AbstractBiblical texts are assumed by communities that use them to be authoritative texts that should guide human relations positively. The phrase 'liberating the word', originating among biblical feminists, however, suggests two issues: first, it points to inherent limitations of the biblical scriptures; second, it places an ethical call on the reader/interpreter to take responsibility for liberating the word. Drawing from her experience as a Tswana African woman, the author analyses Matthew 23, which she reads as colonizing rhetoric of suppressing the Other. She discusses this text in the context of the colonial missionary approach in Africa, which was characterized by condemnation of all that was unfamiliar and a celebration of European culture. She argues that this approach was also scripturally informed.

AbstractMbuya Nehanda, an African indigenous priestess and freedom fighter, uttered the words “my bones shall rise again” when the British colonialists sentenced her to death in 1862, for leading a resistance movement against the infiltration of colonizers in her motherland, contemporary Zimbabwe. Her story and words articulate resistance against bodily, spiritual, cultural, economic, political, and intellectual annihilation through the forces of colonization. Her story and words provide a decolonizing African feminist framework discourse, which is Earth and spiritually centered. This chapter congregates the narratives of various legendary African women to highlight decolonizing, depatriarchalizing, and anti-anthropocentric feminist knowledge production they model. By reading the narratives of African legendary women, who were spiritual, environmental, political, and freedom icons, this chapter seeks to highlight Africa-informed knowledges about gender construction and liberation from various forms of oppression.

AbstractThe chapter’s exposition highlights that African eco-feminisms are founded upon African cosmologies; African histories; and contemporary experiences and movements; and that they are intersectional, interreligious, ecumenical, and activist in character. The chapter also explores the linkage and experiences of Mother Earth and Mother Africa and their intersections with slavery, colonialism, neo-liberalism, gender, class, race, sexuality, religion, ethnicity, gender-based violence, and postcoloniality. The chapter’s exposition further indicates that African eco-feminisms are a depatriarchal, decolonial and an oppositional discourse, seeking to be in solidarity with Mother Earth and all groups that find themselves marginalized by the exploitation and oppression of Planet Earth. The chapter highlights how the book contents explore African eco-feminisms from the perspectives of African women writers. This book is therefore a contribution to African literary criticism, African Indigenous knowledges, Global South theologies, earth-care theologies and feminist /womanist eco-critical movements.

AbstractThis chapter presents a narrative reflection of all the chapters in this volume. Highlighting the transformative role of African women, particularly elderly women, in shaping philosophical and ethical narratives within the traditional hearth setting. It places an interest in the interconnectedness of humans and nature, spotlighting the symbolic inclusion of animals within the community and the philosophy of ubuntu, encapsulated in “umuntu ngu muntu nga bantu,” which underscores human interdependence as emphasized in the volume. The chapter identified the displacement of women from traditional power spaces, leading to, among others, the establishment of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians in 1989. It highlights how African women scholars within the Circle challenge patriarchal philosophies, contributing to gender-inclusive liberation. Written in a poetic style, the chapter invites a global dialogue, emphasizing the crucial interconnectedness of all individuals (and all creation) in fostering liberated and just societies for current and future generations.

AbstractThis article reviews the gendered Pentecostal Bible as documented by various researchers. It assesses how the prophetic-spirit framework encounters and functions within the framework of the inerrant but patriarchal written word. The Spirit framework is an oral canon that opens spaces of gender empowerment. Yet Pentecostal scholars problematise the supposedly liberating Spirit, highlighting that it sometimes denies the materiality of human existence and inhabits the constraining parameters of patriarchal church structures. The article suggests that in addition to the Spirit-Word framework, new Pentecostal theological categories, such as healing and deliverance and the prosperity gospel need to be investigated for the new spaces they open for gender justice. ‘The authority of the Bible as the word of God, and the experience of the Holy Spirit form two of the most important sources of Pentecostal theology’ (Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu 2004:390).

