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

[1] Exactly a year after I started my term as Bishop, I found myself on the way to Bolivia. The Montana Synod of the ELCA is partnered with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bolivia, and a group of us had been invited to celebrate the church’s 70th anniversary. I had some apprehension about the visit. […]

[1] In the months leading to the 2009 Churchwide Assembly and the votes on rostering people in lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships, many drew parallels to the decisions in predecessor church bodies to ordain women. What should the biblical basis be for such a decision? What kind of procedure should be required? What kind of assent […]

[1] The Lutheran Church of Australia came into being in 1966 as the result of the union of two Synods, the ELCA and the UELCA.[1] In 1951, as part of the long walk to union, the Joint Intersynodical Committees agreed upon a ten point document on Scripture and Inspiration which formed Section VIII of The […]

Following is a script from a presentation given by Dr. Karen Bloomquist for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cameroon. [1] Since 1984 the clear official position of the Lutheran World Federation has been in favor of the ordination of women. Now, approximately 63 million, out of a total of 68 million members, belong to LWF […]

In October 1981 the United Evangelical Lutheran Church (la Iglesia Evangélica Luterana Unida, IELU) in Argentina voted to permit the ordination of women. IELU took up the issue because there were for the first time women in the seminary preparing to be pastors. While there was opposition to allowing women into the church’s ordained ministry, […]

[1] Gender and sexuality present two of the most basic and intimate forms of difference, differences that inescapably pervade familial and social relationships. For this reason, how people conceive of differences between male and female affects their fundamental perception of the world and their place in it. In the history of Christianity, women generally have […]

[1] It began with a phone call. It was Karen, a friend whom I’d known since my childhood.[1] Although we didn’t see or talk to one another as much now as when we were kids, we were still close. But, on the phone this day she sounded different: she was tentative, unsure of herself, fumbling […]

[1] The Focus Kerala, a southern state in India, recently witnessed an unprecedented political uprising in the form of an Adivasi-Dalit movement for land rights and self-determination. This struggle1 has a long-drawn-out history, with political ideologies and parties of various persuasions taking up and sponsoring the struggles of Dalits and Adivasis in Kerala. However, what […]

Copyright © 1995 WORD & WORLD, Luther Seminary. Used with permission. From Word & World, Volume XV, Number 3, pp. 272-278. [1] Luther’s teaching and practice of vocation has impacted women’s lives dramatically, but history’s jury is at odds over the results. Should we praise the doctor and his doctrine or vilify them? Is Lutheran […]