendment that allowed for women in the United States to vote. The strategic struggle of women demanding equal dignity and the right to vote in the United States helped to shed light on the systemic evils that have plagued the collective history of the country. Ideologies of racism, genderism, classism, and many more were and continue to be used to deny women their dignities both in the United States and in other parts of the world. This work sheds light on the intersectionality of religion, class, gender, philosophy, theology, and culture as they shape the experiences of women, especially women of color. A fundamental question that this volume aims to address is: What does it mean to be a woman of color in a world where systems of erasure dominate? The title of this volume is meant to showcase a deliberate engagement with the uncelebrated insights and perspectives of women of color in a world where systemic discrimination persists, and to articulate new strategies and paradigms for recognizing their contributions to the broader struggles for freedom and equity of women in our world.

"For two decades Teresia Hinga has been a leading voice in the fields of African Christianity, women in African theology, and gender and ethics in the African context. Now, African, Christian, Feminist brings together Hinga's own selections from her extensive body of work, a number of them not previously published. A valuable resource for scholars and students alike, African, Christian, Feminist reveals the depth and breadth of a unique voice in theology, ethics, and gender and African studies"--

Nonwhite women primarily appear as marginalized voices, if at all, in volumes that address constructions of race/ethnicity and early Christian texts. Employing an intersectional approach, the contributors analyze historical, cultural, literary, and ideological constructions of racial/ethnic identities, which intersect with gender/sexuality class, religion, slavery, and/or power. Given their small numbers in academic biblical studies, this book represents a critical mass of nonwhite women scholars and offers a critique of dominant knowledge production. Filling a significant epistemological gap, this seminal text provides provocative, innovative, and critical insights into constructions of race/ethnicity in ancient and modern texts and contexts.

Rape Culture and Religious Studies: Critical and Pedagogical Engagements stages a critical engagement between religious texts and the problem of sexual violence. Rape and other forms of sexual violence are widespread on college and university campuses; they also occur in sacred texts and religious traditions. The volume addresses these difficult intersections as they play out in texts, traditions, and university contexts. The volumegathers contributions from religious studies scholars to engage these questions from a variety of institutional contexts and to offer a constructive assessment of religious texts and traditions.