Catholic Women Religious in an Age of Fracture

2021 ◽  
pp. 201-220
Author(s):  
Kathleen Sprows Cummings
Author(s):  
Peggy Delmas ◽  
Nataliya Ivankova

This study addresses the lack of scholarly attention focused on educational contributions of Catholic women religious educators. Using a qualitative multiple case study, this research describes the academic experiences of Catholic sisters, or women religious, serving as faculty at public universities in the South. The study highlights issues related to gender, religious identity, environment, relationships, and experiences and perceptions of others as they pertain to the academic experiences of Catholic women religious. Implications of the study point to an underutilization of the outsider perspective which could potentially benefit the academy, as well as the need for diversity training in the academy. The study expands the knowledge base for subsequent research in the areas of Catholic women religious faculty members in higher education and religious identity of faculty members in higher education.


2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah McFarland Taylor

AbstractThis article explores the growing movement of environmentally activist Roman Catholic women religious in North America and the implications of this movement for theorizing new directions in religion and culture. Sisters' creative efforts to conserve traditional religious and cultural forms while opening up these forms to "greener" (ecologically-minded) interpretations reveals the very protean process of religious meaning-making. It also subsequently challenges more static and conventional theoretical models of religion. In particular, the author documents and analyzes the intertwining of bioregional philosophies of "reinhabitation," expressions of American Catholic religious life, and manifestations of "green culture." Integrating geographic, ethnographic, and historical methodologies, the author argues that when researchers approach the study of religion as "biogeographers," they discover complex levels of religious understanding and expression that are otherwise overlooked. Significantly, it is these frequently-missed dimensions of the religious landscape that more accurately reflect the "living and lived" quality of religion.


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