You Don’t Look Like a Baptist Minister: An Autoethnographic Retrieval of ‘Women’s Experience’ as an Analytic Category for Feminist Theology

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Wigg-Stevenson
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theology ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
The Self ◽  
Women's Experience ◽  
Crisis Of Representation ◽  
Theological Understanding ◽  
Theological Thought

This article constructs and deploys a set of autoethnographic narratives from the author’s experience as a Baptist minister to critically retrieve the category of ‘women’s experience’ for feminist theological construction. Autoethnography, as a response to the crisis of representation in the Humanities, uses personal narratives of the self to reveal, critique and transform wider cultural trends. It therefore provides helpful tools for analysing, critiquing and transforming theological thought and practice. Following the article’s methodological sections, the constructive sections use the crafted autoethnographies to re-frame Rowan Williams’s vision for how church and world co-constitute each other towards God’s just ends. Whereas Williams argues that this co-constitution occurs through processes of interactive transformative judgment, the feminist theological understanding argued for here founds the process instead on interactive, transformative grace.

scholarly journals BEAR WITNESS: Dua Wacana Tentang Kesaksian Dan Kebenaran

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Karen Campbell Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Feminist Theology ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Women's Experience ◽  
Judicial Discourse ◽  
History Of ◽  
Multiple Meanings ◽  
Christian Discourse ◽  
Bear Witness

The meaning of testimony and truth play an important role in both a legal/judicial discourse and a religious, particularly Christian discourse. I trace the history of testimony in legal discourse, beginning with the Hammurabi Code and its influence on ancient legal codes of Mesopotamia, including that found in the Pentateuch and continue with a discussion of multiple meanings of testimony in Augustine and French philosopher, Paul Ricœur that begin to lay the groundwork for bridging the two discourses. Contributions from feminist theology, particularly the validation of women’s experience as a source of theology, the role of immanence, and the shift from understandings of power as “power over” to “power with” as well as a transitional justice framework help make the case for dialog between these two discourses so they can enhance and strengthen each other. I include in sections of the article my own narrative to accent the theme of testimony. Keywords: Kesaksian, kebenaran, konteks hukum, pengadilan, konteks iman, hermeneutik.

Reframing the Self(ie)

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-45
Author(s):  
Sarah Ann Bixler
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Youth Ministry ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Developmental Theory ◽  
The Self ◽  
Inner Self ◽  
Self Discovery ◽  
Theological Understanding ◽  
To Receive

Based on developmental psychology, youth ministry has often regarded the adolescent self in terms of a search for identity. The selfie demonstrates this psychosocial attempt to discover one’s self and receive affirmation for it. While developmental theory is helpful and relevant for youth ministry, theology offers a more desirable foundation on which to build youth ministry practices. Thomas Merton’s theological understanding of the self addresses this dilemma, whereby the self finds the adolescent. This perspective can help us reframe youth ministry’s assumptions based on developmental psychology, which regard the adolescent’s task as self-discovery. As James Loder describes, the inner self emerges through God’s transformation. This is an issue of reordering of theology and psychology. For adolescents to position themselves to receive this inner transformation, Christian ministry with young people can effectively facilitate a posture of prayer whereby God can affect the transformation of the deepest sense of the self.

Abiding in the Fourth Gospel: A Case-Study in Feminist Biblical Theology

1997 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-136
Author(s):  
Dorothy A. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theology ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Fourth Gospel ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Women's Experience ◽  
Relationship Intimacy ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Status Of Women

From a hermeneutical perspective, the method of examining the prominence and status of women and female characters in a given text is an important but partial way of dealing with biblical texts. Feminist theology needs to recover a sense of “biblical theology” (despite the problems associated with that term), a theology that is sensitive to women's experience and theological reflection. The Johannine notion of “abiding” provides an example of such biblical theology. It is focused on the centrality of relationship, intimacy, and reciprocity, challenging Enlightenment individualism and subject-object bifurcation.

The Priority of XAPIΣ

1973 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darrel J. Doughty
Keyword(s):  
Rudolf Bultmann ◽  
Theological Understanding ◽  
Theological Thought

Rudolf Bultmann organizes his entire presentation of the theology of Paul with reference to πίστις. His discussion falls into two parts: (a) man prior to the revelation of πίστις and (b) man under πίστις. The diverse conceptuality of Paul thus finds its unity in the interpretation of πλστις, i.e. man in the light of πίστις. The structure of Bultmann's presentation is grounded in the presupposition that all theological understanding ‘has its origin in faith’, and that even man's existence prior to faith ‘is retrospectively seen from the standpoint of faith’. With regard to the theological thought of Paul, however, this very structure subtly pre-empts consideration of a fundamental exegetical question: From what standpoint is ‘faith’ itself interpreted by Paul? The question is whether the organization of Paul's theology in such a way, with reference to πίστις, does not obscure the christological character of the apostle's thought. Bultmann's observation that in the theology of Paul ‘every assertion about Christ is also an assertion about man, and vice versa’, may be valid. What we are concerned about, however, is the ‘vice versa’. It is certainly legitimate to interpret Paul's theology with reference to the apostle's own anthropological emphasis. But in Bultmann's presentation it does not become clear in what way Paul's assertions about man, and in particular Paul's interpretation of ‘faith’, are also christological.5

Limits of the Appeal to Women's Experiences Reconsidered

Horizons ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (01) ◽  
pp. 54-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Beste
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theology ◽  
Moral Knowledge ◽  
Trauma Theory ◽  
Martha Nussbaum ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Women's Experience ◽  
Postmodern Thought ◽  
Credible Source

ABSTRACTIn the light of what appears to be a growing consensus that historicist and postmodern thought undermines the credibility of appeals to women's experience as a source of theological and moral knowledge, I assess whether these criticisms do indeed discredit appeals to experience as a legitimate source of knowledge and norm for feminist theology. While such critiques pose insightful challenges to assumptions underlying the appeal to experience, I argue that they do not definitively discredit the appeal to experience itself. Drawing on trauma theory and the work of Margaret Farley and Martha Nussbaum, I seek to show how women's experiences can be defended as a credible source of knowledge and a norm for feminist theology.

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