Contributors

CURRENT CONTRIBUTORS 

Kecia Ali is an Associate Professor of Religion at Boston University where she teaches a range of classes related to Islam. She writes on early Islamic law, women, ethics, and biography. Her books include Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur’an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence (2006), Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam (2010), and Imam Shafi’i: Scholar and Saint (2011). She lives in the Boston area with her family.

Xochitl Alvizo: Feminist, theologian, and Christian identified woman, Xochitl is a Ph.D. Candidate in Practical Theology at Boston University School of Theology. Her research is focused on new and postmodern forms of church. She uses a feminist practical theological method that includes the use of qualitative research and narrative analysis. Her research begins with concrete communities of faith and the sacred stories they share and has an ecclesiological focus. Finding herself on the boundary of different social and cultural contexts, she works hard to develop her voice and to hear and encourage the voice of others. Her work is inspired by the conviction that all people are inextricably connected and the good one can do in any one area inevitably and positively impacts all others. Xochitl is one of the four women who founded Feminism and Religion in June 2011! 

Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D.: (http://www.barbaraardinger.com) Author most recently of Secret Lives, a novel in the magical realism style about grandmothers who do magic. Her previous books include Pagan Every Day, a daybook that celebrates holy days in numerous religions; Finding New Goddesses, a pun-filled parody of goddess encyclopedias; and Practicing the Presence of the Goddess, a sort of Feminist Spirituality primer that is now available on Kindle. Barbara’s day job is editing for smart people with good ideas but marginal writing skills. To date, she has edited 250 books, both fiction and nonfiction, in genres that range from theology to science fiction, plus academic theses and dissertations, textbooks, screenplays, poetry, and children’s books. She lives in Long Beach, California, with her two Maine coon cats, Heisenberg and Schroedinger. When she gets up from the computer, she would rather go to the theater and see musicals than almost anything else.

Kelly Brown Douglas is Professor and Director of the Religion Program at Goucher College where she has held the Elizabeth Conolly Todd Distinguished Professorship. She was recently awarded The Goucher College Caroline Doebler Bruckerl Award for outstanding faculty achievement. Kelly is a leading voice in the development of a womanist theology, Essence magazine counts Douglas “among this country’s most distinguished religious thinkers, teachers, ministers, and counselors.”  She has published numerous essays and articles in national publications, and her books include The Black Christ, Sexuality and the Black Church, What’s Faith Got to Do With It?: Black Bodies/Christian Soul.  Black Bodies and the Black Church: A Blues Slant is her most recently released book (Palgrave Macmillan, Fall 2012). Kelly is also a priest in the Episcopal Church and has served as Associate Priest at Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Washington D.C. for over 20 years.

Marie Cartier is a teacher, poet, writer, healer, artist, and scholar. She holds a BA in Communications from the University of New Hampshire; an MA in English/Poetry from Colorado State University; an MFA in Theatre Arts (Playwriting) from UCLA; an MFA in Film and TV (Screenwriting) from UCLA; and an MFA in Visual Art (Painting/Sculpture) from Claremont Graduate University. She is also a first degree black belt in karate, Shorin-Ryu Shi-Do-Kan Kobayashi style. Ms. Cartier has a Ph.D. in Religion with an emphasis on Women and Religion from Claremont Graduate University.

Carol P. Christ, Ph.D.:  Earning her B.A. at Stanford University and Ph.D. at Yale University, Carol is a founding mother in the study of women and religion, feminist theology, women’s spirituality, and the Goddess movement, and her work has revolutionized the field of feminism and religion.  She teaches online courses in the Women’s Spirituality program at CIIS and through Ariadne Institute offers Goddess Pilgrimages to Crete. Her books include She Who Changes , Rebirth of the Goddess, Odyssey with the Goddess, Laughter of Aphrodite, Diving Deep and Surfacing, and the widely used anthologies she co-edited with Judith Plaskow, Womanspirit Rising and Weaving the Visions.  Carol has taught at Wesleyan, Columbia, San Jose State, Harvard Divinity School, Pacific School of Religion, and other universities and seminaries.  She was born in southern California and has lived in Greece for over 20 years where she became a dual citizen of Greece and the US.  She has been active in anti-racist, anti-war, feminist, and anti-nuclear causes for many years.  Since 2001 Carol has been working with Friends of Green Lesbos to save the wetlands of her home island.  In 2010 she ran for office in Lesbos and helped to elect the first Green Party representative to the Regional Council of the North Aegean.  She helped to organize Lesbos Go Green, which is working on recycling in Lesbos.

