Christian Feminist Research Articles

Koizumi Ikuko: The making of a Christian feminist in imperial Japan, 1892–1922

ABSTRACT This article explores the development of Koizumi Ikuko (1892–1964) 1 as a Christian feminist during Japan’s Meiji and Taishō eras (1868–1926), a time marked by rapid Westernisation that facilitated her encounter with Christianity and her feminist awakening. As a prominent educator and one of the few Japanese women to study abroad in the U.S. during the 1920s, Koizumi returned to Japan to teach at Aoyama Gakuin (1931–1936), where her influential writings on co-education and women’s issues established her as a leading expert. However, her Christian identity, a key element in shaping her feminist ideology and practices, has often been overlooked. This study outlines Koizumi’s transformative journey, focusing on her educational pursuits, conversion experiences, and her evolving views on gender roles. It highlights how Christianity provided Koizumi with a framework to foster her vision of a ‘new womanhood’ that combined feminist aspirations with Christian moral principles. By examining her engagement with women’s movements, such as the Bluestocking Society, and her distinct divergence from secular feminists by emphasising Christian sexual morality, this article offers new insights into the diverse interpretations of feminism in early twentieth-century Japan.

Religious coping with contingency as a resource for democracy?

AbstractThis quantitative study empirically examines the mediating factors between Christian religiosity, political trust, and populist attitudes. As a novel approach, we ask whether religious coping with contingency reduces anxiety among religious citizens. Given that anxiety can reduce institutional trust and increase the appeal of populism, religiously reduced anxiety could support democratic attitudes. In addition, generalized social trust and acceptance of immigration are tested as further mediators between Christian religiosity and its political outcomes. Based on a recent representative sample of the German population (6th Membership Survey of the Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches in Germany), regression analyses find limited evidence for the coping thesis. Overall, religious coping, generalized social trust, and acceptance of immigration together explain to a large extent the higher prevalence of political trust and the lower prevalence of populist attitudes among liberal Christians in Germany.

Unruly Souls: The Digital Activism of Muslim and Christian Feminists

Unruly Souls: The Digital Activism of Muslim and Christian Feminists

Whose Christianity? The influence of a majority culture in Swedish textbooks

ABSTRACT Christian plurality is challenging for a religious education teacher in a classroom of students with different orientations of Christianity, not least due to immigration. As Christianity represents an essential component of the majority culture in many European countries, in this study we examine how it is represented in religious education textbooks used in upper secondary schools in Sweden. The purpose is to examine how liberal Christianity is shaped in the textbooks and the possible implications for educating citizens in a plural society. The selection of books is based on those used by religious education teachers in Sweden. The results show a tendency towards a modernised liberal Christianity, the implications of which are discussed in relation to the significance of religions and worldviews in education for social cohesion.

The Holy Spirit and kenotic loving power

The purpose of this paper is to offer an account of divine power in a way that emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit and simultaneously takes a feminist philosophical critique of power seriously. Inspired by relational theology and the theologies of, among others, Anna Mercedes, Jürgen Moltmann, and Thomas Jay Oord, we propose an understanding of kenosis as divine love-power for the radical Other. We understand divine power not in terms of omnipotence or unlimited might, but as kenotic, vulnerable love for the radical Other. This understanding presupposes the relational aspect of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit resides in us (1 Cor 3:16), and the Spirit does not work alone. The loving and empowering work of the Holy Spirit requires the world’s relational response. Divine power conceptualised in terms of love for the radical Other does not bear negative connotations of patriarchal power-over or power-to. Instead of negating the self, the Spirit’s kenotic loving power makes relationship possible, and thus also the self. We argue that this notion of kenotic power, seen most clearly in the Holy Spirit, suggests divine power worthy of worship also from a Christian feminist standpoint.

‘Stand Against the Wiles of the Devil’: Interpreting QAnon as a Pseudo-Christian Extremist Movement

The religious dimensions of the QAnon movement and links with political violence have been noted by researchers. This paper furthers this scholarship by conducting an analysis of 121 religious images taken from QAnon Telegram channels over 18 months. Through adopting semiotic and hermeneutical theory, it is argued that QAnon religious imagery can be categorised into a series of types, all influenced by Christian theological themes. When interpreted in a Christian context, these images reveal a close relationship with US-based Christian evangelicalism and with Christian liberation theology movements. By presenting contemporary politics as an eschatological battle between the oppressed and oppressors, framed as the QAnon community versus the devil, the QAnon movement encourages political activism closely analogous to Christian liberation theology movements. This contributes to an explanatory framework for the connections between QAnon followers and anti-government protest and violence during the Covid-19 pandemic and the 6 January storming of the US Capitol.

