This session presents women scholars who have published books in the discipline of women’s studies, gender, theology and religion in 2022-2023. This panel’s authors will provide an overview of their books and share their perspectives on current research being published on women and gender studies. Authors will also discuss how they visualize their books in constructing knowledge and influencing the public sphere. In addition, these scholars will share their experiences regarding strategies and mechanics for getting women’s studies in theology and religion books published, and offer advice for those seeking publication of related book manuscripts.
Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church by Nijay K. Gupta
For centuries, discussions of early Christianity have focused on male leaders in the church. But there is ample evidence right in the New Testament that women were actively involved in ministry, at the frontier of the gospel mission, and as respected leaders. Women were there.
Nijay Gupta calls us to bring these women out of the shadows by shining light on their many inspiring contributions to the planting, growth, and health of the first Christian churches. He sets the context by exploring the lives of first-century women and addressing common misconceptions, then focuses on the women leaders of the early churches as revealed in Paul’s writings.
Drawing on major figures in feminist and womanist theologies as well as public theology, Nevertheless, We Persist elaborates an innovative feminist theological approach to the public church and to the praxis of public theology as ekklesial work, that is, the creation of community or a shared public life. This book initially constructs and then applies this approach to identify and interpret central theological claims and rhetorical, symbolic, and prophetic practices of public engagement, exemplified by a rich range of salient historical and contemporary US social justice leaders and movements. From this feminist perspective, these movements wrestle with different social issues fragmenting and fracturing US public life in our time and fuse religion and politics through various theological claims and public practices in order to engage in and enhance world-making, that is, to build a public or common life that edges toward intersectional justice.
_Language for God_ explores the ways language and images influence who we are and how we live. It declares the necessity of language and images for God that are expansive and inclusive of all genders. Streufert uses Lutheran perspectives as a compass to offer scriptural, theological, and historical insights that advance the reformation of Christian language. As Caryn D. Riswold observes, Streufert's work "is to Lutheran theology in the twenty-first century what Elizabeth Johnson's _She Who Is_ was to Catholic theology in the twentieth century. Grounded in the Lutheran tradition, this book is truly relevant for all people of faith and for all those who have lost faith in the church's ability to include them."
The Rev. Amy Peeler, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, IL and an Associate Rector at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Geneva, IL.
God values women. While many Christians would readily affirm this truth, the widely held assumption that the Bible depicts a male God persists—as it has for centuries. This misperception of Christianity not only perniciously implies that men deserve an elevated place over women but also compromises the glory of God by making God appear to be part of creation, subject to it and its categories, rather than in transcendence of it.
Through a deep reading of the incarnation narratives of the New Testament and other relevant scriptural texts, Amy Peeler shows how the Bible depicts a God beyond gender and a savior who, while embodied as a man, is the unification in one person of the image of God that resides in both male and female.
In my forthcoming book, _The Theology of Mercy Amba Oduyoye: Ecumenism, Feminism, and Communal Practice_ (Notre Dame University Press, 2023), I overview how the events of Oduyoye’s life inscribed themselves on her theological formation and outlook. I examine the process of her spiritual journey and how it sharpened her doctrinal tongue. Her experiences with African culture and African women’s aspirations invite her to interrogate: a theological foundation steeped on colonial history; the possibility of a salvific figurehead attuned to women’s plights; an understanding of humanity cognizant of the beauty of difference, and; a practice of being the Christian church steeped in practices of solidarity, humaneness, and dignity. To be Christian, Oduyoye’s theology shows, is to live in a state of compassionate awareness: in word, deed, practice, and belief.
This book is for seekers—for those with restless hearts. It is especially for those who express their hope through the Catholic tradition but struggle with disillusionment and long for something more. (R)evolutionary Hope invites readers to journey toward that More. With theological reflection explored and interrogated through memoir, this work reimagines what it means to be Catholic, challenging readers to remain open to the grace that draws them from certainty to possibility, beyond what is to what could be. By infusing the theological tradition of St. Augustine with the spirituality emerging in contemporary women of the Church, (R)evolutionary Hope invites readers to shift their paradigm from one of hierarchy to one of interconnection, offering a theology of encounter that is rooted in tradition, responsive to present realities, and ever open to the future.