Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wtssw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-30T09:15:48.131Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Doing Theology from the Perspective of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Esther Mombo
Affiliation:
academicdean@stpaulslimuru.ac.ke

Abstract

The paper introduces the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, popularly known as ‘the Circle’ begun in 1989, and the issues they raise for theological discussion. The Circle sets out to recreate and retrieve women's stories so that they become an integral part of the story of the Church and of Africa as a whole. The Circle and its methodology is set within the ecumenical and multi-faith context of its membership. The range of studies undertaken by its members is reviewed here. These come under four general headings: Biblical and Cultural Hermeneutics; Religion in Pluralistic Cultures; Theological and Ministerial Formation for Women; and Women in Religion, which focuses on the stories of women and religion in Africa.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore) and The Journal of Anglican Studies Trust 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Oduyoye, M.A., ‘The Search for a Two Winged Theology: Women's Participation in the Development of Theology in Africa: The Inaugural Address’, in Oduyoye, M.A. and Kanyoro, Musimbi R.A. (eds.), Talitha Qumi! Proceedings of the Convocation of African Women Theologians 1989 (Ibadan: Daystar Press, 1990), pp. 2748 (27).Google Scholar

2. Mosala, I.J., Biblical Hermeneutics and Black Theology in South Africa (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1989)Google Scholar. Another African scholar, Laurenti Magesa has put forward his defence of a socio-centric biblical hermeneutics against what he calls ‘a privatized’ hermeneutics. See his ‘From Privatized to Popular Biblical Hermeneutics in Africa’, in Kinoti, H.W. and Waliggo, J.M. (eds.), The Bible in African Christianity: Essays in Biblical Theology (Nairobi: Acton, 1997), pp. 2539.Google Scholar

3. Trible, Phyllis, ‘Feminist Hermeneutics and Biblical Studies’, in Loades, A. (ed.), Feminist Theology: A Reader (London: SPCK, 1990), pp. 2329 (23).Google Scholar

4. Fiorenza, E. Schüssler, Bread Not Stone: The Challenge of Feminist Biblical Interpretation (Boston: Beacon Press, 1985), p. xiii.Google Scholar

5. Trible, P., Texts of Terror: Literary-feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984).Google Scholar

6. Okure, T., ‘Women in the Bible’, in Fabella, V. and Oduyoye, M.A. (eds.), With Passion and Compassion: Third World Women Doing Theology (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988), p. 56.Google Scholar

7. Okure, T., ‘The Significance Today of Jesus' Commission to Mary Magdalene’, International Review of Mission 81.322 (1992), pp. 177–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Okure, T., ‘Feminist Interpretations in Africa’, in Fiorenza, E. Schüssler (ed.), Searching the Scriptures (2 vols.; London: SCM Press, 19931994), I, pp. 7685 (77).Google Scholar

9. Oduyoye, M.A., Hearing and Knowing: Theological Reflections on Christianity in Africa (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1986), p. 147.Google Scholar

10. Kanyoro, M., ‘Bible Studies at the Convocation’, in Oduyoye and Kanyoro (eds.) Talitha Qumi!, pp. 5253.Google Scholar

11. Dube, M., ‘Fifty Years of Bleeding: A Storytelling Feminist Reading of Mark 5:24–43’, in Dube, M. (ed.), Other Ways of Reading: African Women and the Bible (Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2001), pp. 5060.Google Scholar

12. Dube, M., Postcolonial Feminist Interpretaion of the Bible (Missouri: Chalice Press, 2000), p. 20.Google Scholar

13. Dube, M., Other Ways of Reading the Bible: African Women and the Bible (Geneva: WCC, 2001), p. 3.Google Scholar

14. Okure, , ‘Feminist Interpretations in Africa’, p. 76.Google Scholar

15. Kanyoro, M., ‘Feminist Theology and African Culture’, in Wamue, Grace and Getui, Mary (eds.), Violence against Women (Nairobi: Acton, 1996), pp. 412 (5).Google Scholar

16. ‘Violence against Women in African Oral Literature as Portrayed in Proverbs’ in Wamue, and Getui, , Violence against Women, pp. 1320.Google Scholar

17. ‘The Status of Women in African Naming Systems’, in Wamue, and Getui, , Violence against Women, pp. 2739.Google Scholar

18. ‘Gender Violence and Exploitation: The Widow's Dilemma’, in Wamue, and Getui, , Violence against Women, pp. 4048.Google Scholar

19. In Oduyoye, M.A. (ed.), Transforming Power: Women in the Household of God: Proceedings of the Pan African Conference of the Circle (Accra-North: Sam-Woode Limited for Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, 1997), pp. 96101.Google Scholar

20. Amoah, E. (ed.), Where God Reigns: Reflections on Women in God's World (Accra: Sam Wood, 1997).Google Scholar

21. See n. 19.

22. Nyambura, N. and Musimbi, K. (eds.), Groaning in Faith: African Women in the Household of God (Nairobi: Acton, 1996).Google Scholar

23. Wamue, and Getui, (eds.), Violence against Women.Google Scholar

24. Getui, Mary N. and Ayanga, Hazel (eds.), Conflicts in Africa: A Women's Response (Nairobi: Faith Institute of Counselling, 2002).Google Scholar

25. Phiri, I., Devakarsham, B.G. and Saronjini, N. (eds.), Her Stories: Hidden Histories of Women of Faith in Africa (Pietermaritzburg: Cluster, 2002).Google Scholar