Hospitality, Risk, and Justice: Rethinking Service-Learning Through the Work of Letty M. Russell and Sharon D. Welch

In the last several decades, service-learning has become a key feature of higher education. In this article, I argue that the work of Christian feminists Letty M. Russell and Sharon D. Welch enriches current scholarship on service-learning by drawing attention to foundational ethical issues. The first section of the article provides background on service-learning at U.S. colleges and universities, identifying major values and priorities that have informed its development. The second and third sections analyze Russell’s concepts of “weaponized difference” and “deformed hospitality” alongside Welch’s “ethic of control” and “ethic of risk.” I use these concepts to interrogate prominent aspects of traditional service-learning models and craft a framework, centered on two risk questions, to aid faculty and administrators as they reimagine service-learning opportunities, particularly in Christian educational contexts.

Christian Feminism and African Women’s Theology in Apartheid South Africa

Christian Feminism and African Women’s Theology in Apartheid South Africa

Rendering Christian Symbols Fluid: Regarding the Anti-Oppressive Practices of the Feminist Collective L’autre Parole

The purpose of this text is to establish connections between the anti-oppressive practices of the feminist and Christian collective L’autre Parole (“the Other Word”), based in Quebec (Canada), and the orientations of liberation theologies on the global stage. The text highlights how Christian feminists from a local community bend, forge, change and rewrite the symbols of domination within the Christian tradition to restore their liberating thread. In this text, we study, in particular, the symbols of Dieue and of Christa. L’autre Parole’s feminism unfolds as a way of living. It posits the hypothesis of a systemic subordination of women to men as a group and it is encapsulated by two key slogans: “The personal is political” and “A woman will not be liberated until all women are liberated.” The article emphasises how the group can challenge its own complicity with forces of domination or collaboration. While possessing a local and temporary character, the anti-oppressive (re)interpretations of Christian symbols proposed by a local group contribute to a global momentum, hence, the interest in analysing such local creations in order to consider the process of global solidarity in action regarding liberation theologies.

Isolating the Roles of Religion, Ethnicity, and Political Ideology in Mass Atrocities, 1800–2020

Religion, ethnicity, and political ideology all lend themselves to the perpetration of mass atrocities by creating a sense of identity that sets up an Us/Them dichotomy. Atrocities are modelled here as arising from the motive of acquiring territory but augmented by other-regarding preferences that capture the role of identity. My empirical results using data for the period 1800–2020 confirm that all these identity-driven motivators are associated with mass atrocities, with religion being more powerful than ethnicity. Monotheistic religions (with the strong exception of Judaism) are seen to be associated with more mass atrocity deaths than (polytheistic) Hinduism, lending partial credibility to Hume’s (1757/2010) view on the intolerance of monotheism. While democracies are associated with fewer mass atrocities than autocracies, Christian liberal democracies are not. My statistical analysis rejects the popular presumption that Islam is more violent than Christianity. In fact, in the post-World War II (WWII) era, among the major religions Christianity has been associated with the most mass atrocity deaths. The results also show that mass deaths were higher in atrocities that took place in settler colonies, especially in the post-WWII period of decolonisation. Using mass atrocities as the metric of violence, the correlations found in the empirical work of this paper offer many new and surprising findings.

Christian Feminism and Social Commitment

Christian Feminism and Social Commitment

Ready or Not: The Leadership Preparation of Preservice Teachers at Christian Liberal Arts Institutions

Ready or Not: The Leadership Preparation of Preservice Teachers at Christian Liberal Arts Institutions

Towards an Alternative Epistemology of Resistance: A Reading of Pulayathara by Paul Chirakkarode Against the Backdrop of Dalit Christian Liberation Movements in Kerala, India

Religious conversion in Kerala was an immediate solution for the lower caste people who sought to break free from the slavery and structural inequalities of caste. Though proselytization was accelerated by egalitarian and emancipatory ideologies, it became a shift from one oppressive, exploitative social fabric to another hegemonic structure composed of institutionalized religion underlined by casteist ideologies. Christianity in Kerala turned out to be Brahminical and catered to the interest of upper-caste Christians. Despite its egalitarian claims, discrimination unabashedly pervaded the churches of Kerala. Dalit liberation movements in the twentieth century heralded by both the Dalit and Dalit Christian leaders profoundly influenced the public life of Kerala and brought a new paradigm to the slave castes. Such changes were reflected in the literary articulations of the period also. This article examines how the Dalit Christian discourse is inaugurated in Malayalam novels as the result of the Dalit Christian liberation movements in the twentieth century. By employing textual analysis as the research methodology and intersectionality as a theoretical lens, this article analyses Paul Chirakkarode’s Pulayathara (1962) and examines how the Dalit Christian liberation movement in the twentieth century is instrumental in shaping an alternative epistemology and Dalit Christian identity.