Monica A. Coleman, Ph.D.: Scholar and activist committed to connecting faith and social justice. An ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Monica has earned degrees at Harvard University, Vanderbilt University and Claremont Graduate University.  Monica is currently Associate Professor of Constructive Theology and African American Religions and Co-Director of the Center for Process Studies at Claremont School of Theology in southern California. She is also Associate Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University.  Her writings focus on the role of faith in addressing critical social issues. Monica wrote about church responses to sexual violence in The Dinah Project: a Handbook for Congregational Response to Sexual Violence.  In Making a Way Out of No Way: a Womanist Theology, Monica discusses inter-religious responses to the joys and pains of black women’s lives. She is the co-editor of the forthcoming Creating Women’s Theologies: A Movement Engaging Process Thought and editor of the forthcoming Ain’t I a Womanist Too?: Third Wave Womanist Religious Thought.

 Elizabeth Cunningham is best known for The Maeve Chronicles, a series of award-winning novels featuring the feisty Celtic Magdalen who is nobody’s disciple. An ordained interfaith minister, Cunningham is in private practice as a counselor. She is also the director of the Center at High Valley where she celebrates the Celtic Cross Quarter Days. She lives in New York State’s Hudson Valley.

For more:  www.passionofmarymagdalen.com
and  www.highvalley.org.

Elise M. Edwards: Ph.D. candidate in Theology, Ethics, and Culture at Claremont Graduate University and registered architect in the State of Florida. She does interdisciplinary work in the fields of theology, ethics, and aesthetics, examining how they inform and shape each other and express the commitments of their communities. She recently published ”The Jazz Aesthetic as a Model for Theological Discourse,” in ARTS Magazine, A Journal of the Arts in Religious and Theological Studies, Online Issue 22:4, Fall 2011.

John Erickson: Doctoral student in American Religious History at Claremont Graduate University.  His research interests involve an interdisciplinary approach and are influenced by his time as the director of a women’s center and active member in the GLBTQ and women’s rights movements.  His work is inspired by the intersectionality of the feminism, queer identity, and religious political and cultural rhetoric.  He is the author of the blog, From Wisconsin, with Love and can be followed on Twitter at @jerickson85.

Sara Frykenberg, Ph.D.: Graduate of the women studies in religion program at Claremont Graduate University, Sara’s research considers the way in which process feminist theo/alogies reveal a kind transitory violence present in the liminal space between abusive paradigms and new non-abusive creations: a counter-necessary violence.  In addition to her feminist, theo/alogical and pedagogical pursuits, Sara is also an avid fan of science fiction and fantasy literature, and a level one Kundalini yoga teacher.

 

Rita M. Gross, Ph.D. is a Buddhist scholar-practitioner who teaches Buddhist dharma and meditation nationwide and who has published on many aspects of feminism and religion.  She received her Ph. D. from the University of Chicago and is Professor of Comparative Study of Religions, Emerita, at the University of Wisconsin—Eau Claire.  In 2005, she was named a lopon (senior dharma teacher) by Her Eminence Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche, head of the Mindrolling lineage of Nyingma Tibetan Buddhism.  Her books include Buddhism after Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis, and Reconstruction of Buddhism, Feminism and Religion: An Introduction, Soaring and Settling: Buddhist Perspectives on Contemporary Social and Religious Issues, and A Garland of Feminist Reflections: Forty Years of Religious Exploration.  She co-authored Religious Feminism and the Future of the Planet: A Buddhist-Christian-Feminist Dialogue with Rosemary Radforth Reuther and co-edited Unspoken Worlds: Religious Lives with Nancy Auer Falk.  Her forthcoming book is Religious Diversity—What’s the Problem? Buddhist Advice for Flourishing with Religious Diversity.  She live in Eau Claire, Wisconsin where she leads a small Buddhist dharma study group.  With her live three Siamese cats and a Border collie.  She gardens extensively and has about five hundred house plants.

Ivy A. Helman, Ph. D.: A feminist scholar and faculty member at Boston College teaching in its Perspectives Program and an Adjunct Lecturer at Merrimack College.  Ivy attended Beloit College (B.A), Yale University (M.A.R.) and ClaremontGraduateUniversity (Ph.D.).  Her research interests range from the relationship between anti-modernism and anti-feminism in religious traditions and the rise of various fundamentalisms to queer theology and religious eco-feminism.  Her most recent publications include:  “Queer Systems: The Benefits of a More Systematic Approach to Queer Theology,” in CrossCurrents (March 2011) and Women and the Vatican: An Exploration of Official Documents (2012).  In addition to teaching and research, Ivy spends considerable amounts of time trying out new vegetarian and vegan recipes and going to the dog park with her Australian Cattle Dog mix, Mini.

