Gender and Women’s issues; Feminist/Mujerista/Womanist Theologies

In the past few decades, many more texts about women in the Reformation have been unearthed, giving us a much fuller view of who these women were and how they impacted the Lutheran movement. Stjerna commends social historians and translators for working with these texts and urges theologians to explore these texts as well. She then explores how women’s public roles were inscribed into the household as convents ceased being an option for women. Finally, Stjerna examines the primary examples of women who did write their theology during this time, particularly in letters. ​

Work on this issue of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics began while I was an intern at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America last summer for the Theological Discernment Team. I was given the task of beginning the editorial process for a future issue. As someone with a strong interest in feminist theology and issues pertaining to women, surrogacy (particularly commercial surrogacy) was a captivating topic. It raised a number of thought-provoking questions…

In her article, Surekha Nelavala compares surrogacy practices in India to those in North America. Writing from a feminist perspective, she contrasts surrogate mothers in North America who give “a priceless gift to the intended parents,” with the Indian fertility clinics, often dubbed “baby factories.” The thrust of the article deals with the dilemma that, while providing much needed income to many Indian families and thereby temporarily empowering surrogate mothers, the practices of the Indian surrogacy industry exploit and objectify surrogate mothers, often having disastrous and life-threatening effects on their lives and their families.

Namsoon Kang, Diasporic Feminist Theology: Asia and Theopolitical Imagination. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014, 378 pages, $39.00.

West, Traci C. Disruptive Christian Ethics: When Racism and Women’s Lives Matter. Lexington, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006, 216 pages, paperback, $29.95.

As the articles in this issue of JLE demonstrate, Gender Justice is a global concern and phenomenon from Germany to India to Palestine to the United States. Please take time to read and reflect on these articles and consider the question of “How, then, shall we live?” I am grateful to Dr. Mary J. Streufert, […]

Mary Streufert explores the “otherizing” of women in historical and modern times by analyzing themes of justification and theology of the cross. Streufert compares modern advertisements to ancient sculpture to lend a visual illustration to the concept.

Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar opens with two case studies from India that demonstrate the connection between violence and patriarchy. She uses the studies to lead into a mapping of patterns of violence in patriarchal culture that exist in societies worldwide.

Niveen Sarras highlights the nameless girl and the father-son duo in Amos 2:7c and brings context to the story by examining the rest of the book of Amos, arguing that the girl was raped. Sarras then uses the Amos story to explore the rape culture in modern Palestine and narrates the deep need for change.

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.