Dances that embody the «feminine» teach the dancer and the observers inside and outside the faith tradition about women's experiences, expressions, and understandings within their respective faith traditions. In Embodying the Feminine in the Dances of the World's Religions, the author immerses herself in four dance traditions and explores what their dance teaches about women's experiences in their faith tradition. Bharatanatyam is a classical Indian dance stemming from the devadasi system; kabuki onnagata are Japanese male enactors of «female-likeness»; the Mevlevi Order of America allows women to train as «whirling dervishes»; and Gurit Kadman created folk dances for Jewish women and men.

Though women have been objects more often than subjects of interreligious dialogue, they have nevertheless contributed in significant ways to the dialogue, just as the dialogue has also contributed to their own self-understanding. This volume, the fifth in the Interreligious Dialogue Series, brings together historical, critical, and constructive approaches to the role of women in the dialogue between religions. These approaches deal with concrete examples of women's involvement in dialogue, critical reflections on the representation of women in dialogue, and the important question of what women might bring to the dialogue. Together, they open up new avenues for reflection on the nature and purpose of interreligious dialogue.

Writing Theologically introduces writing not just as an academic exercise but as a way for students to communicate the good news in rapidly changing contexts, as well as to discover and craft their own sense of vocation and identity. Most important will be guiding students toward a distinctive theological voice that is particularly attuned to the contexts of writer and audience alike. In a collection of brief, readable essays, this volume, edited by Eric D. Barreto, emphasizes the vital skills, practices, and values involved in writing theologically.

Meet the ministers and laypeople driving foundational Christian theological change and restoring awareness of the sacred value of women and girls. “The Bible teaches that we are made in the image and likeness of God; therefore, I must believe that there is a male and female expression of God…. Claim your divinity and walk in it every day, because you are fearfully and wonderfully made.” —Rev. Dr. Susan Newman, “Claiming Our Divinity” In a world filled with injustice and violence, we long for a new sacred symbolism to inspire transformation. Our yearning includes a widespread hunger for visions of the Female Divine in church life and worship to restore gender-balance and finally achieve just, equal and inclusive faith communities. This collection of engrossing narratives of women and men trying to change the institutional church—and society—illuminates how reclaiming multicultural female images of God extends beyond the sanctuary and into the community. Whether you’re searching for your own place in the church or you want to explore this growing movement, these fascinating pioneers invite you to join the adventure of creating rituals that include Her, affirming the sacred value of all people and all creation.

For almost two decades before Canada officially adopted multiculturalism in 1971, a large network of women and their allies in Toronto were promoting pluralism as a city- and nation-building project. Before Official Multiculturalism assesses women as liberal pluralist advocates and activists, critically examining the key roles they played as community organizers, frontline social workers, and promoters of ethnic festivals. The book explores women’s community-based activism in support of a liberal pluralist vision of multiculturalism through an analysis of the International Institute of Metropolitan Toronto, a postwar agency that sought to integrate newcomers into the mainstream and promote cultural diversity. Drawing on the rich records of the Institute, as well as the massive International Institutes collection in Minnesota, the book situates Toronto within its Canadian and North American contexts and addresses the flawed mandate to integrate immigrants and refugees into an increasingly diverse city. Before Official Multiculturalism engages with national and international debates to provide a critical analysis of women’s pluralism in Canada.

The relationship between religion and dance is as old as humankind. Contemporary methods for studying this relationship date back a century. The difference between these two time frames is significant: scholars are still developing theories and methods capable of illuminating this vast history that take account of their limited place within it. A History of Theory and Method in the Study of Religion and Dance takes on a primary challenge of doing so: overcoming a conceptual dichotomy between “religion” and “dance” forged in the colonial era that justified western Christian hostility towards dance traditions across six continents over six centuries. Beginning with its enlightenment roots, LaMothe narrates a selective history of this dichotomy, revealing its ongoing work in separating dance studies from religious studies. Turning to the Bushmen of the African Kalahari, LaMothe introduces an ecokinetic approach that provides scholars with conceptual resources for mapping the generative interdependence of phenomena that appear as “dance” and/or “religion.”

Dance in Scripture: How Biblical Dancers Can Revolutionize Worship Today examines the dances of seven biblical figures: Miriam, Jephthah's daughter, David, the Shulamite, Judith, Salome, and Jesus. Each figure offers a virtue that has the potential to revolutionize worship today. Yarber combines feminist and queer hermeneutics with dance history to highlight the nuances of the texts that often go unnoticed in biblical scholarship, while also celebrating the myriad ways the body can be affirmed in worship in creative, empowering, and subversive ways. Liberation, lamentation, abandon, passion, subversion, innocence, and community each contribute to the exciting ways embodied worship can be revolutionized. This is a book for those interested in biblical scholarship, dance, the arts, feminist and queer theory, or revolutionizing worship.

Dance plays an important role in many religious traditions, in rites of passage, processions, healing rituals or festivals. But it is also controversial, especially in Christianity. Colonial European Christian discourses tend to separate dance from religion(s) and spirituality. This volume explores dance as "Third Space", following Homi Bhabha's postcolonial metaphor. The "Inter-Dance approach" combines interdisciplinary theoretical considerations with case studies. International experts examine dance controversies and discourses from the early church to World Christianity, as well as in Hasidic Judaism, Greek mysteries, Islamic Sufism, West African Togolese religions, and Afro-Brazilian Umbanda. Christian dance theologies are unfolded and the boundary-crossing potential of dance in interreligious and intercultural encounters is explored. The volume breaks new ground in how dance as ephemeral performative art, embodied thought and gendered discourse can transform studies of religion.

This reference offers reliable knowledge about women's diverse faith practices throughout history and prehistory, and across cultures. Across the span of human history, women have participated in world-building and life-sustaining cultural creativity, making enormous contributions to religion and spirituality. In the contemporary period, women have achieved greater equality, with more educational opportunities, female role models in public life, and opportunities for religious expression than ever before. Contemporaneously with this increased visibility, women are actively and energetically engaging with religion for themselves and for their communities. Drawing on the expertise of a range of scholars, this reference chronicles the religious experiences of women across time and cultures. The book includes sections on major religions as well as on spirituality, African religions, prehistoric religions, and other broad topics. Each section begins with an introduction, followed by reference entries on specialized subjects along with excerpts from primary source documents. The entries provide numerous suggestions for further reading, and the book closes with a detailed bibliography.

Within intellectual paradigms that privilege mind over matter, dance has long appeared as a marginal, derivative, or primitive art. Drawing support from theorists and artists who embrace matter as dynamic and agential, this book offers a visionary definition of dance that illuminates its constitutive work in the ongoing evolution of human persons. Why We Dance introduces a philosophy of bodily becoming that posits bodily movement as the source and telos of human life. Within this philosophy, dance appears as an activity that humans evolved to do as the enabling condition of their best bodily becoming. Weaving theoretical reflection with accounts of lived experience, this book positions dance as a catalyst in the development of human consciousness, compassion, ritual proclivity, and ecological adaptability. Aligning with trends in new materialism, affect theory, and feminist philosophy, as well as advances in dance and religious studies, this work reveals the vital role dance can play in reversing the trajectory of ecological self-destruction along which human civilization is racing.