Pub Date : 2022-12-15DOI: 10.1177/09667350221134992
Arshie Showcat
Muslim marriages are essentially a contract entered into by two consenting adults. It emphasizes the need to lay down the terms of the contract and also ensures financial safeguards to women getting married. The financial safeguards are provided through provision of Mahr – a payment made or committed by the groom towards the bride at the time of Nikah. This article examines the practice of giving and taking Mahr. The findings of the study suggest a huge difference between the actual prescribed way and the practised way of giving Mahr. Due to lack of awareness among women about their rights and the social and cultural practices dominating the practice, Mahr, instead of being a safeguard, becomes a source of bondage into abusive marriages for women.
{"title":"The Principle and Practice of Mahr in Muslim","authors":"Arshie Showcat","doi":"10.1177/09667350221134992","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09667350221134992","url":null,"abstract":"Muslim marriages are essentially a contract entered into by two consenting adults. It emphasizes the need to lay down the terms of the contract and also ensures financial safeguards to women getting married. The financial safeguards are provided through provision of Mahr – a payment made or committed by the groom towards the bride at the time of Nikah. This article examines the practice of giving and taking Mahr. The findings of the study suggest a huge difference between the actual prescribed way and the practised way of giving Mahr. Due to lack of awareness among women about their rights and the social and cultural practices dominating the practice, Mahr, instead of being a safeguard, becomes a source of bondage into abusive marriages for women.","PeriodicalId":55945,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Theology","volume":"31 1","pages":"197 - 209"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49011059","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-15DOI: 10.1177/09667350221135089
Téa Nicolae
In a modern society arguably disenchanted with religion, numerous Western women are transfixing their reality by making God in their own image. This compelling phenomenon is known as ‘the Goddess Movement’: a non-centralised religious current of neo-pagan origin that reveres the Divine as feminine. The revival of Goddess worship in a vastly secular age which appears not to favour religious devotion is a peculiar occurrence and leads to the following question: Why are women returning to a previously defunct spiritual practice? Building on the research scholars Paul Reid-Bowen and Janet L. Jacobs conducted on Western Goddess worship, as well as drawing on testimonies of Goddess followers, this article aims to elucidate the appeal the Goddess Movement holds for women. It argues that it represents a notable turn in female spirituality which demonstrates that images of feminine divinity offer women the opportunity to find meaningfulness, empowerment, and sexual or psychological healing.
{"title":"The Western Revival of Goddess Worship","authors":"Téa Nicolae","doi":"10.1177/09667350221135089","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09667350221135089","url":null,"abstract":"In a modern society arguably disenchanted with religion, numerous Western women are transfixing their reality by making God in their own image. This compelling phenomenon is known as ‘the Goddess Movement’: a non-centralised religious current of neo-pagan origin that reveres the Divine as feminine. The revival of Goddess worship in a vastly secular age which appears not to favour religious devotion is a peculiar occurrence and leads to the following question: Why are women returning to a previously defunct spiritual practice? Building on the research scholars Paul Reid-Bowen and Janet L. Jacobs conducted on Western Goddess worship, as well as drawing on testimonies of Goddess followers, this article aims to elucidate the appeal the Goddess Movement holds for women. It argues that it represents a notable turn in female spirituality which demonstrates that images of feminine divinity offer women the opportunity to find meaningfulness, empowerment, and sexual or psychological healing.","PeriodicalId":55945,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Theology","volume":"31 1","pages":"130 - 142"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44946980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-15DOI: 10.1177/09667350221136821
Alison Jasper
{"title":"Book Review: Vocation and Violence: The Church and #MeToo","authors":"Alison Jasper","doi":"10.1177/09667350221136821","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09667350221136821","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55945,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Theology","volume":"31 1","pages":"236 - 238"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44989884","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-15DOI: 10.1177/09667350221135021
D. Guest
This article theorises how home altars can support healing, individuation and personal transformation. It is informed by theory pertaining to Jungian sandplay therapy and Donald Winnicott’s ideas about transitional space and the holding environment. The methodology is grounded in a critical reflexive autobiographical approach that illustrates how altarplay can support the practitioner when negotiating a difficult shift from Christian to postchristian space.