AbstractThe relationship between postcolonialism and feminism is often complicated and conflict-laden in its struggles against empire and patriarchy and its related social categories of oppression. The question is, How have African women in former colonies balanced their act ? To address this question, the article focusses on Boleo, A Setswana Novel . Firstly, theories of post-coloniality and feminism are explored. Secondly, four creative African women writers are analysed for their take on the intersection of postcolonialism and feminism prior to reading Boleo, A Setswana Novel. Thirdly, the analysis of Boleo indicates boundary crossing and cross-border oppressions and solidarity in the struggle against apartheid that features a female protagonist and other minor characters. It is proposed that because the novel equates apartheid with sin ( boleo ), it thus constructs salvation as the concerted communal efforts of resistance and suspicion towards the institutions of the oppressor, characterised by baitiredi [independent or self-actualising workers], a political movement founded by Boleo. The analysis of the African novel indicates that the struggle against colonial and patriarchy gave rise to the First Things First; Second Things First and Both Things Simultaneously approaches, which are evident within African women creative writers. Contribution: This article adheres to the journal’s scope and vision by its focus on a systematic, historical, exegetical and practical reflection within a paradigm in which the intersection of philosophy, religious studies, social sciences and humanities generate an interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary contested discourse.

Abstract[republication] Musa W. Dube As a young girl, one of the derisive comments I frequently heard at our family retail shop was: “Dilo ke lona le tsile le tlola melolwane le melolwane; dinoka le dinokana, le tsile go bapala kwano. ” That is, “you came crossing one boundary after another, one river after another to trade in our country. ” The subtext in the statement was that we were foreigners who did not deserve, or had merely been favored to access economic resources in Botswana. My parents and five of my eldest siblings were born in Zimbabwe, and the last five of us were born in Botswana. Before we migrated to Botswana, it had happened that the village where my parents lived was declared a white man’s ranch. Indigenous people in the area were given two choices: to remain in their homes and assume the status of servants to the owner...

AbstractThe article first compares the apocryphal Acts with the ancient novel, highlights the function of nostalgia in both sets of texts, and considers the connection between the tendency to characterize women as rich and the authorship of the apocryphal Acts. Next it compares the apocryphal Acts with the Pastoral epistles (especially 1 Timothy) in an attempt to illuminate the agenda of the former (nostalgia for a past that actually existed but is now under threat). Finally it considers the history of women in African Independent Churches in Southern Africa in light of the apocryphal Acts to empower women in Southern Africa and elsewhere to claim their his/herstory against gender discrimination in the church and society.--C.R.M. Abstract Number: NTA44-2000-2-1477

AbstractThe article carries out a postcolonial feminist reading of Genesis 34, taking up the intersection of gender, race, class and violence in the colonial space.

AbstractIn the globalization era, justice-seeking feminist theologies are challenged to sharpen and reposition themselves to speak to the issues of the time by adopting new methods, topics, and frameworks. Consequently, “the boundaries of theology need to be redrawn in the light of the creation of new global cultures” and “crucial to the task of rewriting the story of feminist theology in the light of globalization is reflecting on the nature of a theological perspective it makes.” This chapter explores the interrelations of globalization, a world scripture (the Bible), and the vision of feminist theologies.

AbstractBiAS 39 is an essay collection on women’s Liberation Theology in West Africa, issued as one of three regional volumes commissioned in preparation of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians’ (CIRCLE) return to Ghana, its place of birth, after 35 years. The volumes rose within the context of preparing the meeting in July 2024 by remembering the founding members of the CIRCLE. The three regional volumes focus on exploring South (BiAS 41), East/Central (BiAS 40) and West African (BiAS 39) womanist/feminist Liberation Theology generated since the launch of the CIRCLE in 1989. The contributions on the lives and works of groundbreaking African women in the Theology of Liberation constitute an international, interreligious, and interdisciplinary compendium for redemptive theological research. The book is dedicated to Rabiatu Deinyo Ammah, the first Muslim woman in the CIRCLE and one its founding matriarchs.

AbstractThe link between inequality, poverty and gender discrimination on the other hand is very strong.... The starting point for an adequate response is the understanding that any bid to halt the AIDS epidemic has to include determined efforts to eradicate poverty.

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AbstractThe first part of the paper will spend much of its introductory energies on globalization. The rest of the paper will then explore in broad outlines how globalization is related to postcolonialism, gender and religion. My approach, as the title suggests, is through "looking back in order to look forward", which basically means I will briefly assess some of my published works and their position towards globalization.

AbstractThe article utilises narrative, feminist, postcolonial and HIV and AIDS frameworkd to read Mark 5:21-43

AbstractThis paper discusses my activities in the classroom and beyond to address African contexts of the HIV and AIDS crisis. Alongside an account of my strategies, encounters and journeys, I discuss the activist Gugu Dlamini and Mmutle, a trickster of African folklore. Both act as inspirations for the role of change agent.

