A multi cultural collection of third-wave feminist voices, this book reveals how current feminist religious scholars from around the world are integrating social justice and activism into their scholarship and pedagogy.

Chart the development of feminist approaches and theories of interpretation during the period when women first joined the ranks of biblical scholars This collection of essays on feminist biblical studies in the twentieth century seeks to explore four areas of inquiry demanding further investigation. In the first section, articles chart the beginnings and developments of feminist biblical studies as a conversation among feminists around the world. The second section introduces, reviews, and discusses the hermeneutic religious spaces created by feminist biblical studies. The third segment discusses academic methods of reading and interpretation that dismantle androcentric language and kyriarchal authority. The fourth section returns to the first with work that transgresses academic boundaries in order to exemplify the transforming, inspiring, and institutionalizing feminist work that has been and is being done to change religious mindsets of domination and to enable wo/men to engage in critical readings of the Bible. Features: Essays examine the rupture or break in the malestream reception history of the Bible Exploration of the term feminism in different social-cultural and theoretical-religious locations Authors from around the world present research and future directions for research challenging the next generation of feminist interpreters

Rita M. Gross offers an engaging survey of the changes feminism has wrought in religious ideas, beliefs, and practices around the world, as well as in the study and understanding of religion itself. "This book will be an important resource for all ongoing work in feminist teaching and research in religion."-Rosemary Radford Ruether

Asserts that the current half-hearted attempts to patch up the excruciating tensions due to the sometimes morally unacceptable way women are treated in the Catholic Church must be replaced with a whole-hearted renewal or the Church stands in danger of losing touch with many of its women. Reissue.

"In this millennial Madeleva Lecture, Sandra Schneiders takes a long and clarifying look at feminism - both its impact on the past and its promise for the future. She explores some of its deeply transformative effects on twentieth-century American culture and on the postconciliar Church. While Schneiders touches on a wide range of topics, including women's emergence in the world of athletics and education and the greater role of women in the Church, she pays particular attention to the unique impact that women's Religious Life had in facilitating the transformation. Drawing on the insights of feminist thinkers and the biblical tradition, the author suggests how a Gospel-informed feminism can offer a new vision of humanity, Church, and world for a new century."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Faith and feminism unite in these essays to explore the theology of the Hebrew Bible as testimony to the faith of ancient Israel and as a source for Christian theology and ethics. Each chapter in Faith, Feminism, and the Forum of Scripture approaches the Bible as a site of theological reflection in which multiple voices are heard (in chorus and debate), as a forum that invites readers to join the conversation and extend it. Acknowledging the patriarchal world of the Bible and the androcentric distortions of its views of both human and divine, they identify foundations and directions that point beyond the cultural frames of the texts. Individual essays present the possibility of an Old Testament theology that integrates feminist insights and concerns into the full range of theological subjects; discuss the theological anthropology of the Hebrew Bible and its root texts in the Genesis creation accounts; outline a proposed new understanding of the authority of the Bible consonant with its nature as a historical, multivocal, and multivalent document; and offer a critical and constructive appraisal of the Old Testament's contribution to current debate on the place of homosexual persons and relations in the church.

Chart the development of feminist approaches and theories of interpretation during the period when women first joined the ranks of biblical scholars This collection of essays on feminist biblical studies in the twentieth century seeks to explore four areas of inquiry demanding further investigation. In the first section, articles chart the beginnings and developments of feminist biblical studies as a conversation among feminists around the world. The second section introduces, reviews, and discusses the hermeneutic religious spaces created by feminist biblical studies. The third segment discusses academic methods of reading and interpretation that dismantle androcentric language and kyriarchal authority. The fourth section returns to the first with work that transgresses academic boundaries in order to exemplify the transforming, inspiring, and institutionalizing feminist work that has been and is being done to change religious mindsets of domination and to enable wo/men to engage in critical readings of the Bible. Features: Essays examine the rupture or break in the malestream reception history of the Bible Exploration of the term "feminism" in different social-cultural and theoretical-religious locations Authors from around the world present research and future directions for research challenging the next generation of feminist interpreters

How do religious women talk about and practise citizenship? How is religion linked to gender and nationality? What are their views on gender equality, women's movements and feminism? Via interviews with Christian and Muslim women in Norway, Spain and the UK, this book explores intersections between religion, citizenship, gender and feminism.

Are secular aims, politics, and sensibilities impossible, undesirable and impracticable for Muslims and Islamic states? Should Muslim women be exempted from feminist attempts at liberation from patriarchy and its various expressions under Islamic laws and customs? Considerable literature on the entanglements of Islam and secularism has been produced in the post-9/11 decade and a large proportion of it deals with the Woman Question. Many commentators critique the secular and Western feminism, and the racialising backlash that accompanied the occupation of Muslim countries during the War on Terror military campaign launched by the U.S. government after the September 11 attacks in 2001. Implicit in many of these critical works is the suggestion that it is Western secular feminism that is the motivating driver and permanent collaborator -- along with other feminists, secularists and human rights activists in Muslim countries -- that sustains the Wests actual and metaphorical war on Islam and Muslims. The book addresses this post-9/11 critical trope and its implications for womens movements in Muslim contexts. The relevance of secular feminist activism is illustrated with reference to some of the nation-wide, working-class womens movements that have surged throughout Pakistan under religious militancy: polio vaccinators, health workers, politicians, peasants and artists have been directly targeted, even assassinated, for their service and commitment to liberal ideals. Afiya Zia contends that Muslim womens piety is no threat against the dominant political patriarchy, but their secular autonomy promises transformative changes for the population at large, and thereby effectively challenges Muslim male dominance. This book is essential reading for those interested in understanding the limits of Muslim womens piety and the potential in their pursuit for secular autonomy and liberal freedoms.

Why should feminists care about Christianity? Why should Christians care about feminism? In Feminism and Christianity Riswold presents a collection of concise answers to basic questions like these in order to generate discussion about how the two can challenge each other and can even work together in the twenty-first century. Situated firmly in the third wave of feminist activism and scholarship as well as in contemporary Christian theology, Riswold addresses issues such as race, class, gender, and sexuality with an affirmation of tradition alongside a push for change. This book is an opportunity for Christians to gain a fuller understanding of feminism, moving beyond stereotypes and assumptions and into history and contemporary society. Simultaneously this book is an opportunity for feminists to understand the ongoing relevance of a religion whose social power and core commitments can contribute to a vision of a just human community.