💾 Archived View for scholasticdiversity.us.to › theology › contextualTheologies.gmi captured on 2024-03-21 at 15:09:06. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

View Raw

More Information

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Scholastic Diversity: Theology > Contextual Theologies

Many have heard of Feminism, but how many have heard of Womanism or Mujerismo (aka. Latina Womanism)?

Womanism focuses on the experiences of Black Women, in contrast to Feminism, which has been criticized as being primarily White Women's perspectives. Mujerismo is similar, but for Latina Women.

While these are relevant for various fields, they are especially relevant for contextual theology, theology and scriptural interpretation that is contextualized to the experiences of certain people and groups.

Contextual theologies also include postcolonial theology, which focuses on addressing colonization issues. This includes reconciling with the historical colonial imposition of a religion on a group of people, and how the religion's theology either justifies that or can denounce/alleviate it. It takes into account how religions and their developed theologies and doctrines have helped colonization and oppression.

Another contextual and post-colonial theology is LGBTQ+ Theology. It seeks to understand how religions have oppressed and marginalized lesbians, gays, bisexuals, trans, intersexuals, and other sexual or gender minorities. There's quite a bit of overlap between Feminism and LGBTQ+ Theology, often including many scholars who study both. Marcella Althaus-Reid is one such scholar who writes on and fuses both topics. Susannah Heshel (Abraham Heschel's daughter) and Judith Plaskow also work in both topics.

Much of LGBTQ+ Theology also takes inspiration from two contrasting ideas:

The mainstream Gay Rights Movement, which uses the slogan "born this way" to point to the biological or innate sexuality of a person

and Queer Theory, which is itself influenced by women's studies, post-structuralism, and, for much (but not all) of queer theory, the view of socially-constructed gender and sexual categories.

Many queer theory scholars are influenced by the French post-structuralist philosopher Michael Foucault, who viewed different sexualities as a result of power dynamics and thus held that sexuality is socially constructed.

Another influential individual is Jonathan Ned Katz, who wrote an article and a book both titled The Invention of Heterosexuality. In the article, he argues that the introduction of the term heterosexual was to contrast and differentiate heterosexuals from homosexual culture at the time, and that there is no distinction between homosexuals and heterosexuals (again, the view that these identities are socially constructed).

Queer theory has both influenced and been criticized by those who believe sexuality is biological or innate in some sense. It has also been criticized by some feminists for undermining Feminism with its view of a socially-constructed gender. However, not all of queer theory holds to the idea of socially constructed sexuality.

This brings us to the mainstream Gay Rights Movement, which believes in biological or innate sexuality - that one is "born this way". This came out of a response to oppression and the need for sexual liberation. However, Kim Q. Hall argues, in her Thinking Queerly about Sex and Sexuality, that the mainstream Gay Rights Movement has often advocated for liberating one group of people at the expense of those even more marginalized. An example is gay men rejecting or ignoring bisexuals or trans people.

Lastly, there's contemporary gay spirituality, which is influenced by the "third-gendered" and those with two spirits in many Native American and indigenous traditions. They can be seen as liminal - in between - similar to other spiritual roles which are also liminal (e.g., intercessors, shamans, and healers).

List of Contextual Theologies

Here is a list of Contextual Theologies:

Book List

General

Feminist/Womanist

African

Disability

LGBTQ+

Grawmeyer Award

2020 Reference Award (Association of Jewish Libraries) and 2020 Anthology Award (Lambda Literary Foundation)

2005 Koret Jewish Book Award for Philosophy and Thought