AbstractThe chapter underlines and highlights ways of mainstreaming gender and decoloniality into the study of African Indigenous Religions. The chapter is an important introduction to the untutored by laying out the vital structures of African Indigenous Religions while highlighting points of gender-sensitive aspects. The chapter identifies the main structure of African Indigenous Religion/s as consisting of the Divine, Ancestors, and the Earth Community. It underlines that in West African cosmology, the Divine is followed by gods and goddesses, who precede ancestors. The paper investigates how gender was conceptualized across these key areas. It also highlights how the colonial history impacted the African worldview and shifted gender towards a patriarchal worldview, hence underlining decolonization as vital to the study of African Indigenous Religion/s.

AbstractIntroductionProblematizing of Frameworks of AIR(s)Community, Postcolonialism, and FeminismThe Future of Feminist African Religion

AbstractThe chapter explores the construction of space, postcoloniality, religion and gender among African writers.

AbstractDie postkoloniale Theologie ist in den letzten Jahren zu einem der wichtigsten und innovativsten Felder innerhalb der interkulturellen Theologie avanciert. TheologInnen aus Asien, Afrika und Lateinamerika haben begonnen, die Konstruktionen postkolonialer Identitäten theologisch zu reflektieren. Dabei nehmen sie Bezug auf kulturwissenschaftliche Diskurse, die in den letzten Jahren an Bedeutung gewonnen haben. Bislang sind allerdings postkoloniale theologische Entwürfe im deutschsprachigen Raum weitgehend unbekannt geblieben. Dieser Band führt zunächst in die Entwicklungsgeschichte und gegenwärtige zentrale Positionen der postkolonialen Theologie ein. Daran anschließend werden die wichtigsten Aufsätze aus den letzten Jahren erstmals in deutscher Übersetzung publiziert, um Studierenden und allen Interessierten den Zugang zu dieser theologischen Richtung zu erleichtern.

AbstractThe article investigates how Purple Hibiscus utilizes intertextuality and explores the intersection of class, gender, race, postcoloniality and violence in a context of theological imagination represented by two siblings, who express their Roman Catholic faith differently. The character of Papa Eugene, whose extreme religiosity and violence pervades the book, is depicted as a colonized subject, who embodies epistemic violence of a colonial past. The decolonizing postcolonial feminist perspective of the book is best modeled by the character of Aunty Ifeoma and how she expresses her Christian faith as an African woman. Whereas, Aunty Ifeoma is an articulate intellectual, women of different status are shown to use different means of resisting patriarchy and violence in the quest for liberating relationships, thereby modeling various expressions of feminist agency. This paper, therefore, explores the intersectionality of gender, class, race, religion, postcoloniality and power in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s debuting novel, Purple Hibiscus set in a political context of a military coup in Nigeria.

AbstractThis wide-ranging reader provides a comprehensive survey of the interaction between postcolonial criticism and biblical studies. It examines how various empires such as the Persian and Roman affected biblical narratives. It demonstrates how different biblical writers such as Paul, Matthew and Mark handled the challenges of empire. It includes examples of the practical application of postcolonial criticism to biblical texts. It considers contemporary issues such as diaspora, race, representation and territory. It features editorial commentary that draws out the key points to be made and creates a coherent narrative. - Theoretical practices -- Empires old and new -- Empire and exegesis -- Postcolonial concerns

AbstractThe book explore biblical portrayal of commercial sex and analysis the interpretation, particularly feminist readers.

AbstractThe article theorizes the Ghanaian Sankofa symbol and applies the framework to assess the work of the Circle of African Women Theologians in the past thirty-five years (1989–2023). It is highlighted that the Sankofa symbol denotes movement and activity in the cosmology and African Indigenous Religious and cultural thought, for history, culture, spirituality, economics, and political relationships, among others, are not regarded as static. It is proposed that the Sankofa philosophical framework entails a three-time framework: namely, the present, the past, and the future, which are repeated multiple times on the journey of life, reading, interpretation, and theologizing. The Sankofa symbol also denotes the interconnection between these three phases of life. The article thus assesses The Circle of African Women’s Theologian’s multiple Sankofa acts in African Indigenous Religions in the past thirty-five years. The work of women from East, West, South, and the African diaspora is assessed, and their major ideas are highlighted.