Kathryn House is a North Carolina native who has made her home in Jamaica Plain since 2005. She completed a BA in Religion at Duke University in 2003, and her Master of Divinity degree at Boston University School of Theology in 2008. She is currently a doctoral student in Practical Theology at Boston University.  Her academic interests include the constructions of gender and sexuality in evangelical Christian traditions and ecclesiologies. She is in the process of ordination in the American Baptist Churches, USA and a member of The First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain, MA. She is also the co-founder of Bridesmaid Trade, an online bridesmaid dress consignment business. Kathryn can be found online at @kharthouse.

Kile Jones holds a Bachelors of Theology (B.Th.) from Faith Seminary, a Masters of Theological Studies (M.T.S.) and a Masters of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.) from Boston University, and is a current Ph.D. in Religion student at Claremont Lincoln University.  He also holds a Certificate in Science and Religion from the Boston Theological Institute.  Mr. Jones has been published in Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, Philosophy Now, Free Inquiry, World Futures, Human Affairs, and the Secular Web.  He has presented at Conferences around the United States and the United Kingdom.  He is the Founder/Editor-in-Chief of Claremont Journal of Religion (www.claremontjournal.com). His interests include religion and science, atheism, secularism, and philosophy of religion.  He also reviews books for Reviews in Religion and Theology (RRT) and is a Contributing Scholar for State of Formation (www.stateofformation.org), an academic blog for emerging religious and ethical leaders. 

Grace Yia-Hei Kao, Ph.D.: A second generation Taiwanese American and Christian, Grace is Associate Professor of Ethics at Claremont School of Theology in the Claremont Lincoln University Consortium and Associate Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University.  Since earning a B.A. in philosophy & religious studies at Stanford University and a Ph.D. in theology with a subspecialization in philosophy at Harvard University, her scholarly interests have remained at the intersection of philosophical and theological ethics.  Her research and publications can be grouped under four major areas: (1) rights, human and animal, (2) religion in the public sphere, (3) ecofeminism, and (4) Asian American Christianity.  Grace is the author of Grounding Human Rights in a Pluralist World (Georgetown University Press, 2011) and is working on an anthology exploring women’s theological lives as well as two other book projects that develop the subfield of Asian American Christian Ethics.

Caroline Kline: A Mormon feminist, Caroline is completing her coursework for her Ph.D. in religion with a focus on women’s studies in religion.  Her areas of interest revolve around the intersections of Mormon and feminist theology and the study of contemporary Mormon feminist communities. She is the co-founder of the Mormon feminist blog, The Exponent, and is a committed believer in the importance of online feminist forums and communities. Caroline is one of the four women who founded Feminism and Religion in June 2011! 

Deanne Quarrie is a Priestess of The Goddess, and author of four books.  She is an Adjunct Professor at Ocean Seminary College, teaching classes on the Ogham, Ritual Creation, Ethics for Neopagan Clergy, Exploring Sensory Awareness, energetic Boundaries, and many other classes of the uses of magic.  She is the founder of Global Goddess, a worldwide organization open to all women who honor some form of the divine feminine, as well as The Apple Branch - A Dianic Tradition where she mentors women who wish to serve as priestesses.

Erin Lane is a freelance communication strategist for faith-based authors and organizations. She received her Masters in Theological Studies from Duke Divinity School with a focus in gender, ministry, and theology. Confirmed Catholic, raised Charismatic, and married to a Methodist, she blogs about the intersection of her faith and feminism at www.holyhellions.com. She is also co-editing an upcoming anthology on the taboos experienced by young American Christian women. She lives in Durham, NC.

Jameelah X. Medina is a Ph.D. candidate at Claremont Graduate University. She is also an educator, author, orator, and business owner residing in southern California with her husband and daughter. www.jameelahmedina.com She is also a contributor to I Speak for Myself: American Women on Being Muslim, a collection of 40 personal essays written by American Muslim women under the age of 40.

Gina Messina-Dysert, Ph.D.: Feminist theologian, ethicist, and activist, Gina received her Ph.D. in religion at Claremont Graduate University focused in the areas of women’s studies in religion and theology, ethics, and culture.  She is the Visiting Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics at Loyola Marymount University and Co-founder and Co-director of Feminism and Religion. Gina has authored multiple articles and the forthcoming book Rape Culture and Spiritual Violence.  She is co-editor (with Rosemary Radford Ruether) of the forthcoming anthology, Feminism and Religion in the 21st Century and is a contributor to the Rock and Theology project sponsored by the Liturgical Press. Her research interests are theologically and ethically driven, involve a feminist and interdisciplinary approach, and are influenced by her activist roots and experience working with survivors of rape and domestic violence.  Gina can be followed on Twitter @FemTheologian and her website can be accessed at http://ginamessinadysert.com. Gina is one of the four women who founded Feminism and Religion in June 2011! 

