Carol Christ wrote about gift economy on this blog in 2013, and I am taken by her story of the woman who brought raisins or cracked nuts to the group even though she had very little. In beginning to encounter… Read More ›
Justice
The Legend of Arawello, the Somali Goddess by MaryAnn Shank
I did not intend to find her. In fact I wasn’t even looking. But there she was, soaring before me, on my last night in Baidoa. This majestic Somali woman reached high into the heavens, engulfed in a glorious wraparound… Read More ›
Ruminations on Emor by Ivy Helman
This week’s Torah portion is Emor, or Leviticus 21:1 – 24:23. It details purity and the priesthood including whose funeral a priest can attend, who can marry a priest, bodily blemishes and temple services, and under what circumstances daughters of… Read More ›
Talking about Privilege with Nuance by Elise M. Edwards
Yesterday evening, I led a seminar at a local church as part of their series on “Unpacking Privilege.” Once before, I’d been invited to this church, Lake Shore Baptist Church, to speak about intersectional feminism with one of my colleagues,… Read More ›
Vayikra: No Temple Required by Ivy Helman
This week’s Torah portion is Vayikra (Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26). Vayikra is essentially one long discourse on animal sacrifice with an occasional grain or oil offering included. This killing of animals, their subsequent burning and the shared eating of their… Read More ›
Tree of Life: The Festival of the Trees in an Age of Treefall by Jill Hammer
Almost every day, I walk in Central Park. There are certain trees there I’ve come to know: the gnarled cherry trees by the reservoir, the bending willows and tall bald cypress by the pond, the sycamores that drop their bark… Read More ›
Vayigash: Lessons from Joseph’s Behavior by Ivy Helman
Parshah Vayigash covers Genesis 44:18 to 47:27. It involves the reunification of Joseph with his brothers and his father, the immigration of Jacob’s entire family to Egypt and Joseph successfully leading Egypt through famine. In other words, the parshah provides… Read More ›
Just Show Up by Katie M. Deaver
Happy Midterm Election Day 2018!! The first article I ever wrote for Feminism and Religion, (“I Never Thought That I Would Need to Be a Part of History,”) ran just a couple of weeks after the inauguration of the current… Read More ›
I Believe Dr. Blasey Ford by Anjeanette LeBoeuf
I had a completely different post that I was going to submit for my FAR contribution this month, but that went out the window on Thursday September 27th with the Supreme Court Justice Nomination hearings of Brett Kavanaugh and the… Read More ›
Poem: #MeToo, We Re-Member by Marie Cartier
I need the grandmothers to help me re-member my rage. Cross stitch. Double knot. I sew it back on. The raggedy parts I let fly loose when I thought it was OK to not be “so angry.” “Boys will be… Read More ›
Lessons from Shofetim by Ivy Helman.
This is the first part of a series of reflections on the weekly Torah portions. For those of you unfamiliar with Judaism, we read the Torah in sections. There are 52 parshot (or portions), one parshah (portion) is read each… Read More ›
On Chronic Illness and Justice by Ivy Helman
For almost four years, I’ve been living with the long-term effects of an inner ear lesion. The lesion is long gone but its side effects are not. Throughout the day, I feel a combination of unsteadiness and sudden, unpredictable sensations… Read More ›
Religious Practice and Epistemic Justice by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente
One of the topics that has captured my deep interest during the last year is Epistemic Justice – and its absence, epistemic injustice – a concept which I reflect on often, since it has become a backbone idea in the approach… Read More ›
“The Burning Lava of a Song” by Joyce Zonana
Aurora’s autobiographical narrative is a passionate paean to poets as the “only truth-tellers, now left to God”; she celebrates them as agents for personal and social transformation. As we come to the end of this National Poetry Month in the U.S., where truth is under siege, it’s worth recalling Aurora Leigh and its daring exploration of poetry, gender, divinity, and social justice.