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AbstractClick to read more about Talitha Cum! : the grace of solidarity in a globalized world by Mario Degiglio-Bellemare. LibraryThing is a cataloging and social networking site for booklovers

AbstractAfrica has seen many political crises ranging from violent political ideologies, to meticulous articulated racist governance system, to ethnic clashes resulting in genocide and religious conflicts that have planted the seed of mutual suspicion.The masses impacted by such crises live with the past that has not passed. The Healing of Memories: African Christian Responses to Politically Induced Trauma examines Christian responses to the damaging impact of conflict on the collective memory. Troubled memory is a recipe for another cycle of conflict. While most academic works tend to stress forgiving and forgetting, they did not offer much as to how to deal with the unforgettable past. This book aims to fill this gap by charting an interdisciplinary approach to healing the corrosive memories of painful pasts. Taking a cue from the empirical expositions of post-apartheid South Africa, post-genocide Rwanda, the Congo Wars, and post-Red Terror Ethiopia, this volume brings together coherent healing approaches to deal with traumatic memory.

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AbstractRooted in the rich story-telling tradition of Africa, this volume of essays, the first of its kind, highlights the unique approach African women bring to reading and interpreting the Bible in their diverse historical and cultural contexts. Early bible translation and interpretation in Africa was carried out primarily by foreign missionaries and so was deeply influenced by patriarchal and colonial ideologies. The strategies of resistance to these dominant traditions exemplified by the contributors to Other Ways of Reading include examining translations in their own languages and reading from a variety of perspectives. Featured methods include storytelling; postcolonial feminist reading; womanhood/bosadi and womanist reading; and reading from and with grassroots communities. The book provides important new ideas and tools for Bible study in Africa and beyond.

AbstractThis article’s analysis of data from Gaborone Bridal showers used theories of agency propounded by Ashivat and Saba Mohammed, drawn from religious women. They highlight “agency as resistance that might also appear as “negotiation with oppressive social structures, and partial compliance” thereby indicating that “docility does not necessarily compromise agency” (Ashivat, 2016:67). Gaborone Bridal Showers are undoubtedly about women encouraging and accompanying another woman to enter a very patriarchal institution: heterosexual marriage, hence its agentic angle has to be interrogated carefully. The analysis of data collected from Gaborone Bridal Showers asked the following questions from interview guides: How does go laya (counselling of a bride) in the cultural setting and the urban-based bridal showers of Gaborone construct and reconstruct gender? How do they create new female spaces? Granted that they still buy a woman household items and that some voices are outright conservative, there is sufficient evidence-based conclusions that Gaborone Bridal Showers are still embrace patriarchy. Yet the analysis of the context and content of the Gaborone bridal shower, with its insistence on “outright freedom” and that every woman is welcome and must be free to talk, regardless of age and marital status, creates an inclusive space that resists equating women’s full humanity with heterosexual marriage. Even the most conservative voices acknowledged radical inclusivity as a change brought by Gaborone Bridal Showers in the go laya female space. Content wise, evidence-based findings indicate iconoclastic twists in go laya—insisting that a married woman must keep her voice, keep her friends, wear what she wants; hold the man accountable financially, insist on faithfulness, insist on shared household chores, watch out for intimate partner violence, enjoy her sexuality and pursue her profession.

AbstractThe book takes us to women-centred events in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana. Data was collected from the conversations and events women hold with and for one another on the occasions of bridal, Naomi/Laban, and baby showers. Defining Ubuntu/Botho as the belief that our humanity is only measured by our capacity to welcome, respect and empower the other, this research-based book analyses how women practise Ubuntu/Botho in the urban spaces where the community easily disintegrates to individualism, isolation and poverty. It seeks to explore how Ubuntu/Botho intersects with gender and navigates its space around patriarchy, marriage, motherhood, family and community. It explores rituals and connections between women of different generations such as mothers and daughters, daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law, children and mothers, and their struggles to uphold Ubuntu/Botho in their families, communities and workspaces in the face of patriarchy, urbanisation, capitalism and neo-liberalism. The book employs and generates a multitude of methods and theories to highlight women mothering and delivering Ubuntu/Botho in the urban space communities.

