Continually searching for lost coins: Ann Loades, Christian feminist theologian

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article traces the pathway of Ann Loades’ important relationship with feminist thinking as it impacted on her understanding of Christian theology. Starting from Searching for Lost Coins (1987) – based on the Scott Holland lectures she delivered in 1986 – it considers her own contributions to feminist theology in a Briish context. In part a personal recollection and celebration of her feminism, the article concludes that Loades curates women’s writing about Christianity over the centuries, in terms that tend towards the insights of a 20th century western feminism, informed by the classical disciplines of her theological and philosophical training. It suggests that her purpose in writing and teaching feminist theology is to create resources that will continue to make Christianity – and the Anglican Church – possible for women in a world in which this – with all that particularly feminist-inspired theory, philosophy and activism have uncovered – is looking increasingly problematic.