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Publications :
NEW BOOKS :
Women, Religion and HIV/AIDS in Africa
Summary :
 Responding to Ethical and Theological Challenges
Tempo de Mudar, Tempo de Agir
Summary :
 Mulheres Reflectem Teológicamente
Sobre a Problemática do HIV/SIDA
Edited by Maria Victoria Pereira
and Felicidade Cherinda
BOOK ARCHIVE :
On Being Church: African Women's Voices and Visions
Summary :
How do women envision being Church or becoming Church in the world today? This important question was discussed at a meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa in October 2003. The meeting, jointed called by the World Council of Churches and the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, was part of a series of regional consultations organised to identify the ways women experience the Church and their vision of how the Church can become more faithful in its ministry in society and the world. In discussing the meaning of "being Church," women in Africa strongly focused on "Women as the Church in Africa" while recognising the ways in which the institutionalised Churches have marginalised their experiences, their theological voices and their gifts. The intentional inclusion of the voices of women from Pentecostal Churches in this consultation, added to the wealth of this gathering.
African Women, Religion, and Health
Summary :
This collection of essays celebrates and honors the life of Professor Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye. She is indeed a pioneering and a wise African woman theologian who has contributed tremendously in the area of theology, the study of religion and culture, missiology, and to academic life in general. All of these areas of study have been framed and undergirded by a deep commitment to the wholeness of life for all African women. Mercy has researched, written, and published several books and articles on a variety of themes in these areas. She has been a great teacher, having trained and mentored several scholars in and outside the African continent. Having successfully worked in the ecumenical movement since her youth, she has also initiated movements that continue to nurture African women in theology and the study of religion in general. By initiating, for example, the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, Mercy has created an important space in which many African woman theologians can undertake theological reflection. As Methodist, she has remained in the church and has positively contributed to its life, growth, and work.
Grant Me Justice! HIV/AIDS & Gender Readings of the Bible
Summary :
No summary available.
In Her Name: Women Doing Theology
Summary :
Women are now actively engaged in the work of theology and their insights are reshaping the Christian theological tradition. In Her Name: Women Doing Theology presents an overview of the theological contributions of women around the world with special attention to those of African women. Beginning with a discussion of the origins and development of feminist theology and its interpretations in Africa and other continents, the book then engages with the key themes of Christian theology: woman as person, God, Christology, biblical hermeneutics, church and ministry, ethical issues, ecofeminism, Mariology and holiness, spirituality, and eschatology and hope. Each chapter contains reflection questions and suggestions for further reading to assist in small group and class discussion.
African Women, HIV/AIDS and Faith Communities
Summary :
This is a book of theological clarity, courage, and hope! The writer’s detail first hand how women have become the most affected and infected as HIV/AIDS moves like a plague across the African Continent. They challenge Christian and cultural traditions and provide concrete suggestions for change in the teaching and practice of the church.
Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible
Summary :
"A provocative and pioneering book! Using a literaly-rhetorical method, Dr. Dube Successfully demonstrates their intricate relationship between patriarchy and imperialism throughher intertextual reading of the Bible with ancient and modern imperializing texts. A must read for biblical scholarship and the decolonization of the mind and global structures."
[Musa W. Dube is senior lecturer in biblical studies at the University of Botswana and holds a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee]
Kwok Pui-lan, Episcopal Divinity school
Introducing African Women's Theology
Summary :
This volume describes the context and methodology of Christian Theology by Africans in the past two decades and provides brief descriptions of sample treatments of theological issues, such as creation, Christology, ecclesiology and aschatology. The aim of the book is to lead interested persons to the sources of African women's Christian theology. Throughout an effort has been made to illustrate how African culture and the multi-religious context has influenced Christians women's selection of theological issues. One of Africa's leading feminist theologians shows us the importance of daily life to thology and illuminates the spirituality of African Christian women.
Mercy Amba Oduyoye is an independent scholar living in Ghana.
Transforming Power: Women in the household of God
Summary :
Nine women from diverse disciplines, theological and otherwise who like the initiator
had been concerned about the impact of women in the construction of relevant theologies
for Africa joined her to constitute a team that became the organizers who convoked
the Circle in Accra in 1989 with the theme Daughters of Africa Arise.
The eighty participants from twenty five countries confirmed the idea and decided
to work towards BIENNIAL INSTITUTES OF AFRICAN WOMEN IN RELIGION AND CULTURE during
which we shall share our research and theological reflections of African women
in Religion and Culture. But first we had to work towards identifying women who
want to research and to write on matters of faith and culture. The Nairobi conference
was called to evaluate where we are and to decide if we want to maintain or modify
the original vision. Just like Accra, the response to Nairobi was overwhelming.
Woman, who are you?
