Editors' Introduction

Abstract

Editors’ Introduction With vision and courage, Judith Plaskow and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza cofounded the JFSR, and the first issue appeared in the spring of 1985. In the past twenty years, the journal has published more than 300 contributions, as well as 18 roundtables authored by more than 320 colleagues, creating a critical body of scholarship and helping to shape the field. (We gratefully acknowledge Margaret Gower and Nancy Hutton, who helped in compiling these statistics.) We celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the journal with a conference, "Teaching for Change: Creating Knowledge, Transforming Institutions," held June 10–14, 2005, on the campus of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. To honor the fact that the journal has two communities of accountability—the academy and the feminist movement—the conference brought together some eighty faculty, students, activists, and administrators of feminist institutions to discuss what we have learned in these twenty years about feminist pedagogies and the politics of teaching. We also strategized about ways we can bring about intellectual and institutional changes in theological and religious studies. We have intentionally included women from outside North America to broaden our horizons and strengthen our network with women in other parts of the globe. Women from thirteen countries participated in the conference; we left feeling energized and exhilarated as we celebrated what feminists have achieved in different contexts, and we committed ourselves to forging new links at both the local and the international levels. We were especially heartened to witness the creativity and vitality of the graduate students attending the conference, who are poised to carry on the work we have begun. We intend to share some of the insights and contributions from the conference in a special issue in the near future. Coincidentally, this year also marks the twentieth anniversary of two other movements: the establishment of the group Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society at the American Academy of Religion; and the founding of the network Pacific, Asian, and North American Asian Women in Theology and Ministry (PANAAWTM). To mark this historical occasion, we have included in the Living It Out section essays reflecting on the beginning and development of [End Page 1] these movements. We congratulate our womanist and Asian and Asian North American colleagues and friends on their twentieth anniversary. Many colleagues in these two movements have been staunch supporters of JFSR, and we express our gratitude for their contributions to the feminist and womanist scholarship and movement. We want to congratulate Nami Kim for winning the New Scholar Award and Marguerite Rigoglioso for Honorable Mention for this year. The award was set up to promote feminist scholarship by newer scholars, and it is encouraging to see that over the years the award has become more competitive, as more submissions have been accepted for publication. We thank Mary Churchill, Stephanie Mitchem, and Kathleen Sands for serving on this year's panel of judges. This issue begins with Marguerite Rigoglioso's discussion of Lake Pergusa and the ancient female mystery religion and rituals dedicated to Demeter, Persephone, and their pre-Greek precursors in Sicily. Through careful consideration of archeological, literary, topographical, and natural evidences, Rigoglioso presents a lively account of how the fecundity of the lake provided rich symbolism for women's religious life. Her reconstruction of the menstruating, initiation, healing, and funerary rituals shows how closely women connected their bodies and life passages with the natural environment surrounding the lake. She bemoans the fact that this ancient sacred site has been destroyed through mindless pollution, hunting, and fishing, but she concludes with a more hopeful sign of how ecofeminists have come to its rescue through political activism. The second article, by Jennifer Rycenga, examines the growth of women's intellect in the earliest phase of abolitionism, from 1824 to 1834, by focusing on the works of Elizabeth Heyrick, Elizabeth Chandler, Maria Stewart, and Prudence Crandall. Rycenga demonstrates that, through pamphlets, essays, letters, and public speeches, these women engaged with important social issues such as war and slavery and raised philosophical questions about scriptures, religion, female education, and moral discourse. The transatlantic character of such early intellectual discourse on abolitionism is especially noteworthy. Though repeatedly confronted by male leaders...