A rich collection of first-person renderings that both enhances and challenges traditional narratives of American religious life.

The volume presents theological and religious research that explores women's voices and experiences in the fields of migration, culture and (eco)peacebuilding with the goal to discuss complex and dynamic questions of women's active participation and engagement in these challenges, mainly from the perspective of Central European authors. The chapters address these matters in order to rethink and search for theological and religious responses to the inequalities, prejudices, and conflicts that arise from these crises and look for new ethical paths to mitigate them through interreligious dialogue and religious (eco)peacebuilding

The books in The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe series chronicle the heretofore neglected stories of women between 1400 and 1700 with the aim of reviving scholarly interest in their thought as expressed in a full range of genres: treatises, orations, and history; lyric, epic, and dramatic poetry; novels and novellas; letters, biography, and autobiography; philosophy and science. Teaching Other Voices: Women and Religion in Early Modern Europe complements these rich volumes by identifying themes useful in literature, history, religion, women's studies, and introductory humanities courses. The volume's introduction, essays, and suggested course materials are intended as guides for teachers--but will serve the needs of students and scholars as well.

Planetary Solidarity brings together leading Latina, womanist, Asian American, Anglican American, South American, Asian, European, and African woman theologians on the issues of doctrine, women, and climate justice. Because women make up the majority of the world's poor and tend to be more dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods and survival, they are more vulnerable when it comes to climate-related changes and catastrophes. Representing a subfield of feminist theology that uses doctrine as interlocutor, this book ask how Christian doctrine might address the interconnected suffering of women and the earth in an age of climate change. While doctrine has often stifled change, it also forms the thread that weaves Christian communities together. Drawing on postcolonial ecofeminist/womanist analysis and representing different ecclesial and denominational traditions, contributors use doctrine to envision possibilities for a deep solidarity with the earth and one another while addressing the intersection of gender, race, class, and ethnicity. The book is organized around the following doctrines: creation, the triune God, anthropology, sin, incarnation, redemption, the Holy Spirit, ecclesiology, and eschatology.

"More than a few people today scoff at the notion of "religious experience." What the believer accepts as God acting in human lives, the skeptic attributes to delusion or hysteria - especially when the believer is a woman. Indeed the possibility of self-deception in the realm of religious experience is sufficiently great that even devotees tread softly around it. At what point does mindless enthusiasm come to an end and actual, transcendent reality begin?" "Sidney Callahan, a psychologist, author and Christian ethicist, describes authentic religious experience as the work of "a creative God of love who gives totally and renounces coercion." Human beings are wired for relationship. They move instinctively toward a dynamic presence who abides within the world and in human affairs. In this Madeleva Lecture delivered at Saint Mary's College in Indiana, Callahan affirms not only the reality but also the usefulness of private religious experiences, especially those of "women barred from hierarchical authority," which, she says, "can be a rich source of strength for the church." Beginning with the insights of William James and Rudolf Otto, and borrowing from contemporary theologians Karl Rahner and John E. Thiel, Callahan describes the way religious "signals" emerge into society through the attentive reflection of individuals. And the world is better for it. "Women who hear voices and see visions and have prophetic and intimate religious experiences," she states, "have given witness to God's justice and equality while affirming God's maternal love.""--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Taking a critical look at feminism and exploring its explicit and implicit spiritual dimensions, this revised and updated new edition of Women and Spirituality engages in a reflective dialogue with contemporary women's voices. It asks to what extent patriarchal oppression and androcentric thinking are inherent not only in Christianity but in all religious beliefs, practices and institutions. This is the only book which provides a comprehensive survey of current discussions in feminist theology and spirituality and offers a wide-ranging account of women and world religions and raising thought-provoking questions about the spiritual dimensions of human life.

The relationship of 'The Word' to notions of unity and oneness has often served as a tool of tyranny and oppression in Christian history. Static, authoritarian religious institutions have formed and developed the central tenets of their faith, excluding from participation the voices of those who do not mirror the reality of the power brokers – overwhelmingly white, Western, heterosexual and male. Yet other voices have continually emerged in multiple locations to challenge the hegemony of 'The Word' and to claim authority and agency in the struggle for basic rights and justice. Some of these voices are explicitly religious, others not. All challenge the adequacy of a unilateral 'Word' to embody the dynamic and all-encompassing movement of the sacred in the world. This book suggests that a metaphor of 'voices' provides possibility for the intercourse of many diverse expressions of holy power in the world without insisting upon either a primal or an ultimate onenss. The implications of this shift are many. The sources where such revelations of the divine appear are broadened to include many texts not traditionally seen as theological. Conceptions of community are revolutionized, to include not only groupings of like-minded individuals coming together for support and nourishment, but also coalitions of diverse persons, who share no particular social or cultural identity but rather their commitment to work together for a more just world. Traditional theological categories are renamed and redefined, as their original definition and subsequent development are disclosed as limiting and inadequate. And the God whom we have been told is One is revealed as many-faceted and articulate, speaking through and among a radical multiplicity of created and creative beings who struggle together to live authentically in the world.