Christian doctrines for global gender justice PDF
Preview Christian doctrines for global gender justice
Praise for Christian Doctrines for Global Gender Justice “This creative book pushes the boundaries of theological tradition by placing gender justice at the center of doctrinal reconstruction. The authors write from many different racial, ethnic, and cultural per- spectives. Christian Doctrines for Global Gender Justice is an invaluable resource for both beginners and more advanced learners in theology.” — Kwok Pui-l an, Episcopal Divinity School, USA, and author of Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology “Daggers and Kim continue to enrich our theological thinking by draw- ing together the creativity of women theologians from around the globe. They expand our sense of Christian doctrine by placing the deep sym- bols of Christian faith— God, Christ, the Spirit, crucifixion, hope, and anthropology—i n dialogue with the wisdom and suffering of women. This dialogue does not produce a uniform dogma but rather a refreshing sense of the power of these symbols to continually bring good news to the world.” —Wendy Farley, Emory University, USA ALSO EDITED BY GRACE JI-S UN KIM AND JENNY DAGGERS Reimagining with Christian Doctrines: Responding to Global Gender Injustices (2014) Also by Jenny Daggers Postcolonial Theology of Religions: Particularity and Pluralism in World Christianity (2013) Gendering Christian Ethics, editor (2013) Sacred Spaces: Contemporary Contexts, coeditor (2009) Sex, Gender and Religion: Josephine Butler Revisited, coeditor (2006) The British Christian Women’s Movement: A Rehabilitation of Eve (2002) Also by Grace Ji-S un Kim Embracing the Other: A Transformative Spirit of Love (2015) Here I Am: Faith Stories of Korean American Clergywomen, editor (2015) Theological Reflections on “Gangnam Style”: A Racial, Sexual and Cultural Critique, coauthor (2014) Contemplations from the Heart (2014) Colonialism, Han, and the Transformative Spirit (2013) Holy Spirit, Chi, and the Other: A Model of Global and Intercultural Pneumatology (2011) The Grace of Sophia: A Korean North American Women’s Christology (2002) Christian Doctrines for Global Gender Justice Edited by Jenny Daggers and Grace Ji- Sun Kim christian doctrines for global gender justice Copyright © Jenny Daggers and Grace Ji-S un Kim, 2015. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-47545-9 All rights reserved. First published in 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-50179-3 ISBN 978-1-137-46222-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137462220 Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Christian doctrines for global gender justice / edited by Jenny Daggers and Grace Ji- Sun Kim. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Women in Christianity. 2. Sex role— Religious aspects— Christianity. 3. Women’s rights—R eligious aspects—C hristianity. 4. Theology. 5. Women’s rights. I. Daggers, Jenny, 1950– II. Kim, Grace Ji- Sun, 1969– BV639.W7C447 2015 230.082—d c23 2014050008 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Scribe Inc. First edition: June 2015 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Jenny Daggers dedicates this book to women ordained in the Church of England or undergoing ordination training, especially Hayley Matthews, our priest at Holy Innocents, Fallowfield, Manchester, and Caroline Hewitt, who is soon to be ordained. Grace Ji- Sun Kim dedicates this book to the three generations of women in her life: her maternal and paternal grandmothers, who nurtured her as a child; her mother Han Wha Ja, who believed she could do anything in life; and her daughter Elisabeth, in whom we hold much hope for the next generation of women. This page intentionally left blank Contents Foreword by Mary McClintock Fulkerson ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xiii A Note on the Cover xv 1 Surveying the Landscape of Doctrinal Imagining 1 Jenny Daggers and Grace Ji- Sun Kim 2 Who Do You Say That I Am? From Incomprehensible Ousia to Active Presencia: An Evangélica Reimagining of the Doctrine of God 17 Loida I. Martell- Otero 3 The Green Cross: The Green Tree and the Oppression of Nature 41 Sigridur Gudmarsdottir 4 Ecological Evil, Evolution, and the Wisdom of God: Reimagining Redemption for Ecofeminist Religious Practice in an Age of Global Ecocide 55 Hilda P. Koster 5 The Holy Spirit and Black Women: A Womanist Perspective 73 Linda E. Thomas 6 An Asian American Theology of Hope: Foreign Women and the Reign of God 89 Grace Ji- Sun Kim 7 Mary: Liberated and Liberator 105 Gina Messina- Dysert viii (cid:79)(cid:3) Contents 8 Motherhood and the (In)vulnerability of the Imago Dei: Being Human in the Mystical- Political Cloud of Impossibility 119 Elizabeth O’Donnell Gandolfo 9 Divine Grace and the Question of Free Will: A Feminist “Stumbling Block”? 135 Amy Carr 10 Reimagining Creation as Creative Activity: Possibilities for Women’s Empowerment through Aesthetic Agency 155 Elise M. Edwards Epilogue 171 Cynthia L. Rigby Notes on Contributors 177 Index 183 Foreword Mary McClintock Fulkerson Professor of Theology, Duke University Divinity School Doctrine has long been understood in the form of systematics, a way to define what are considered standard beliefs as orderly and coherent. Over the centu- ries, much of theology has portrayed doctrine as if it were acontextual— as if its authors had no social location. Some would conflate doctrine with dogma, or the truth. In contrast, liberation, black, feminist, womanist, mujerista, queer, and other ostensibly “marked” theologies foreground the contextual character of all theological work, exposing the marginalizing factors in doctrines and the worldviews that produced them as they reconstruct their liberative potential. Historically and even now, such markers as gender or race have been designated as secondary or “ethical” issues that are not part of the central normative work of Christian doctrine. As Loida I. Martell-O tero puts it in Chapter 2, they are treated as “peripheral ‘add-o ns’” to ostensibly “regular” theology—t hat is, theol- ogy that is primarily Western and Eurocentric. Daggers and Kim’s book makes great progress in presenting so- called marked theology as regular and mainline, “basic” theology. This book creatively enhances the genre of Christian doctrine, displaying the role of gender justice as fundamentally formative for the mean- ing and relevance of Christian traditions, both to appropriate wisdoms of the past and also to do the crucial work of altering and expanding these wisdoms by taking seriously the unavoidable impact of gendered social structures on any kind of thinking and practice. Creative expansions of the genre of doctrine as a system are designated here as inward and outward movements. Thus doctrine per se is a “subfield.” This is not to reject its crucial work but to recognize the creativity required by new contexts in this ever more complex global world, a creativity that bursts outside of traditional constraints, a creativity that honors the radical immanence and ongoing lure of God. Different concerns are generated by one’s social location. If one is in despair and at risk, the relevant God question is of where God is, not ontological exploration. The God in everyday spaces is what really matters—t he God of justice who enhances oppressed women’s dignity.
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