Search Results (48)

The expectations, plans and goals of future pastors are developed and consolidated during theological studies. These plans and expectations, and the career strategies based on them can have a decisive influence on how gender-based differences with respect to opportunities in the churches develop. Since one of the particularities of the pastoral vocation is that work and private life are closely intertwined and difficult to separate, the personal choices of prospective pastors are crucial in shaping their professional careers. The results of our research based on focus group interviews conducted with female and male Protestant seminarians in Hungary suggest that female theology students are more reserved and cautious in their articulation of plans than their male counterparts. On the one hand, they assume that factors outside and above them may override them and that the conservative church environment may constrain their options. On the other hand, it was repeatedly expressed that, as women, they find it difficult to reconcile pastoral work and family life, and take it for granted that they will compromise more in the professional field. Only a few of the female participants plan to work as independent congregational leaders (senior pastors), whereas this ambition is very typical of male students. Full article

The aim of this article is to explain the sapiential moment experienced by some Latin American theologies and, in relation to it, the possible emergence of a new look at the origins of the liberation movements of the last century. Firstly, an interpretation of the ethical–spiritual matrix of liberation theologies and the affiliations that have sprung from this experience is summarily presented. Next, an example of the sapiential heirs of Latin American liberation theologies is shown: theogastronomy. Thirdly, a new hypothesis is proposed about the ethical–spiritual matrix presented above, associating it with the women’s emancipation movement. Finally, it concludes with a brief Eucharistic reflection, which gives a paschal meaning to the rereading presented, opening prospects for reconciliation in the contemporary world. Full article

While active female Benedictine monasteries in the United States presently are in a state of decline, the needs of the Church and world indicate that the Benedictine charism is greatly needed today. This article explores some of the historical developments that have played a part in bringing active Benedictine women’s monasteries to where they are, from their immigrant foundations through societal shifts around and since the time of Vatican II. This article then provides a review of key magisterial documents relating to religious life issued since the Council. In the themes enumerated, it can be seen that the Church provides and asks of women religious an identity that is both meaningful and fully in accord with Benedictine tradition. A synthesis of U.S. Benedictine women’s experience and developments in theology is proposed, along with some possible ways forward that could put this synthesis into action. Full article

In this article, I explore the power and purpose of a public theology of menopause. I approach this both by focusing on menopause as a pivotal transition in the lives of women (and others who menstruate), and recognising how profoundly menopause intersects with all our lives, the life of the planet, and the relationships between us all. This is, therefore, a public theology of menopause in the broad sense of a practiced faith that looks both inward and outward, to family, community, friend and stranger, online and offline, and that takes account of forces such as globalisation and capitalism and what this implies for our position and action. As an approach to a public theology of menopause, I propose inter-theological and interdisciplinary connections with peri/menopause and survey a range of areas foundational to the lived experience such as nature and medicine; control and power; disorientation and rage; and the centrality of culture, community and ritual. I draw on global sources and an awareness of our embeddedness in a globalised, capitalist world in ecological crisis to support a public-facing theology of menopause characterised by a concern for dignity, connection and justice. Full article

The Holy See is an absolute monarchy, both as a political and as a spiritual entity. The Second Vatican Council indicated, retrieving biblical terms and metaphors, a new way of giving value to the whole people of God, the laity (laos theou), constituted by baptism. Rather than a societas perfecta in a pyramidal system, the intention was to declericalise and in this sense democratise the church and its decision-making, not least seeking to secure its witness in an ever more secular world. Even if a sacramental and ontological difference is maintained, this indicates clergy are no longer a first class of believers against which the laity would be a second class; rather, they are rooted and stand with and within the whole people of God with their specific vocation and ordination. The notion of the royal and universal priesthood of believers, taken from 1 Peter 2:9 and emphasised by Luther and other reformers as they distributed power between ordained and not ordained leaders, was visible in the Second Vatican Council and finds new enactment in the synodality process which culminated in the Ordinary Synod in Rome, in October 2024. Based on his own theology of the people of God, developed during the dictatorship and economic oppression in Argentina, with strong cultural and religious connotations, Pope Francis seeks to further major involvement of the laity and especially of women in the church’s administration and transformation processes. Not surprisingly, this process has been receiving criticism both from those who find it is not going far enough and from those who believe the process has already gone far too far. Based on bibliographical and documental research, the intention of this article is to describe and analyse the notion of the people of God as proposed by Pope Francis and its forms of concretisation including its deficiencies, as well as, in dialogue with ongoing debates on populism, highlight the precariousness of any “people” as a concept and as a reality. A dynamic notion of “people” and a theological accountability of the people and the clergy towards each other, towards God and towards the world can do justice to both the ambiguities and the irreplaceability of the people as citizens of the church as well as the world. Full article