{"title":"Altarplay: A Technology of the Soul","authors":"D. Guest","doi":"10.1177/09667350221135021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09667350221135021","url":null,"abstract":"This article theorises how home altars can support healing, individuation and personal transformation. It is informed by theory pertaining to Jungian sandplay therapy and Donald Winnicott’s ideas about transitional space and the holding environment. The methodology is grounded in a critical reflexive autobiographical approach that illustrates how altarplay can support the practitioner when negotiating a difficult shift from Christian to postchristian space.","PeriodicalId":55945,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Theology","volume":"31 1","pages":"210 - 225"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41669652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-15DOI: 10.1177/09667350221134953
Georgia Day
This article is a queer reading of the doctrine of miraculous conception and an exploration into how applying an intersex lens to these conception texts can liberate an intersex Jesus. In it, I explain the basics of intersex and otherwise queer theologies, before looking at sex difference in the New Testament through the figures of eunuchs, and conducting an intersex reading of Jesus’ conception and biology. I argue that, if we believe Mary to be a virgin at the moment of Jesus’ conception, with no external male influence, then Jesus is necessarily a chromosomal ‘female’ (and therefore intersex, due to his ‘male’ physical appearance). I then discuss the ways in which his biology can transcend prescriptive roles of sex, mirroring how his social behaviour transcends prescriptive roles of gender. What this queer reading of Jesus can tell us relates to a gender-expansive view of deity – troubling rigid Church institutions by celebrating the breaking of binaries that constrain us.
{"title":"Trans-Formed by the Spirit: How the Doctrine of Miraculous Conception Reveals Jesus to Be an Intersex Trans Man","authors":"Georgia Day","doi":"10.1177/09667350221134953","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09667350221134953","url":null,"abstract":"This article is a queer reading of the doctrine of miraculous conception and an exploration into how applying an intersex lens to these conception texts can liberate an intersex Jesus. In it, I explain the basics of intersex and otherwise queer theologies, before looking at sex difference in the New Testament through the figures of eunuchs, and conducting an intersex reading of Jesus’ conception and biology. I argue that, if we believe Mary to be a virgin at the moment of Jesus’ conception, with no external male influence, then Jesus is necessarily a chromosomal ‘female’ (and therefore intersex, due to his ‘male’ physical appearance). I then discuss the ways in which his biology can transcend prescriptive roles of sex, mirroring how his social behaviour transcends prescriptive roles of gender. What this queer reading of Jesus can tell us relates to a gender-expansive view of deity – troubling rigid Church institutions by celebrating the breaking of binaries that constrain us.","PeriodicalId":55945,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Theology","volume":"31 1","pages":"165 - 180"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48004497","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-27DOI: 10.1177/09667350221112881
J. Duran
Three areas of rights violation for women and young girls across the globe are examined with an eye toward the specificity of the violation, and possible areas of help. The work of internationalists such as Bales and Sagade is adduced, and other thinkers such as Dorkenoo are cited. It is concluded that much work needs to be done in this area and that more overtly feminist theological views, in any of the major religions, would help.
{"title":"Ritual Sequestration, Genital Cutting, and Hierodulic Servitude: A Triad of Feminist Dilemmas","authors":"J. Duran","doi":"10.1177/09667350221112881","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09667350221112881","url":null,"abstract":"Three areas of rights violation for women and young girls across the globe are examined with an eye toward the specificity of the violation, and possible areas of help. The work of internationalists such as Bales and Sagade is adduced, and other thinkers such as Dorkenoo are cited. It is concluded that much work needs to be done in this area and that more overtly feminist theological views, in any of the major religions, would help.","PeriodicalId":55945,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Theology","volume":"31 1","pages":"91 - 99"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45677452","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-27DOI: 10.1177/09667350221112875
Adolphus Ekedimma Amaefule
This paper looks, in the first place, at gender issues in Pentecostal Christianity in Nigeria. This is especially as captured by the Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, in her novel, Americanah. It is found that women in Nigerian Pentecostalism are more than the men in number and participate more actively both in church activities and in spiritual efforts at home. However, it is mostly the men who are the pastors and leaders of the Nigerian Pentecostal churches, even if at home, by what is sometimes called ‘domestication’ of the same men, the women are empowered in some ways. The paper then considers what their place has in common with the place of women in the Roman Catholic Church in contemporary Nigeria. The paper adds to the existing literature on the place and role of women in both Pentecostalism and Catholicism in contemporary Nigeria.