AbstractThis volume focuses on African indigenous women legends and their potential to serve as midwives for gender empowerment and for contributing towards African

AbstractFocusing on the work of contemporary African women researchers, this volume explores feminist perspectives in relation to African Indigenous Religions (AIR). It evaluates what the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians’ research has achieved and proposed since its launch in 1989, their contribution to the world of knowledge and liberation, and the potential application to nurturing a justice-oriented world. The book considers the methodologies used amongst the Circle to study African Indigenous Religions, the AIR sources of knowledge that are drawn on, and the way in which women are characterized. It reflects on how ideas drawn from African Indigenous Religions might address issues of patriarchy, colonialism, capitalism, racism, tribalism, and sexual and disability-based discrimination. The chapters examine theologies of specific figures. The book will be of interest to scholars of religion, gender studies, Indigenous studies, and African studies.

AbstractThis volume sets out to explore, propose, and generate feminist theories based on African indigenous philosophies and concepts. It investigates specific

AbstractBotho/Ubuntu is a community-building ethic that urges individuals to define their identity by caring, welcoming, affirming and respecting the Other. This paper investigates how Botho/Ubuntu ethic was understood and manifested in traditional Botswana communities. The article explores how Botho/Ubuntu is expressed in the preparation and arrival of a new daughter-in-law, the reception of the mother-in law and the preparation for the arrival of a new baby. The article analyses these three cases to investigate the possible co-habitation of Botho/Ubuntu with patriarchy by exploring the practices and rituals surrounding the welcoming of new members by the community and key hosts. The investigation focuses on marriage and the arrival of a new daughter-in-law (ngwetsi); mother-in-law (matsale) as a key host; and the arrival of a new baby, including the care for a wet mother (go baya botsetse). It seeks to examine how Botho/Ubuntu practices create female spaces and networks while it still co-habits with patriarchy in the Setswana rituals and practices of welcoming the Other. The paper will also explore how women are using some of these activities to create female cultures that construct and deconstruct oppressive gender roles. Keywords: Botho/Ubuntu, patriarchy, gender, marriage, mother-in-law, daughter-in-law and botsetse, bridal and baby showers, wedding, Botswana

AbstractThe aim of this study in to analyze Musa Dube’s (b.1964) hermeneutics of the Bible by defining how she uses her theological frameworks, postcolonialism and feminism. Also theological implications of Dube’s work are discussed especially those concerning Christology, mission, and theology of religios. Sources of this study contain Dube’s dissertation and several articles written between 1996-2007. In order to understand Dube’s biblical interpretation it is essential to find out how Dube defines postcolonialism and feminism. Dube is from Botswana and her view of colonialism and postcolonial condition are strongly influences by her personal experiences in Southern Africa. Dube views colonialism as multifaceted phenomenon that has an impact on a range of things from geographical control and vulture to identities of the people involved. Most of all, she views imperialism and colonialism as ideological practices that result in the colonization of mind. Nowadays imperialism is manifested in globalization. Postcolonialism means struggle for alleviating the consequences of oppression. Feminism, according to Dube, is a liberation movement. Women in colonized zones are doubly oppressed, as they are at once under gender oppression in their own society and experience colonial subjugation. Postcolonialism and feminism are intertwined in her work, although postcolonialism seems to have stronger theoretical focus. The aim of Dube’s biblical hermeneutics is to bring about change. Reading must be in service of life and equality. Because the Bible was born in various contexts of colonial rule, it has imperialist ideology rooted in it. For instance the events of Exodus and book of Joshua reveal how God was used in order to legitimate the conquest of the land of Canaan. Canaanites were depicted as idolatrous and covenant with them was prohibited. They were constructed as inferior. IN the Gospels the imperial ideology is present escpecially in mission texts. According to Dube, the person of Jesus as textualized in in the Gospels reflects the colonial context of the Palestine of his time. In order to cope with the rule of the Roman empire, the Jews adopted imperial ideology. This is seen in the mission theology of the Gospels. The Bible aided the Western colonialism in Africa in various ways. It offered motivation to colonialists and missionaries. It also became a text that displaced indigenous stories, and thus alienated people from their own cultural and religious narratives. Also, translations to the indigenous languages were corroding since they were impregnated by colonial ideology. Dube’s reading methods suggest mote democratic ways of interpretation. She highlights the importance of ordinary readers and communities of faith. Her reading with –method involves cooperation between faith community and the scholar. Dube also employs various methods of story-telling in order to interpret the Bible : Dramatic telling and retelling biblical passages with other stories, such as African folk stories and scenes from her own life. Dube brings other stories alongside the Bible in order to dissolve the dominance of the Biblical narrative and to highlight that other stories of meaning and truth exist and have a right to be told. Dube does not read the Bible from the point of view of Christian dogma. Nevertheless, her interpretations have theological implications. Dube’s image of Jesus is ambivalent, since he is both a colonialist who claims all authority for himself, and in some of the sources, a liberator. Dube argues that the biblical mission texts echo unequal relationships . Disciples are sent to teach nations without a mutual need to be taught. Mission is repressive if it claims to a universal answer. Dube opposes the impression of Christianity as the only valid religion. All sacred stories have the right to exist and are equally valid. The value of Dube's hermeneutics does not lie in the area of truth claims but rather in facilitating the reclaim of identity that has been violated by colonial and patriarchal oppression.

