Back in August, I posted Some opening thoughts on religious faith and social justice. I’ve been wanting to move beyond opening thoughts, but I’ve been at a loss as to what to say since.
I think that a lot of the sadness and hostility I see directed towards religious feminists is from people who’ve had terrible experiences with mainstream, or not so mainstream, Christianity as practiced in highly Christian areas. I’ve had some pretty awful experiences at the hands of such groups, too. The difference is that I’ve also had the good fortune to associate with people, including feminist people, from a variety of spiritual and faith paths, who are so loving, who are so fierce, who are so about social justice, that I’m inspired thinking about how a fusion of often quite different rituals, traditions, and ideas can work to make the world a better place. When I look at religious people with a social justice bent working together, I see some pretty amazing stuff come out. It’s a little bit of the world social justice aims for: people who are very different being accepting and loving and building each other up.
Here was an answer to my roadblock. I thought, why not gather a bunch of religious and spiritual feminists together and let them speak on their individual stories?
I’m hoping to start an interview series here, and am gathering lists of questions and potential interviewees. I’m not going to do the thing where one person is meant to represent one tradition, because this is about honouring the specificity of experience. I’m excited.
I’ll probably add a few tailored questions for each interviewee, but here are the standard questions I’ve drafted:
1. Tell us about the formation of your feminist identity, and your faith one.
2. How is your feminism tied to your faith?
3. Have you experienced conflicts between your faith and your feminism? Have you had to make compromises?
4. What kinds of responses to your being a feminist of faith have you received? From feminists, your faith community, or others?
5. How can feminism and faith usefully work together?
So, a new project. What do you think? Have you any suggestions?
Another question I thought about:
What aspects or parts of your faith inspires your feminism?
Suggestions of who to interview:
stargazer
Kristina Keneally
This sounds so great! I think you should interview ladyofthelog/verity. Her insights into faith and feminism are deeply interesting.
Super excited for you to be doing this, Chally! It’s a topic I’m personally very interested in, and I think you will do it definite justice. I like the questions you’ve laid out, and would be interested in a broadening of the question about compromises – like, when one has had to compromise on either faith or feminism, from where did the pressure come, and was one more difficult than the other? In different cultures/societies/communities, is it more expected that one or the other would be pushed aside? Etc…
My feminism and my spiritual path (I don’t call it my ‘faith’) are inextricably linked. This should be a fascinating series, Chally!
Oooo I am excited to read this! If you dare to open the potential can of worms, I would love to read about any thoughts on the pro-life/choice issue and how both faith and feminism affect their veiws on it…
Oh, great, thank you so much, all. I’m glad other people are interested.
i love this conversation and am so glad you’re broaching it.
This sounds awesome – looking forward to seeing the interviews!
Definitely sounds interesting! I’d be particularly hopeful of the inclusion of victims of religious abuse or abuse within a religious context who still consider themselves spiritual or religious (speaking as a member myself of that group, specifically under the patriarchal/dominionist doctrines of female submission).
Great idea, Chally! I’ll be very interested in this series.
I’m curious whether and how feminist theologians — that is, not just theologians who identify as feminists, but women and men who work in the subdiscipline of feminist theology — fit into this series. It seems a bit of a different question than “how do you hold your faith and your feminism together?”, but on the other hand, it might provide particularly in-depth answers to that question.
I can suggest http://womenintheology.org/ as a place to find Catholic feminist theologian bloggers.
Oh, and I’ll suggest a couple of additional questions:
- what are the challenges you encounter as a feminist in your faith community and/or tradition?
- what are the challenges you encounter as a person of faith in your feminist community?
Following on gaudetetheology’s comment – I’d be interested in what the non-feminist theologians you interview think about feminist (and womanist) theology/ies. Have feminist theologies played an important role in their spiritual development, are they even familiar with them in the first place (and if so, HOW), etc.
I’m just catching up with my blog reading, and I’m so thrilled to see this post. I want to explore faith and feminism more myself, but to be honest, I lack the sanity points to take on the amount of loathing and ridicule that is aimed at one who discloses that one is a theist, particularly a Christian theist.
If you’d like another interviewee, I’d be happy to participate.
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This is a great series. As a Christian feminist who often feels isolated in both feminist and Christian circles, thank you!