Editorial

Abstract

Some time in the 1970s, I can remember watching an episode of the BBC Documentary Horizon, a series which brought scientific breakthroughs or debates to the viewing public. It was a must see for a (then) young adult, with a lively enquiring mind! This one was on the theory of continental drift, or plate tectonics, an idea which had been around for quite a long time, but was confirmed in a series of papers in the late ’60s. What it gave me, at the start of my adult life, was a powerful sense of being in a dynamic world, where what I thought was fixed and stable, the ground beneath my feet, was in fact constantly on the move. It explained planet-wide phenomena, such as systems of earthquakes and volcanoes, and opened up fascinating possibilities for understanding the planet. Shifting continents were also a powerful paradigm for a world in which old certainties were ousted from their position of power. The archetypal solid earth was actually always on the move. The planet was a dynamic system of movement, its molten core always welling up with unimaginable power. Over the decades since, we have learned to listen to the earth, and its shifting patterns, to try to predict where the next eruption or rupture will take place. We listen, not to control these (literally) seismic forces, but to understand what we can. It’s not just a metaphor, though it functions powerfully as such. It also opens up ways of thinking, ways of listening and understanding, when other claims to solidity are challenged. This issue of Feminist Theology is alive with shifting and powerful ideas, from a diversity of scholarship and lived experience. It begins with a careful assessment of Feminist Theology in Pakistan by three academics. They begin from the premise that, while Feminist Theology is a global discipline, its specific form is contextual in each setting. The paper defines three ‘levels’ of contextual discrimination: gender in relation to Islam and Christianity; the minority status of the Christian religion in Pakistan; and the poor socio-economic background of many. There follows a brief history of the role of women, going back to nineteenthand early twentieth-century European mission, and locating the beginnings of Christian Feminism in the formation of the Women in Reflection and Action theological forum in 1989. Current debates include religious practices such as head covering and silence in worship, both of which have far wider implications about the hiddenness of women, leadership and education. An issue very specific to the context is divorce and inheritance, 1118743 FTH0010.1177/09667350221118743Feminist TheologyEditorial research-article2022