The Hadith paraphrased as ‘every one of you is a leader’ does not discriminate in gender in any way—both men and women are leaders. What does this mean in practice, and how are Muslim women perceived and received in line with this Hadith? Only in very recent years are Muslim women in Britain starting to occupy prominent positions: 13 Muslim women Members of British Parliament were elected in 2024; celebrities such as baker Nadia Hussain are regularly seen on British TV; and others such as Fatima Manji in the media. In this article, I explore how different ‘contextual intersectionalities’ influence and impact a Muslim woman and her leadership role. How does the intersectionality of her outward expression of faith identify her? How does a Muslim woman navigate a space where she is the leader and her skills are sought, yet her faith representation may instigate unconscious/conscious biases? Using an autoethnographic method, I investigate the impact of my identities as a Brown British Muslim woman in three distinct settings. First, in the professional and academic space of British Christian practical theology, where I was the first British Muslim to obtain a doctorate in the subject and was the first Muslim Trustee and Committee Member of the British and Irish Association for Practical Theology (BIAPT) between 2020 and 2024. Second, as a leadership advisor and executive coach to FTSE-listed companies, where I support C-suite leaders to generate sustained change in individuals, teams, and systems. And third, as a tutor and supervisor of proven business leaders to master the skills of coaching in their own right. I discuss how I am met in these spaces and the impact of that on my being. In conclusion, I call for increased understanding and awareness of the emotional tax paid by Muslim women who choose to take leadership roles. Full article

“Renaissance Woman” is a colloquial expression for someone who excels above and beyond normal in a wide variety of tasks, and Rev. Dr. Muriel Spurgeon Carder (1922–2023) deserves that title, for she was an ordained Canadian Baptist missionary who worked in churches, schools, and hospitals in India and Canada, as well as served as a professor, New Testament scholar, Bible translator (into Telegu), and hospital chaplain. She also published academic articles on textual issues related to New Testament manuscripts, on a biblical theology of sin, as well as on issues surrounding physical and mental challenges. Her personal accomplishments are striking among Baptists in India but also her Canadian denomination, the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec (BCOQ). Carder recently passed away at the age of 100, and this research is an introduction to her life and legacy. There is much more to be explored regarding Carder, and my hope is that this brief article provides some impetus for more detailed and comprehensive research on such an iconic figure in the BCOQ. That said, this article does more than merely provide a summary of her life and legacy. It also aims at using the experience of Carder to explore some common assumptions about Canadian women in ministry, identifying when she reinforces some and undermines others. In other words, the example of Carder complexifies what can be assumed about the experience of women in the church and warns against universal generalizations surrounding their experience. In 2008, the denomination changed its name to Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec (CBOQ), and for the sake of simplicity and clarity, CBOQ will be used throughout this article. Full article

In this article, the author provides a fresh reading of three women-centered narratives from the Gurucaritra, a sixteenth-century Marathi devotional text. Based on the analysis of three distinct narratives from the Gurucaritra, the author examines the narratives through two key lenses: women’s subjectivity and the “hermeneutics of intersubjectivity”. I argue that although women’s voices are absent or marginalized in religious narratives, we can retrieve and amplify their contributions by reinterpreting traditional narratives to emphasize the roles of female characters. In the process, we can situate these narratives within their social contexts, thereby shedding light on women’s nuanced and multifaceted positions within the social and spiritual fabric of their societies. Full article

