resources

Acting Religious: Theatre as Pedagogy in Religious Studies

Victoria Rue, 9/1/2005, Pilgrim’s Press

This book introduces teachers of religious studies and theology to the use of feminist theatre as a pedagogical tool. While speech exercises and improvisation have been helpful for M.Div. students in preaching classes, the pedagogies of feminist theatre have been largely under-utilized in religious studies. Rue, a professor and feminist theologian has used a feminist hermeneutic as a useful approach in her courses because it understands context, character and the power of the text to interact with the reader. This book is an exploration into this practice.

Alice Walker: A Life

Evelyn C. White, 9/1/2004, Norton W.W. & Company, Inc.

This vibrant biography of the author of The Color Purple meticulously traces and analyzes the stages of Walker’s life,” as drawn from interviews with “[Alice] Walker, her family, friends and colleagues, and with leading American cultural figures including Gloria Steinem, Quincy Jones, and Oprah Winfrey.” (excerpt from Publisher’s Weekly, followed by an excerpt from the publisher)

At the Root of This Longing: Reconciling a Spiritual Hunger and a Feminist Thirst

Carol L. Flinders, 6/1/1999, HarperSanFrancisco

Many feminists have been skeptical about traditional spirituality, and their mistrust has not been entirely unfounded. The forms of self-sacrifice often required by the spiritual life--including silence and suppression of desire--are conditions that have been imposed on women for centuries. But, as Carol Lee Flinders makes clear, spirituality and feminism do not have to be diametrically opposed. Drawing on Western and Eastern spiritual traditions, Flinders traces her own developing awareness of the "mutual necessity" of the two disciplines and makes provocative suggestions about the potential of a feminist movement guided by spiritual principles. (Amazon.com)

Back Talk: Women Leaders Changing the Church

Susan Willhauck, 10/1/2005, Pilgrim’s Press

Willhauck contends that women have heard too often, “Don’t give me any back talk!” In Back Talk, she uses this admonishing term in a positive way to help the church change for the better. She discusses gender issues in leadership, details how women have helped the church change in the past, and identifies key areas in which change is still needed. This book also examines the growing leadership of ethnic women in the church—especially African American, Latino, and Korean women—and shows how feminist, womanist, liberationist, and Asian theologies serve as resources for making changes. (excerpts from publisher)

Beloved and Chosen: Women of Faith

Jill Evans, 1/1/1995, Morehouse Publishing

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Beyond Beijing: The Next Step for Women

Joan Chittister, 1/1/1996, Sheed & Ward

This book chronicles Sr. Joan Chittister's trip from the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in Helsinki to the United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing. In this book she discusses the significance of the UN Conference.

Black-Woman-Jew: Three Wars for Human Liberation

A Roy Eckardt, 1/1/1989, Indiana University Press

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Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’s Forgotten Walk Across America

Linda Lawrence Hunt, 5/1/2003, University of Idaho Press

“In 1896 [Helga] Estby, a 36-year-old Norwegian immigrant, was behind on taxes and the mortgage for the Washington farm, and so took up a $10,000 wager by a [mysterious] sponsor to walk across the US from sea to sea, taking her 18-year-old daughter Clara with her.” (excerpt from the Publisher)

Born Again: The Christian Right Globalized

Jennifer S. Butler, 1/1/2006, Pluto Press

The Christian Right wields massive political power in the United States and beyond. This is the first book to reveal the growing influence of the Christian Right within the United Nations.

Jennifer Butler -- who worked as Presbyterian Representative at the U.N. for nine years -- shows how Christian conservative groups are able to shape policy in every corner of the world.
Drawing on interviews with Christian Right leaders, she reveals how today's most powerful Christian Right organizations are building interfaith coalitions. At the United Nations, groups like Focus on the Family and Concerned Women for America work with Catholic, Mormon and Muslim allies to advance a conservative agenda. The United States has recently joined this alliance. President George W. Bush has given them a significant voice in shaping U.S. positions on issues including women's rights, reproductive health, human cloning, children's rights and AIDS.