The Least of These, Are the Most of Us by Karen Leslie Hernandez
I’ve recently found myself in one of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in San Francisco, helping provide over 2000 meals a day to those in need. Let me reiterate that number… 2000+ meals. A day. Not only does this number illustrate… Read More ›
Remembering MLK’s Life, not Death by Gina Messina
Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Thousands gathered at his memorial and many more rallied across the U.S. to honor King’s commitment to civil rights and non-violent action. His message continues to resonate… Read More ›
Of Snakes, Genocide and Women by Guillermo C. Garcia
On February 23rd 2018, President Trump addressed CPAC (The Conservative Political Action Conference). He put aside his written remarks again and spoke extemporaneously for seventy-five minutes on other issues, including immigration. During that part of his talk, he once more… Read More ›
Another Brick in the (Ivory) Wall by Natalie Weaver
I have recently read a couple of articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the challenge of working in academia. One article lamented the paucity of tenure line positions and the great disappointment some ex-academics feel when they finally give… Read More ›
Saying Yes to Saying No by Katey Zeh
I was sitting in my then-therapist’s office one day, feeling exhausted and hopeless. Between mourning a break-up and constantly traveling for work, I felt like I’d been digging myself out of an ever-deepening hole of despair for months. “When someone… Read More ›
The Protest Goddess by Angela Yarber
I’ve long held that feminism, in order to be true and engaged and practical, must be intersectional. The work of justice for women must also include justice for other marginalized groups. Because many women are also LGBTQ, people of color,… Read More ›
Considering Our Spaces in the Pursuit of Justice by Elise M. Edwards
This past summer, my friend and I were perusing the exhibits at the National Museum of African-American History and Culture when she urgently called for my attention. “Psst… Isn’t this where you are from?” she asked, pointing at a placard… Read More ›
Saving Joan of Arc by Natalie Weaver
I’m finished with my first semester as a studio arts major at Kent State University. I am not sure whether I’ll be registering for a second one. There were pros and cons about the experience, and I am not sure if one… Read More ›
Women Religion Revolution and its Political Theological Orientation by Xochitl Alvizo
I introduced the volume Women Religion Revolution, the collected works that Gina Messina and I co-edited, in a previous post. I now write about the political theological orientation with which we entered the project of the book. The very first thing to note… Read More ›
The Making of Women Religion Revolution by Xochitl Alvizo
Last month in Boston during the American Academy of Religion (AAR) Annual Meeting I presented on Women Religion Revolution, a volume of collaborative work with fifteen other women that Gina Messina and I co-edited. The book is the third one… Read More ›
Another Season of Reflection and Review by Elise M. Edwards
I turn inward and become reflective at this time of year. It’s the Advent season in the Christian liturgical year, which encourages practices of piety focused on preparation, examination, and hopeful longing. It’s the end of a semester and a… Read More ›
Freedom and Speech by Sara Frykenberg
Feminist theories and theo/alogies are often concerned with voice, naming and re-membering. Many feminists do this work, again and again, because of persistent silence and silencing, invisibility, erasure of stories, desires, religions and ways of being, because of missing histories,… Read More ›
Bans are Bandages not Solutions by Ivy Helman
I’m heartbroken by yet another shooting in the United States. I want to believe that all humans are, deep-down, intrinsically good. I want to trust humans to act in the best interests of others. I want peace between and inside… Read More ›
The Gendered Cost of Fast-Fashion by Lache S.
This last week, my students watched True Cost (2015), a documentary about the environmental impacts and human casualties of the fashion industry. According to the film, fashion is the number two most polluting industry in the world (oil is number… Read More ›
The Spirit and Jarena Lee: Inspiration to Break Boundaries by Elise M. Edwards
I am so frustrated that we are still fighting to affirm women’s place in leadership. I’ve been thinking about this struggle in the context of church ministries (especially preaching) and social activism, seeing a stark contrast between the way institutional… Read More ›
B’tzelem Elohim and Embodiment by Ivy Helman
It is quite common, I think, for Jewish feminists to gravitate to the first creation story of Genesis/Bereshit as an example of human equality but struggle to claim this same passage as an example of the goodness of embodiment. Genesis/Bereshit… Read More ›