The aim of this study was to verify whether emotional intelligence and intrinsic religious orientation have a positive influence on a balanced time perspective (BTP) in the lives of Italian consecrated women. A positive, balanced time perspective, together with the ability to recognize one’s own emotions and those of others, is integral to people’s experience of religiosity in their lives. In this way, a balanced time perspective can open the experience of religiosity, contributing to a better world, along with all those who are engaged in a religious sentiment that is no longer limited to single segments of self-interest. In this study, we provided evidence that religious beliefs (not just participation in corporate religious life) can provide an alternative source of understanding emotions and perceiving time, for the religious people who live their consecrated life together. We tested whether this phenomenon was specific to the potential associations between various aspects of religious belief, emotional intelligence, and time perspective. This research was conducted on a sample of 283 Italian nuns, and it was verified that both emotional intelligence and intrinsic religiosity contribute significantly to a BTP. Furthermore, the fact that emotional intelligence is mediated by intrinsic religious orientation increases the benefits of emotional intelligence on the BTP of Italian nuns. Altogether, our results suggest that religiosity is linked to a balanced temporal profile and to a positive way of understanding emotions. More specifically, the pattern of relationships between religion, emotions, and time can influence and deepen both the individual and collective understanding of humanity among these religious women and create space for mutual engagement despite obvious differences. These results are in line with the requisites of Public Theology, as they allow us to specify selectively the developments on a more secure and empirical basis of how religiosity can affect the life of people, by exposing the submerged theological assumptions that characterize the internal beliefs of religiosity. Moreover, the research data indicate that the deep aspects of religiosity influence greatly the day-to-day living of religious women. This practical influence of religiosity confirms the urgency of opening up theological reflection in the public sphere of life. In fact, as long as the religiosity of the nuns is not reduced to private practice, theological reflection will also be opened to its public significance in the different fields of their apostolic mission. Full article

The Women’s March on 21 January 2017, opened a new social and political landscape for Muslim women to engage in Islamic liberatory activism. I locate Muslim women’s participation in the marches following the 2017 ‘Muslim travel ban policy’ as a site for discovering the link between the politics of resistance and the utility of Islam as a source for liberation. I argue that Muslim women living in minority and post-secular contexts resort to faith as a source of agentival liberation to address the political rhetoric of anti-Islamic sentiments and policies. The outcome of this research demonstrates (1) how Muslim women activists challenge the Western narratives of being oppressed and explore the ways they want to represent themselves; (2) how Islam serves as a catalyst for theological resistance and how this enhances the role of Muslim women as moral and spiritual agents in transforming their political and social conditions; (3) how the Islamic liberation in the US context historically intersects with Black churches’ resistance toward White racism; and (4) how Muslim women’s agency as spiritual beings is linked to the promotion of justice in the Western liberatory movements. Overall, the article shows how Muslim women resort to their spiritual journey and use such narratives to confront unjust political rhetoric and policies. Full article

This article seeks to rethink martyrdom, suffering, and resurrection from the perspective of queer theologies within the Latin American context and in dialogue with the praxis of the first faith communities who witnessed Jesus’ martyrdom. Starting from the queer body of Jesus—which incorporates in its praxis an ethos without gender violence and discrimination—the theological reflection contributes to the recovery of the fundamental principles of human experience. To this end, the analysis begins by addressing the feminist contribution to the understanding of violence against women to then rethink the intersection of bodies, sexuality, and violence against queer individuals and communities as a theological locus. It concludes by recognizing that queer theologies configure a resistant theological community that empowers queer bodies as a territory of hope of resurrection and transformative political action that does not disregard the suffering and the injustices perpetrated against them. Full article

