Divine Words, Female Voices: Muslima Explorations in Comparative Feminist Theology

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-404
Author(s):  
Clinton Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theology ◽  
Female Voices ◽  
Divine Words

Divine Words, Female Voices

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerusha Tanner Lamptey
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Feminist Theology ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Women Scholars ◽  
Female Voices ◽  
Divine Words ◽  
Vital Resource

Interreligious feminist engagement is a legitimate and vital resource for Muslim women scholars seeking to articulate egalitarian interpretations of Islamic traditions and practices. Acknowledging very real challenges within interreligious feminist engagement, Divine Words, Female Voices: Muslima Explorations in Comparative Feminist Theology uses the method of comparative feminist theology to skillfully navigate these challenges, avoid impositions of absolute similarity, and propose new, constructive insights in Muslima theology. Divine Words, Female Voices reorients the comparative theological conversation around the two “Divine Words,” around the Qur’an and Jesus Christ, rather than Prophet Muhammad and Jesus Christ, or the Qur’an and the Bible. Building on this analogical foundation, it engages diverse Muslim and Christian feminist, womanist, and mujerista voices on a variety of central theological themes. Divine Words, Female Voices explores intersections, discontinuities, and resultant insights that arise in relation to divine revelation; textual hermeneutics of the hadith and Bible; Prophet Muhammad and Mary as feminist exemplars; theological anthropology and freedom; and ritual prayer, tradition, and change.

Muslima Theology as Comparative Feminist Theology

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerusha Tanner Lamptey
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theology ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Unique Combination ◽  
Deep Knowledge ◽  
Divine Words

This chapter focuses on Muslima theology and outlines its unique combination of constructive, theological, and comparative lenses. It situates Muslima theology within the larger method of comparative theology, and argues for the suitability of this method due to its requirement of deep knowledge of other traditions, its capacity to foster identification of more precise and meaningful points of comparison, and its relegation of assumptions of parity. The chapter then outlines the unique specifics of this project as a form of comparative feminist theology, including its Islam-to-Christianity orientation and its focus on feminist theological methods and concerns. The chapter concludes by introducing the new starting analogy of the two “Divine Words” (the Qur’an and Jesus) and resultant reorientation of the comparative project and methodological form.

Male and Female Voices: Selective Exposure to Sexism Reduction Efforts

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah J. Smith ◽  
Jessica L. McManus ◽  
Danielle C. Zanotti ◽  
Donald A. Saucier
Keyword(s):  
Selective Exposure ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Female Voices

Creation as Text: The Graphological Trope in Said Nursi's Risāle-i nūr

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 89-113
Author(s):  
Colin Turner
Keyword(s):  
Extensive Survey ◽  
Faith Traditions ◽  
Divine Words ◽  
Said Nursi

Reading the act of creation as written or spoken narrative seems to have gained currency across the faith traditions from very early on. The Muslim tradition is no exception. As the ‘pen and ink’ verse in the Qur'an shows, the notion of creation as an assemblage of divine words is as old as Islam itself. It was not until the advent of Muslim mysticism, however, that writers began to build on the image's revelatory foundations. The present study is an introductory analysis of extended metaphor in the work of the Ottoman theologian Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, with particular reference to the use of the ‘graphological trope’ in his six-thousand-page exegesis of the Qur'an known as the Risale-i Nur (‘The Epistles of Light’). The aim is to draw attention to Nursi's use of a particular literary conceit that is deserving of further study. Of the few works on Nursi and his teachings that stand up to serious academic scrutiny, nothing of substance has been written about the language of the Risale-i Nur. It is hoped that this exploratory article will spur other scholars on to a more extensive survey and analysis of imagery in Nursi's oeuvre.

Notes on How to Read the Song of Songs

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Я. Эйделькинд
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Lyric Poetry ◽  
Song Of Songs ◽  
Widespread Belief ◽  
Female Voices ◽  
Speaking Voice

Эта статья содержит ряд соображений о том, как читать Песнь песней. Будучи сборником лирической поэзии, Песнь песней работает в первую очередь со звуком и не имеет сюжета. Важную роль играет принцип разнообразия и контраста. Серьёзный тон сменяется юмористическим, и наоборот. Гендерные стереотипы сохраняют свою силу в одних случаях, но подрываются в других. Сексуальная физиология, вопреки распространенному мнению, не находится на первом плане — гораздо важнее эмоции (факт, противоречащий как «духовным», так и «плотским» прочтениям). Отождествление читателя с лирическим голосом ведёт к субъективным интерпретациям. Последние вполне законны, пока не претендуют на то, чтобы быть единственно верными. Три контекста помогают понять Песнь песней: древний культурный контекст, более узкий контекст Ветхого Завета и контекст лирической традиции от древности до наших дней. This article is an attempt to formulate some principles of reading the Songs of Songs that would take into account its genre and poetic features. Being a collection of lyric poetry, the Song of Songs works primarily with sound and has no plot. An important role in its composition plays the principle of diversity and contrast. A serious tone gives place to a humorous one, and vice versa. Female voices alternate with male ones; gender stereotypes in some cases retain their power, but in others are subverted. Sexual physiology, contrary to a widespread belief, is not in the foreground — much more important are emotions. This fact belies both “spiritual” and “carnal” readings. The Song of Songs involves an identification of the reader with the lyrical speaking voice and provokes subjective interpretations. These are legitimate as long as they do not pretend to be the only true ones. Three contexts help to understand Song of Songs: ancient cultural context, a narrower Old Testament context and the context of the lyrical tradition from antiquity to the present day.

Words in the World

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerusha Tanner Lamptey
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Marginal Groups ◽  
Rosemary Radford Ruether ◽  
The World ◽  
Divine Words

Using the analogy of the two Divine Words, this chapter begins by exploring pressing debates in contemporary Islamic feminist and Muslima theological engagement with the Qur’an, debates that arise out of the underlying problematic of the Word in the world. The chapter, then, explores Christian perspectives on Jesus Christ from Rosemary Radford Ruether, Jacquelyn Grant, Kwok Pui-lan, and Ada María Isasi-Díaz. These theologians discuss topics ranging from the language and symbols invoked to describe Jesus to the value assigned to particular human markings of Jesus (inclusive of but not limited to Jesus’s maleness) to the affiliations of Jesus with power and marginal groups. The chapter concludes by returning to Muslima theology and constructively proposing an approach to the Qur’an that embraces hybridity, human experience, and a preference for the marginalized.

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