In short, the Christian Right is globalizing -- a phenomenon that promises to challenge progressive social policy on a worldwide scale -- as well as transform the Christian Right itself.
'Jennifer Butler's sharp eye for critique and smooth handling of complexity makes her the ideal analyst [of] the U.S. Christian Right. Butler pulls aside the veils of religiosity to show the mean-spirited and elitist ideologies, and yet she never stoops to caricature theology nor bash sincere religious belief.' (Chip Berlet, Senior Analyst, Political Research Associates and co-author of Right-Wing Populism in America. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.)

Called to Question: A Spiritual Memoir

Joan Chittister, 4/1/2004, Sheed and Ward

Author and Benedictine sister Chittister “asks tough questions....such as, Where do women fit in the iconography of a male-dominated religion?” She goes on to discuss the differences between religion, which she sees as an institution, and spirituality, which transcends dogma and creed, she says, and dwells in the heart.” A Spiritual Memoir is packed with meaningful reflections, and “ultimately promotes a feminist spirituality….” (excerpts from Booklist)

Church in the Round: Feminist Interpretation of the Church

Letty M. Russell, 5/1/1993, Westminster John Knox Press

Ideas of the Christian church are changing and Letty Russell envisions its future as partnership and sharing for all members around a common table of hospitality. Dr. Russell draws on her interracial urban pastorate, her classes in theology, and many ecumenical conversations to help the newly emerging church face the challenges of liberation for all people.

Deborah, Golda, and Me: Being Female and Jewish in America

Letty Cottin Pogrebin, 10/1/1992, First Anchor Books

Pogrebin, a founding editor of Ms. magazine, here reconciles her Jewish background, which she rejected for almost 20 years, with her feminist ideology.

Did God Have a Wife?

William G. Dever, 6/1/2005, Wm. B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company

Dever calls his book “a feminist manifesto—by a man.” His work gives a new prominence to women as the custodians of Israel’s folk religion. He pays particular attention to the presence of the goddess Asherah, reviled by the authors of the Hebrew Bible as a foreign deity but considered by many modern scholars to have been popularly envisioned as the consort of biblical Yahweh. (excerpts from publisher)

Doing Girlfriend Theology: God Talk with Young Women

Dori Grinenko Baker, 4/1/2005, Pilgrim Press

Dr. Baker writes about storytelling as a way for young women to explore faith. Dr. Baker’s method of exploring the spiritual lives of adolescent girls is called Girlfriend Theology. In the book’s introduction, Baker writes, “Girlfriend Theology invites girls and women to tell true stories from their lives...so that we might discern the trace of a living, breathing divine presence who seeks our companionship as much today as on the fresh new dawn of creation.”

En La Lucha: In the Struggle, Elaborating a Mujerista Theology

Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, 11/1/2003, Augsburg Fortress Publishers

The first systematic presentation of mujerista theology—the liberating religious reflection of Hispanic women—giving voice to the everyday struggles and insights of Hispanic women and offering a new form of contextual theology.

Equal to Serve, Women and Men Working Together Revealing the Gospel

Gretchen Gaebelein Hull, 1/1/1987, Baker Books

Examines Old and New Testament passages about women in the church, home and society, and the attitudes and actions God expects of Christians. Deals in some depth with questions of justice, the place of patriarchy and mutual submission.

Eve’s Revenge: Women and a Spirituality of the Body

Lilian Calles Barger, 2/1/2003, Brazos Press

Written to provide an increased understanding of how woman's relationship with the body and its social meaning impacts spirituality. Barger investigates the tension women experience between their bodies and their desire for a spiritual life.

A Troubling in My Soul: Womanist Perspectives on Evil and Suffering

Emilie M. Townes, 1/1/1993, Orbis Books

Well-known Womanist theologians explore the persistent question of evil and suffering in compelling new ways. Committed to an integrated analysis of race, gender, and class, they also address the shortcomings of traditional, feminist, and Black theologies in dealing with evil.