Throughout church history, there have been those who stressed the limits of our ability to speak with confidence about God and extolled the nobility of silence in the face of God’s ineffability. Dionysius the Areopagite famously asserted, “With regard to the divine, negations are true, whereas affirmations are inadequate”. Apophatic silence is presented as respectful of the mysterious otherness of God. Christian preaching is a practice that refutes all attempts at negative, apophatic theology. Every sermon participates in the wonder of the uniquely Jewish and Christian claim that God not only speaks but also invites, even commands, humanity to speak about God as well. Christian preaching is suspicious of any attempt to sentimentalize silence in the name of humble acknowledgement of human limitations to speak truthfully about God. Preaching therefore requires the courage to speak up and speak out with the God who, in Jesus Christ, has spoken to us. The silencing of the voices of women, persons of color, and others who claim to know that God is with them is an aspect of neocolonial oppression that preaching cannot abide. Preaching is a protest against all those who would tell the voiceless that some things are better left unsaid. Full article

Considering the intermingling of problems in today’s multi-crisis environment, this text explores the possibilities of intertwining social work and pastoral care. In the search for effective approaches, we find dynamic patterns in the activities of the Royová (Roy) sisters. Their diaconal work is an important source for social work history illustrating how social work took the form of diaconal (charity) work with a rich pastoral reach at the time. Their activities represent a natural link between Christian anthropology and social work. This study mainly investigates the Christian (spiritual) basis of the social and charitable activities of the Royová sisters, the beginnings of the institutionalisation of social and charitable work in Slovakia and Serbia through the organisations founded by the Royová sisters, the Christian-social interpersonal contribution of the Roy sisters to the development of Slovak and European social work personified by their cooperation with several personalities of social and charitable work at the international, national, and local levels, and the contribution of the Roy sisters in the creation of women’s, volunteer, and international roots of social and charitable work in Slovakia and Europe. In their responses to the needs of their environment, we find significant stimuli for pastoral theology, which is supposed to respond to the needs of the multi-crisis environment of today. Full article

Knowledge production is by no means neutral; it perpetuates existing presuppositions and exclusions. Within Catholic theology, this is accentuated by particular structures and institutions. In this article, I will show that exclusions are not changed by simply ‘adding women’. I will proceed in four steps: First, I will examine the epistemic preconditions of knowledge production. Second, I will highlight concrete examples that show how several factors can change our reconstruction of theological history. This section will be organized around gender understandings in the premodern/Reformation era. Third, I argue for a specific understanding of theology which can be understood as a commentary on the respective context. Finally, I will summarize the conclusions with a concrete example. This article is situated in the context of the theological debates in the German-speaking world, which has a particular set of conditions for academic theology, such as the inclusion of theological faculties at state universities. However, it can certainly offer epistemic insights into postcolonial and gender-critical debates on theological contexts that are relevant beyond this specific context. Moreover, the article makes the current debate accessible to non-German-speaking audiences and in this way seeks to close ‘data gaps’ in international scholarship. Full article

Medieval nuns and anchorites (recluses) were spiritually and economically bound to pray for the dead, no matter their feelings towards the departed, who frequently appear to them in visions. This article charts medieval enclosed women’s attempts to intervene in this economy by forgetting souls. Staging a generative conversation between medieval women’s writings and Marcella Althaus-Reid’s (1952–2009) ‘indecent theology’ (queer liberation theology), this essay scrutinizes medieval female-authored texts for indecent forgetting (socially and economically disruptive forgetting). It juxtaposes a Middle English visionary text, A Revelation of Love by anchorite Julian of Norwich (1342/1343–c. 1416), with the mid-fourteenth-century Middle High German sister-book (compilation of nuns’ lives) of the Dominican convent of St Katharinental in Diessenhofen (in present-day Switzerland) and the early sixteenth-century Middle Dutch sister-book of Diepenveen (in the present-day Netherlands), originating from a Devotio Moderna convent of Augustinian canonesses regular. Heeding Althaus-Reid’s call, it dissects how forgetting unsettles systems of sanctioned spiritual and economic exchanges. I first examine how the sister-books forget certain souls and define their own terms for their participation in this system. I then turn to how Julian enlists all believers for her intercessory duties but also misplaces souls. Throughout, this article considers how these texts prise open space for medieval women within indecent theology. Ultimately, it illustrates how medieval women’s negotiations of their economic conditions supply a fertile ground for considering larger concerns of defiance, community, and the charity that binds together the living and the dead. Full article