AbstractThis volume explores contemporary African women's creative writing, highlighting their contributions to ecofeminist theology. Contributors address the following questions: How do contemporary African women writers depict the Earth/land/environment and its relationship to women in various contexts? How is religion featured in African women's writing? How does religious literature (scriptures) form an intertextual layer in African women's writing? The contributors proceed by analyzing the intersection of religion, gender, class, sexuality, colonialism, and ecology in selected texts written by African women. They bring these texts into conversation with broader eco-feminist theological scholarship, exploring the potential of literary writing to contribute to theological discourse of liberation and social justice in the African and global arena. Enna Sukutai Gudhlanga is Associate Professor in the Department of Languages and Literature at Zimbabwe Open University. Musa Wenkosi. Dube is Professor of New Testament at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University, USA. Limakatso Pepenene is Senior Lecturer in the French Department at the National University of Lesotho

AbstractMarriage in Setswana culture is a community of relationships. One of these important relationships is the mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law. This relationship has historically been wrought with tensions and difficulties. In 2014, a group of Pentecostal Christian women formed the mother-in-law and father-in-law showers. They chose biblical eponyms, Naomi and Laban to name parental showers. This article explores Naomi/Laban Showers. Our exploration is based on data collected in Gaborone and surrounding areas over a period of eighteen months (2016-2018). We examine critically how Naomi/Laban Showers build community. We investigate also how the showers construct and reconstruct gender. Our analysis of the data is framed by the intersectionality of Womanist (or Womanism) Social Theory and Botho/Ubuntu African Philosophy. We conclude that Naomi/Laban Showers create a Womanist-Botho/Ubuntu Ethic of Communal Living in which the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law exist in harmonious relationship. Furthermore, the showers create the mother-in-law subjectivity by insisting that her subjectivity must un- Other her daughter-in-law.

AbstractThe expectation and arrival of a baby has always played a significant role in many societies across the globe. For simple reasons, babies are perceived as blessings from God. Hence, there is the need to shower the mother-to-be and her unborn baby with gifts and advice in preparation for welcoming, not only the bundle of joy, but also the new additional member into the family. The article is based on data that were collected from baby showers in greater Gaborone over a period of twelve months. The concept of Botho/Ubuntu cuts across as one of the major initiatives that drive baby showers. The goal of this paper is to establish what baby showers entail, how these initiatives started and how they are conducted. But most importantly, the paper will argue that baby showers are a community building initiative in the urban space. The paper seeks to establish the extent to which baby showers are gendered, using analytical insights from the theory of the “good mother”.

AbstractThis volume highlights some of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians strategies. Circle ways of doing theology seek to confront all the factors that deny African women their human rights and dignity. It offers penetrating critiques of widely accepted theological frameworks, showing how embedded they are in colonial and patriarchal discourses. Pledges contained to transforming power come through the framework of Talitha Cum, the little girl who was called back to the circle of life.

AbstractThis volume highlights some of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians strategies. Circle ways of doing theology seek to confront all the factors that deny African women their human rights and dignity. It offers penetrating critiques of widely accepted theological frameworks, showing how embedded they are in colonial and patriarchal discourses. Pledges contained to transforming power come through the framework of Talitha Cum, the little girl who was called back to the circle of life.

AbstractThe study of feminist biblical hermeneutics is very diverse; it can mean different things to different people. As a result, there is much disagreement concerning how to read Scriptures from a feminist perspective in the correct way. For a proper study of the Scriptures from a feminist point of view, one must converse with other forms of feminist hermeneutics. Therefore, using excerpts from Mark 5 and John 4, this thesis will create a dialogue between the theologians Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Musa Dube, and John Paul II. In doing so, this thesis will attempt to show a more comprehensive feminist biblical hermeneutic using theological perspectives from Catholic Western feminism, Protestant Two-Thirds World feminism, and the Magisterium.