Rev. Marcia Mount Shoop, Ph.D. is ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church and is deeply engaged in the multicultural movement in the Presbyterian denomination nationally.  She earned a Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt Divinity School a Ph.D. in Religious Studies at Emory University.  Marcia is the author of multiple articles and the book Let the Bones Dance: Embodiment and the Body of Christ.  Her current ministry involves teaching, preaching, leading retreats and workshops, facilitating and consulting, and writing.

Oxana Poberejnaia was an Officer of the University of Manchester Buddhist Society while studying for a PhD in Government, and has been involved in organising the Manchester Buddhist Convention, now in its 9^th year. Oxana is now exploring the Sacred Feminine through marking seasonal festivals, working with her menstrual cycle, frame drumming and shamanic journeying, while keeping the practice of Buddhist meditation. Oxana is an artist and an author. Her works can be found on her blog.

Rosemary Radford Ruether, Ph.D.: Professor of Feminist Theology at Claremont Graduate University and Claremont School of Theology.  She is also the Carpenter Emerita Professor of Feminist Theology at Pacific School of Religion and the GTU, as well as the Georgia Harkness Emerita Professor of Applied Theology at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. Rosemary has enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a scholar, teacher, and activist in the Roman Catholic Church, and is well known as a groundbreaking figure in Christian feminist theology.  Ruether is the author of multiple articles and books including Sexism and God-Talk, Gaia and God, Women Healing Earth and The Wrath of Jonah: The Crisis of Religious Nationalism in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Her most recent books include Catholic Does Not Equal the Vatican: A Vision for Progressive Catholicism(2008), Many Forms of Madness: A Family’s Struggle with Mental Illness(2010), and Women and Redemption: A Theological History, 2nd ed. (2011).

Molly is a certified birth educator, writer, and activist who lives with her husband and children in central Missouri. She is a breastfeeding counselor, a professor of human services, and doctoral student in women’s spirituality at Ocean Seminary College. Last summer she was ordained as a Priestess with Global Goddess. Molly blogs about birth, motherhood, and women’s issues athttp://talkbirth.me and about thealogy and the Goddess at http://goddesspriestess.com

Sarah Sentilles is a scholar of religion, an award-winning speaker, and the author of three books including A Church of Her Own: What Happens When a Woman Takes the Pulpit (Harcourt, 2008) and Breaking Up with God (HarperOne, 2011). She earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale and a master’s of divinity and a doctorate in theology from Harvard, where she was awarded the Billings Preaching Prize and was the managing editor of the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. At the core of her scholarship, writing, and activism is a commitment to investigating the roles religious language, images, and practices play in oppression, violence, social transformation, and justice movements. She is currently at work on a novel and an edited volume that investigates the intersections of torture and Christianity.

Judith Shaw, a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, has been interested in myth, culture and mystical studies all her life. From a college paper on Beauty and the Beast to a much later series of paintings on Beauty and the Beast…From a student painting of circles to her current fascination with the interlocking circles of sacred geometry…From reading When God Was A Woman in the early 70′s to her ongoing visual exploration of the role of the Goddess in our modern world…From her very first oil painting of a tree to her most current painting, The Mother Tree— her early influences of Jackson Pollack’s abandon, and Van Gogh’s emotionality are evident. Originally from New Orleans, she has traveled in Mexico, Central America, China, Europe and Greece and lived in Mexico and Greece. The passion and bright colors of many of these places have affected her palette and style. Judith makes art, dances with abandon and experiences the world through travel and study. Her work, which expresses her belief in the interconnectedness of all life, can be seen on her website at http://judithshawart.com

Michele Stopera Freyhauf:  Doctoral Student in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Durham University as well as an Adjunct Professor in Religious Studies at Ursuline College.    Michele has an M. A. in Theology and Religious Studies from John Carroll University,  and did post-graduate work at the University of Akron in the area of History of Religion, Women, and Sexuality.  She is also the student representative on the Board for Eastern Great Lakes Biblical Society (EGLBS).   Michele’s research interests involve feminism, gender, and sexuality influenced by religion with special emphasis on the Biblical text and religious syncretism in the Ancient Near East.   She is a feminist scholar, activist, and author of several articles including “Hagia Sophia: Political and Religious Symbolism in Stones and Spolia.”   Michele can be followed on Twitter @msfreyhauf and @reclaimherstory.  Her website can be accessed here and is visible on other social media sites like LinkedIn and Google+.

