"In the 2004 Madeleva Lecture, Mary Ann Hinsdale uses the lens of her own life experience to tell the story of how visionary and prophetic women set in motion the important institutional structures that have allowed women to shape Catholic theology in North America over the past fifty years. She pays particular attention to issues and problems facing women theologians in the Catholic Church today, such as the implications of the changing demographics of women theologians; women's impact on the "theological establishment"; the reception of feminism and feminist theology by the hierarchy; and the unmet intercultural challenges posed by those "on the margins," as well as women theologians' response to them. Coming at the beginning of a new papacy, Hinsdale's compelling narrative is especially timely for a consideration of the future of women in the Catholic Church."--BOOK JACKET.

A moving essay collection promoting freedom, self-love, and divine wholeness for Black women and opening new levels of understanding and ideological transformation for non-Black women and allies “Candice Marie Benbow is a once-in-a-generation theologian, the kind who, having ground dogma into dust with the fine point of a stiletto, leads us into the wide-open spaces of faith.”—Brittney Cooper, author of Eloquent Rage and co-editor of The Crunk Feminist Collection Blurring the boundaries of righteous and irreverent, Red Lip Theology invites us to discover freedom in a progressive Christian faith that incorporates activism, feminism, and radical authenticity. Essayist and theologian Candice Marie Benbow’s essays explore universal themes like heartache, loss, forgiveness, and sexuality, and she unflinchingly empowers women who struggle with feeling loved and nurtured by church culture. Benbow writes powerfully about experiences at the heart of her Black womanhood. In honoring her single mother’s love and triumphs—and mourning her unexpected passing—she finds herself forced to shed restrictions she’d been taught to place on her faith practice. And by embracing alternative spirituality and womanist theology, and confronting staid attitudes on body positivity and LGBTQ+ rights, Benbow challenges religious institutions, faith leaders, and communities to reimagine how faith can be a tool of liberation and transformation for women and girls.

Ritual Making Women looks at the way in which women's making of ritual has emerged from the rapidly developing field of women's spirituality and theology. The author uses ethnographic material to explore how the construction of ritual uses story-making and embodied action to empower women. Ritual, far from being a timeless and universal practice, is shown to be a contextual and gendered performance in which women subvert conventional distinctions of private and public. The book combines narrative and case study material and draws on feminist theology and theory, social anthropology and gender studies.

The history of women within the Catholic Church is a vibrant and exciting story. Women Shaping Church History explores the stories of women who made a difference in the history of the Church long ago and the stories of women whose faith is shaping the Church today. The names of these women of faith read like a beautiful litany of faithfulness and devotion to Jesus and to the Church that honors his name: Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Mary and Martha, Salome, Joanna, Susanna, Phoebe, Priscilla, Perpetua, Therese of Lisieux, Catherine of Sienna, Bernadette of Lourdes, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and more.

Ritual Making Women looks at the way in which women's making of ritual has emerged from the rapidly developing field of women's spirituality and theology. The author uses ethnographic material to explore how the construction of ritual uses story-making and embodied action to empower women. Ritual, far from being a timeless and universal practice, is shown to be a contextual and gendered performance in which women subvert conventional distinctions of private and public. The book combines narrative and case study material and draws on feminist theology and theory, social anthropology and gender studies.