{"title":"Women in Neo-Pentecostal Churches in Nigeria: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, and the Mainline Churches in Contemporary Nigeria","authors":"Adolphus Ekedimma Amaefule","doi":"10.1177/09667350221112875","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09667350221112875","url":null,"abstract":"This paper looks, in the first place, at gender issues in Pentecostal Christianity in Nigeria. This is especially as captured by the Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, in her novel, Americanah. It is found that women in Nigerian Pentecostalism are more than the men in number and participate more actively both in church activities and in spiritual efforts at home. However, it is mostly the men who are the pastors and leaders of the Nigerian Pentecostal churches, even if at home, by what is sometimes called ‘domestication’ of the same men, the women are empowered in some ways. The paper then considers what their place has in common with the place of women in the Roman Catholic Church in contemporary Nigeria. The paper adds to the existing literature on the place and role of women in both Pentecostalism and Catholicism in contemporary Nigeria.","PeriodicalId":55945,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Theology","volume":"31 1","pages":"34 - 50"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43589241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-27DOI: 10.1177/09667350221118743
J. Wootton
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
{"title":"Editorial","authors":"J. Wootton","doi":"10.1177/09667350221118743","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09667350221118743","url":null,"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","PeriodicalId":55945,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Theology","volume":"31 1","pages":"3 - 8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45774040","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-27DOI: 10.1177/09667350221112882
I. Achumi
The category ‘women’ is one of the majority members in the Nagaland churches of Northeast India. Institutionalization of associations and churches according to denominations has contributed to the bureaucratization of churches, arranging the church positions in vertical hierarchy. Today, churches in Nagaland struggle with complex gender hierarchies. Women are underrepresented in church leadership in Nagaland. Historically, Naga Women theologians have been absent in the process of licencing and ordination. This article attempts to explore both the structural dynamics and local practices in the process of gendered licencing and ordination. The study assesses two associations and churches within those two associations under Nagaland Baptist Church Council. Narrative from the two associations brings out the tacit but visible practices of differentiated licencing requirements between men and women theologians in Nagaland churches. The almost exclusive ‘Reverend’ title reserved for men in Nagaland demonstrably explains the near absence of ordained women in most of the Nagaland churches.
{"title":"Fragmented Voices with Guilt and Apologies: Interrogating Narratives on Ordination of Women in Nagaland Churches","authors":"I. Achumi","doi":"10.1177/09667350221112882","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09667350221112882","url":null,"abstract":"The category ‘women’ is one of the majority members in the Nagaland churches of Northeast India. Institutionalization of associations and churches according to denominations has contributed to the bureaucratization of churches, arranging the church positions in vertical hierarchy. Today, churches in Nagaland struggle with complex gender hierarchies. Women are underrepresented in church leadership in Nagaland. Historically, Naga Women theologians have been absent in the process of licencing and ordination. This article attempts to explore both the structural dynamics and local practices in the process of gendered licencing and ordination. The study assesses two associations and churches within those two associations under Nagaland Baptist Church Council. Narrative from the two associations brings out the tacit but visible practices of differentiated licencing requirements between men and women theologians in Nagaland churches. The almost exclusive ‘Reverend’ title reserved for men in Nagaland demonstrably explains the near absence of ordained women in most of the Nagaland churches.","PeriodicalId":55945,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Theology","volume":"31 1","pages":"51 - 64"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44167675","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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