Liberation Theologies | Bibliography | Women’s Pt. 3
Chapter 9: Women’s Theology, Part 3
Women’s Theology in the Global South
See also PeaceDocs, Texts, African; Hindu, Gandhian and Yogic; Buddhist and Taoist.
1181. Cho Wha Soon, Let the Weak Be Strong. A Woman’s Struggle for Justice. Lee Sun Ai and Ahn Sang Nim, eds. Oak Park, IL: Meyer Stone Books, 1988.
Follows the struggle of Korea’s women factory workers, their exploitation and oppression, their movement of resistance, and the feminist theology of liberation that is emerging from it.
1182. Chung, Hyun Kyung. Struggle to Be the Sun Again. Introducing Asian Women’s Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.
See 311.
1183. Eck, Diana L., and Devaki Jain, eds. Speaking of Faith. Global Perspectives on Women, Religion and Social Change. Philadelphia: New Society, 1987.
Twenty-six essays, including work by Carol Gilligan, Sisela Bok, Nawal el Saadawi, Judith Plaskow, Jean Zaru, all aiming to bring a feminist foundation to religious life.
1184. Fabella, Virginia, M.M., and Mercy Amba Oduyoye, eds. With Passion and Compassion. Third World Women Doing Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988.
These are the published papers of an ecumenical conference of the Women’s Commission of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians held in Oaxtepec, Mexico in December 1989. Contributions are gathered under the headings Africa, Asia, and Latin America but are bound together by certain very clear concerns and methods.
“Women doing theology” is a new term describing a new situation: women theologians themselves discussing and working through their lives and relationship to the Christian tradition between the two poles of “contextuality” and Jesus Christ. The experience of real and individual women, and men – their status of oppression – is the starting point for these discussions. The focus of their religious hope and faith and courage is Jesus’ own ministry both as a historical and theological reality and as a point of critique of current church structures that simply maintain the oppressive systems of colonialism and of indigenous Third-World religious and social structures. A true but “suspicious” reading of the Bible, focusing on the Jesus community, but aware that the existing canonical collection was written and codified by men, can be a truly liberating experience for Third-World women, and the men who are also caught up in a system of oppressor and oppressed.
A true reading of the Bible will reveal that Jesus gave women a central role as disciples, in revealing his divinity and his resurrection, and in the earliest ministry of announcing the good word and in spreading it. Passion is the erotic involvement in the struggle for liberation, and compassion the liberating experience for both the oppressed and the oppressor. See also 214.
1185. —, and Sun Ai Lee Park, eds. We Dare to Dream. Doing Theology as Asian Women. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.
Asian women theologians examine some of the fundamental Christian themes and theological categories: Christology, ecclesiology, and biblical studies from their feminist perspective.
1186. Gebara, Ivone, and Maria Clara Bingemer. Mary. Mother of God, Mother of the Poor. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.
This appreciation of Mary by two Brazilian theologians takes its starting point from the practice of the poor in Latin America and the steadfast devotion to the Virgin among the continent’s poor, especially women. Rather than dismiss this as a throwback to an outmoded and internalizing spirituality, the authors argue that Mary’s place in scripture must be radically reinterpreted away from patriarchal models and recast to fit modern appreciations of the Goddess, of the role of women in the church and in society, and in the light of a careful reading of both Hebrew Bible and Gospels for the meaning of her birth and life. They then trace the role of Mary in Latin America since the conquest and colonial times and draw some conclusions for her as a central figure in the struggle for liberation both within the church and within society.
1187. Heyward, Carter, and Anne Gilson, eds. Revolutionary Forgiveness. Feminist Reflections on Nicaragua. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987.
Thirteen North Americans share their experiences of Nicaragua, its revolution, and the attempts there to forge a new, liberated society. As women their support of revolution is tempered by a recognition that old forms of oppression – patriarchy, sexism, disregard for the young, old and infirm – must still be part of a truly revolutionary agenda. See also 658.
1188. Isasi-Díaz, Ada Maria. Hispanic Women, Prophetic Voice in the Church. Toward a Hispanic Women’s Liberation Theology. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988.
Not seen.
1189. Katoppo, Marianne. Compassionate and Free. An Asian Woman’s Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1986.
Freedom comes with the removal of male domination and the newer imperialisms of European culture and religious forms. Asian women must assert their own identities and differences in socio-economic as well as religious and cultural spheres.
1190. National Conference of Asian Women Theologians. An Ocean with Many Shores. Asian Women Making Connections in Theology and Ministry. Warwick, NY: AWT, 1986.
A progress report and bibliography.
1191. Oduyoye, Mercy Amba. Hearing and Knowing. Theological Reflections on Christianity in Africa. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1986.
African theology, its major themes, and women’s liberation.
1192. O’Neill, Maura. Women Speaking, Women Listening. Women in Interreligious Dialogue. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.
The problems of discussing gender in a theological context when the dialog is intercultural and interreligious. Topics include religious pluralism, theories of person, epistemology, value, and communication; the universality of feminism; the question of religion’s ability to liberate; and forms of dialog: international, interreligious, between men and women.
1193. Pobee, John S., and Barbel von Wartenberg-Potter, eds. New Eyes for Reading. Biblical and Theological Reflections by Women from the Third World. Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1986.
Critiques of existing structures in church and society and reflections for change from a feminist perspective, from Africa, Asia, and Latin America on the Bible, church, and society.
1194. Russell, Letty M., Kwok Pui-lan, Ada Maria Isasi-Díaz, and Kate G. Cannon, eds. Inheriting Our Mothers’ Gardens. Feminist Theology in Third-World Perspective. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1988.
Essays by the editors, Mercy Amba Oduyoye, Chung Hyun Kyung, Joann Nash Eakin, Marta Benavides on women’s political struggles and identity in Africa, Asia and Latin America; cherishing traditions after immigration; innovation in issues of race, class, gender, and the tradition handed down through women to other women. Annotated bibliography on pages 165-81.
1195. Tamez, Elsa, ed. Against Machismo. John Eagleson, trans. Oak Park, IL: Meyer Stone Books, 1987.
This is a series of interviews with leading male liberation theologians that elicits from them, often for the first time formally, a liberationist perspective on the realities of oppression for women in church and society. Tamez’ perspective is that there can be no genuine liberation if all people are not included in both the struggle, in the perspective, and in the forming of the theology. Interviewees include Segundo, Boff, Dussel, Boff, Betto, Richard, and Vidales, among others.
1196. —. Through Her Eyes. Women’s Theology from Latin America.
See 544.
1197. Wartenberg-Potter, Bärbel von, ed. By Our Lives. Stories of Women, Today and in the Bible. Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1985.
A perspective on reading biblical texts from the Global South.
1198. Webster, John C. B., and Ellen Low Webster, eds. The Church and Women in the Third World. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1985.
An international group of authors discusses Christian images of women, the role of women in the church, and the church’s role on changing the position of women in the Third World.
1199. Women’s Concerns Unit. Reading the Bible As Asian Women. Singapore: Christian Conference of Asia, 1986.
Biblical studies and reflections on poverty, justice, and freedom.