Summary :
The Church is my family. I am not an outsider or a slave girl. I will no longer walk on tiptoe! That is the good news that the African Synod has brought to us: everyone of us must feel at home in the Church. This is evident in what the Holy Father tells us: "The Church deplores and condems wherever and to whatever extent such attitudes persist in the
various African cultures, all customs and practices that deprive women of
their rights and of the respect that is their due" (Ecclesia in Africa,
N.3.)
This book is my gift to all those who have already written it in their lives
and with their hearts. I have in mind, particularly, all those anonymous
women who carry on their backs the whole weight of Africa.
Femmes Africaines
Summary :
No summary available.
Journal for the Study of Religion
Summary :
A time of transition, with all the upheaval that it brings, is a time for transformation.
When the status quo is questioned and shaken, practices that have been carried
out as habits are halted, and, before they are reinstated, some of them are discarded.
Currents of criticism and introspection, once they get under way, tend to generate
a momentum of their own which carries them beyond their initial object. Consequently,
many momentous events which may bring ruin with them (like wars, for example),
may also allow for change in the order of hierarchies – to the benefit of
the less privileged and the social underdogs. Not only does the order of things
tumble at these times, but there are also changes in perceptions of what is, and
what is not, acceptable.
Furthermore, survival in times of upheaval provides an opportunity for groups,
previously considered marginal or incapable, to come to the fore, carry out tasks
successfully, and take on roles which under normal circumstances had never been
offered to them. The problem is that while the changes are possible and obvious
at a time of crisis, often when the dust has settled, things revert to the old
ways, and only some of these changes endure.
Hearing and Knowing
Summary :
There was a time when the only acceptable adjective to append to the word theology (apart from confessional words like Lutheran or Anglican) was the word German. "German" theology was recognized as having a flavor all its own, unlike, for example, "British" or "American." In those days before the turbulent 1960s, Asian theology, Black theology, water-buffalo theology, and so on, did not exist as recognizable bodies of distinctive Christian thought. Indeed, they could not have existed, for "Christian" theology was considered an all-inclusive entity.
Bearing no direct relationship to its geographical or human source, it was "made in heaven" for the consumption of the whole earth.
Now we are beginning to talk of "Third World theology." What exactly is this "Third World theology"? The combination of the two ideas ? "Third World" and "theology" ? is an unhappy but an unavoidable one. The term "Third World" is regarded as a heresy by some. There is only One World they claim.
Other ways of Reading
Summary :
This volume of essays, the first of its kind, highlights some of the unique ways in which African women read and interpret the Bible in their diverse historical and cultural contexts.
Early Bible translation and interpretation in Africa was carried out primarily by foreign missionaries and so was deeply influenced by patriarchal and colonial ideologies. The strategies of resistance to these dominant traditions exemplified by the contributors to Other Ways of Reading include examining translations in their own languages and reading from a variety of perspectives. Although the authors write as individual scholars, their work has been shaped by the intersection of the biblical traditions with the various churches, women's groups, and other reading communities with which they are in conversation.
Digging up our Foremothers
Summary :
Being a fellow student of that worldwide theological phenomenon known as liberation theology, it gives me pleasure to write a foreword to this very important publication. It's importance lies in the fact that it has been authored by feminist theologians of both sexes.
In this book women and men, black and white, tell the stories of women's experiences in the church and society. Because they let the voices of the victims of patriarchal oppression speak, those of us who are deeply perplexed by the perennial problem of male domination
in all societies should listen to the voices that address us through the pages of this book, thereby challenging us to choose to be in solidarity with the oppressed of all the oppressed: women who constitute more than half of the human family.
As a liberation theologian, it had become clear to me for some time that our struggle for liberation would become authentic only if it were comprehensive enough to include the liberation of women. Because of that conviction in 1982 I introduced feminist theology at the University of South Africa. I am still involved in it in a caretaker capacity. With deep satisfaction I see some of the writers of this book had been my students in liberation theology. For me it is a fulfilment of a dream that feminist theologians would one day speak on behalf of muted women. We salute them and pledge our solidarity as they struggle to liberate the oppressed people in our society. The publication of this book poses a real challenge to all malist theologians in South Africa.
For it declares that after it's publication any relevant which lays a claim to being genuinely committed to the struggle and liberation of people from oppression should be willing to come to terms with feminist theologies of liberation. Indeed, to avoid engaging feminist theologies will be nothing but a futile attempt at trying to silence the voices of the other half of the human family. I trust that South African malist theologians would not fall into that temptation.
Beads and Strands
Summary :
Beads and Strands is the third in a series entitled Theological
Reflections from the South, a collaborative venture between two African
publishers which aims to make accessible within Africa at an affordable
price, in both English and French, some of the creative thinking emerging
from the southern continents. The series is sponsored by the Africa-Middle
East desk of the Department for Global Ministries of the Uniting Churches
in the Netherlands.
Each title in the series provides pastors, lay preachers and thinking Christians
with representative material that gives access to the author;s thinking.
Each book also serves as a reader in theology form the South for theological
students and scholars, and by providing a biographical introduction and
a substantial bibliography.
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