Christian Feminist Theology in Global Context

Rosemary Radford Ruether\u27s lecture calls white Christian feminists to be mindful of their single-issue western... critique is false and dangerous. The rich diversities of women\u27s experience demand a diversity of issues, priorities and tactics. It is, as Professor Ruether reminds us, in the dialogue of western Christian women with third world Christian women, that white western feminism becomes clearly one feminism among others, rather than...\u27feminism as such.\u2

Feminist Metanoia and Soul-Making

This essay explores feminist metanoia and soul-making; that is, the journey of conversion and transformation toward self-realization, in relation to gender socialization

Who Are We as Theological Educators? How Do We Train for a Church of the Poor? The Situation of Women in Theological Education

Who are we as theological educators? How do we participate in and train for a Church of the poor? This is the question I have been asked to address at this consultation. Is it impossible for me, as a feminist, to separate this question from my context as a woman theological educator? I am very aware that, as a woman, I belong to that half of the human race which has been traditionally excluded from ordination, from preaching, from teaching, in the sense of being a part of the Church’s public teaching ministry, and from the theological education that has prepared men for these roles. This is not a question of being a U.S. American, but a patriarchal culture that shaped all of Christianity

Ivone Gebara: teóloga ecofeminista latino-americana

O artigo auxilia na interpretação da teologia confeccionada por Ivone Gebara no contexto das novas situações na América Latina, onde a pobreza e a  violência são experimentadas como mais globais e sem rosto. Ao viver a espiritualidade e fazer sua teologia no meio ‘do ruído e do lixo’, Gebara promove uma desconstrução e uma reconstrução dos símbolos cristãos em meio a opressão e a violência, mas também em meio a vitalidade dos pobres que conseguem sobreviver e até mesmo celebrar nela e apesar dela. A teologia ecofeminista, nesse contexto de produção particular, atinge o objetivo global de desmantelar as falsas universalidades teológicas e explorar o que pode conectar a todos nós, como seres humanos que são criaturas da terra e membros de um cosmos

Fat, syn and disordered eating: The dangers and powers of excess

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Fat Studies on 8 April 2015 available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/21604851.2015.1016777This article draws on qualitative research inside one UK secular commercial weight loss group to show how ancient Christian suspicions of appetite and pleasure resurface in this group’s language of “Syn.” Following ancient Christian representations of sin, members assume that Syn depicts disorder and that fat is a visible sign of a body which has fallen out of place. Syn, though, is ambiguous, utilizing ancient theological meanings to discipline fat while containing within it the power to resist the very borders which hold women’s bodies and fat in place. Syn thus signals both the dangers and powers of disordered eating.This article draws on qualitative research inside one UK secular commercial weight loss group to show how ancient Christian suspicions of appetite and pleasure resurface in this group’s language of “Syn.” Following ancient Christian representations of sin, members assume that Syn depicts disorder and that fat is a visible sign of a body which has fallen out of place. Syn, though, is ambiguous, utilizing ancient theological meanings to discipline fat while containing within it the power to resist the very borders which hold women’s bodies and fat in place. Syn thus signals both the dangers and powers of disordered eating

Rumo ao ecofeminismo queer

O presente texto propõe uma mudança de rumo para o ecofeminismo. Se a conexão simbólica entre mulheres e natureza era criticada por essa perspectiva teórica, a discussão sobre os modos pelos quais nossa imagem de natureza é heterossexualizada e as conexões entre diversidade sexual e natureza não eram exploradas. Gaard afirma que a cultura ocidental é fundada em um medo ou repulsa não apenas de práticas homoafetivas, mas do erotismo como um todo. A isso chama erotofobia, e é por causa dela que práticas sexuais-afetivas não reprodutivas são entendidas como desvio moral ou perversão. Para mostrar que a erotofobia está na raiz de muitas práticas, Gaard analisa a história do cristianismo e da colonização da América, tentando mostrar que nesses exemplos históricos podemos ver como as conexões entre a opressão de mulheres, das sexualidades queer, de pessoas não brancas e da natureza estão interligadas. Esse cuidado em pensar tais ligações e uma vontade de repensar e liberar o erótico caracterizariam uma perspectiva queer para o ecofeminismo.The present paper proposes a shift in ecofeminism. If this theorethical perspective already criticized the women-nature symbolic connection, it has not explored yet the connections between sexual diversities and nature and the discussions about our heteronormative projections in nature. Gaard states that Western culture has its grounds in a fear or hatred not only of homosexuals and their sexual intercourse, but of eroticism in general. She names it erotophobia, and it is because of erotophobia that non-reproductive sexual acts are viewed as moral deviation or perversion. To show us how pervasive erotophobia is she analyzes the history of Christianity and the colonization of America to highlight the conections between different forms of oppression (of women, of queer sexualities, of non-white people, of nature). What characterizes a queer perspective in ecofeminism is exactly the attention to thinking those interconnections and a will to rethink and liberate the erotic as a form of power

Women and globalization: victims, sites of resistance and new world views

My theme for this essay is "Women and Glo­balization." I wish to talk about women\u27s relation to globalization both in the ways that women, especially poor women, are disproportionately victims of globalization, and also the way in which women, or women\u27s groups, are among the important sites of critique and resistance to globalization. I also want to suggest some ways in which altemative movements and worldviews of the Sacred are emerging from this struggle