Linn Marie Tonstad is a constructive theologian working at the intersection of Christian systematic theology with feminist and queer theology and theory. She is an assistant professor of systematic theology at Yale Divinity School and earned her PhD in religious studies from Yale University. She is currently completing her first book, provisionally entitled God and Difference: Experimental Trinitarian Theology.

Karen Torjesen, Ph.D.: Margo L. Goldsmith Professor of Women’s Studies in Religion at Claremont Graduate University where she has helped establish graduate programs in Women’s Studies in Religion and Applied Women’s Studies. For ten years she served as Dean of the School of Religion, partnering with religious communities to create programs in comparative religion. She has published extensively on women, gender and sexuality within Christianity.  Her research interests include constructions of gender and sexuality in early Christianity, authority and institutionalization in the early churches, hermeneutics and rhetoric in late antiquity, and comparative study of Greek and Latin patristic traditions. During her tenure as assistant professor of patristic theology at the University of Goettingen (Germany), her book Hermeneutical Procedure and Theological Structure in Origen’s Exegesis was published by de Gruyter. Her most recent book is When Women Were Priests: Women’s Leadership in the Early Church and the Scandal of their Subordination in the Rise of Christianity.

Jassy Watson, who lives on the sub-tropical coast of Queensland Australia, is a mother of four, a passionate organic gardener, an artist, and a student of ancient history and religion at Macquarie University, Sydney.  She runs a small business Goddesses Garden to keep women’s sacred circles, art, music and gardening practices alive.

Rev. Dr. Angela Yarber is Pastor for Preaching and Worship at Wake Forest Baptist Church at Wake Forest University.  She has a PhD in Art and Religion from the Graduate Theological Union at UC Berkeley and is author of Embodying the Feminine in the Dances of the World’s Religions, along with numerous articles about the intersections among the arts, religion, and gender/sexuality.  Next year, she has two new books coming out: The Gendered Pulpit: Sex, Body, and Desire in Preaching and Worship and Dance in Scripture: How Biblical Dancers can Revolutionize Worship Today.  She has been a clergy woman and professional dancer and artist since 1999 and she teaches a course as an adjunct professor at Wake Forest University School of Divinity.  For more on her research, ministry, dance, or to purchase one of her icons, visit: www.angelayarber.com

PAST CONTRIBUTORS

Cynthie Garrity-Bond: Feminist theologian and social ethicist, is completing her doctorate at Claremont Graduate University in women studies in religion with a secondary focus in theology, ethics and culture. For the past two years Cynthie has been teaching in the department of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University where she completed both her BA and MA in Theology. Her research interests includes feminist sexual theology, historical theology with particular emphasis on religious movements of women, agency and resistance to ecclesial authority, embodiment, Mariology and transnational feminisms. Having recently returned from Southern Africa, Cynthie is researching the decriminalization of prostitution from a theological perspective. Cynthie is one of the four women who founded Feminism and Religion in June 2011!

Corinna Guerrero is a 5th year doctoral student at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Biblical Studieswith specializations in Hebrew Bible and Literary Theory. She will be proposing her dissertation on Adoni-bezek and Characterization Theory in the near future. In addition to her studies Ms. Guerrero is currently a Newhall Teaching Fellow at the GTU and an Adjunct Instructor at the American Baptist Seminary of the West. In her personal life Ms. Guerrero is also a wife and mother of a 3 year old daughter named Eva.

Stacia Guzzo: A homesteading theologian/stay-at-home mother, Stacia received her Master of Arts in Theological Studies from Loyola Marymount University and is currently working toward a Master of Divinity at Fuller Theological Seminary. Stacia has been a teacher and speaker in the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese and has served as managing editor for Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality. Her areas of interest include embodiment theology, ecological justice, food ethics, and the spirituality of birth. Stacia’s perspective offers unique insight into the raw, fresh theological undertones of every day life; coming from a Jesuit background, she embraces the Ignatian attitude of “finding God in all things.” In addition to her theological studies, Stacia currently works part-time as a doula, childbirth educator, and apiarist.

Amy Levin: A graduate student in religious studies at New York University with an interdisciplinary focus on American religion, gender and queer theory, secularization, spirituality, and consumption, Amy is a regular contributor to The Revealer, a practicing feminist, and can be followed on Twitter @levinam.