Author: Caryn D. Riswold

[1] What will they call us? There is a micro-generation of women whose entire reproductive lives were carried out under the protection of Roe v. Wade. Those of us who came of age with the knowledge that we were (more or less) trusted to make our own decisions about when and how to parent. We […]

Thank God for the Academic Vocation [1] Thank God for the academic vocation. Without it, I have no idea when I would eventually meet, know, and eventually become a female leader in the Lutheran church. Insofar as colleges and universities continue to exist as expressions of the church in the world, female faculty have a […]

Caryn Riswold addresses two important concepts: the social construction of gender and the Lutheran theology of being created in God’s image. In speaking to all spheres of societal identifies, Riswold challenges the reader to think about how all gender identities can be protected and celebrated in the church as the image of God.

[1] Their sheer pervasiveness makes it hard to believe that Disney Princesses, reality television, toy commercials demanding that boys are “just different,” and the pinking of all things “girly” only took a commanding hold of our consumer culture after those jets brought down the World Trade Center towers live on morning television ten years ago. […]

[1] My systematic theologian’s mind has serious limitations when it comes to talking about genetics, medical science, and the age of biological intervention. One thing I can say with a great deal of confidence is that science clearly shows us that human beings are complicated: in every way and at every level, physical and biological, […]