Transforming the Faiths of Our Fathers Women Who Changed American Religion

by Braude, Ann; Braude, Ann

• ISBN13: 9781403964601
• ISBN10: 1403964602
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-06-19
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Summary

Pundits on both the right and the left often portray religion and feminism as inherently incompatible, as opposing forces in American culture.Transforming the Faiths of Our Fathersseeks to dispel that notion by asking sixteen well-known religious figures to tell the story of how they became involved in the women's movement. Their work-much of it ongoing-has helped transform the way religion is practiced in this country. They have worked for the ordination of women, for inclusive language and liturgy, for new interpretations of scripture, theology, and religious law, and for an end to religious teachings that contributed to destructive gender stereotypes. Authors include Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Mormon, Evangelical, and goddess feminists. The personal stories of the fascinating contributors include watershed events in American religion and society over the last forty years. Each one of the women inTransforming the Faiths of Our Fathershas made history and seen it made, and gives her own version of what she has witnessed and experienced. They demonstrate the roots of their feminist activism in religious commitments, and the significance of struggles within religious arenas for expanding women's possibilities in society and culture.

Author Biography

Ann Braude is Director of the Women's Studies in Religion Program and Senior Lecturer on American Religious History at Harvard Divinity School. She is also the author of Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America, and Women and American Religion, and co-editor of Root of Bitterness: Documents of the Social History of American Women (2nd edition).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(12)
Ann Braude
Lois Miriam Wilson
first woman moderator of the United Church of Canada	13	(18)
Letty Cottin Pogrebin
cofounder, Ms. magazine	31	(16)
Azizah al-Hibri
founder, Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights	47	(8)
Virginia Ramey Mollenkott
founding member, Evangelical Women's Caucus	55	(18)
Rosemary Radford Ruether
Catholic feminist theologian	73	(12)
Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz
Latina feminist theologian	85	(12)
Carol P. Christ
leader of the Goddess movement	97	(18)
Delores S. Williams
womanist theologian	115	(20)
Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza
feminist biblical scholar	135	(22)
Margaret M. Toscano
cofounder, Mormon Women's Forum	157	(16)
Riffat Hassan
Muslim feminist theologian	173	(26)
Vicki Noble
co-creator, Motherpeace Tarot	199	(10)
Charlotte Bunch
president, Center for Women's Global Leadership	209	(10)
Judith Plaskow
Jewish feminist theologian	219	(8)
Nadine Foley
historian of the Adrian Dominican Congregation	227	(10)
Blu Greenberg
founding president, Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance	237	(16)
Index	253