Pemahaman Liberalisme dalam Perspektif Islam dan Kristen Studi terhadap Pandangan Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) dan Persekutuan Injili Indonesia

This study discusses the understanding of religious liberalism from an Islamic and Christian perspective. Liberal values are prohibited by the MUI, so Islam is contrary to the basic right to freedom. In rejecting the principle of freedom, the meaning is often misinterpreted as "free as freely as possible without limits" which is not actually the freedom of anarchy. Misunderstandings occur among orthodox Islamic circles, but also among secular nationalities. Liberalism is related to individualism on the one hand and imperialist capitalism on the other. Liberalism understands that it experiences development and change and can even form politics and political parties. The opposite of liberalism is fundamentalism, both in the economic and religious fields. What is meant by liberal freedom here is freedom that is institutionalized in constitutional law, freedom and human rights are the foundation of democracy, because with these principles every citizen is given the right to choose and be elected. Christian liberalism, they want to return to the holy book because Christianity has various kinds of sects and interpretations of the holy book at this time, so liberal Protestant Christians want to return to the new teachings, because it is opposed by fundamentalism, therefore again, sects and sects are born again. currents in Christianity. Liberalism in Islam is a renewal of good life, in the study of fiqh, kalam science, and Sufism. They want to make reforms with certain grounds and reasons. So the MUI forbids the flow of religious liberalism, whereas in Christianity the flow of religious liberalism is not prohibited because the Christian religion, every time they have an understanding of their own religion, they immediately create their own sects and sects, because the Christian religion has no valid guidelines, the Bible follows the times. which is very different from Islam, whatever actions and actions are based on the Koran and hadith. The method used is a qualitative method, which is based on the theory of liberalism.

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

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.

Virginity as Virtue? Hildegard of Bingen’s Contribution to a Christian Feminist Ethics

Virginity as Virtue? Hildegard of Bingen’s Contribution to a Christian Feminist Ethics

Review: Unruly Souls: The Digital Activism of Muslim and Christian Feminists, by Kristin M. Peterson

Review: <i>Unruly Souls: The Digital Activism of Muslim and Christian Feminists</i>, by Kristin M. Peterson

Unruly Souls: The Digital Activism of Muslim and Christian Feminists

Unruly Souls: The Digital Activism of Muslim and Christian Feminists

Christian Women and the Development of Nascent Feminist Consciousness in Nineteenth-Century China

In 2010, Padma Anagol argued that the first modern feminists in India were Christian women, women such as Laxmibai Tilak and Pandita Ramabai. Using Anagol’s definition of feminism as “a theory and practice which presented a challenge to the subordination of women in society and attempted to redress the balance of power between the sexes,” this article shows how feminist consciousness was cultivated in Christian schools, churches, hospitals, and organizations in late-nineteenth-century China. Kwok Pui Lan pointed out in 1992 that Christians were the first women in China to band together to fight women’s oppression; however, like so many of the claims made about women in global Christianity, this one has not yet been fully appreciated by historians and missiologists. I show how mission schools gave girls access to new models of personhood and womanhood. Likewise, Christian scriptures, churches, and voluntary societies such as the WCTU and YWCA provided space to reflect on gender identity and activism. Through all these avenues, a modest version of Christian feminism was cultivated in China decades before the secular women’s movement began in 1900.

To the Farthest Gulf for the Wealth of India: Firsthand Experiences of American Travelers in India

My essay analyzes the experiences of Americans in India from the colonial period to the emergence of the United States as a nation in the 18th century and further into the nineteenth century when the nation consolidated its identity through commerce, religion and race discourse. I trace these three moments in the joint history of America and India through the life and travel writings of a few key figures. Through the letters of Nathaniel Higginson, the Salem-born man who eventually became Governor of Madras in 1692, we can trace the social and political dealings of a New England based administrator in the colonial era. In the second period, in the aftermath of the American revolution, there is a great interest in India from a newly formed United States, that can be seen in the exploits of American travelers such as Bartholomew Burges. In the nineteenth century there was a further escalation of the ties between India and America that is seen in the story of Calvin Smith, a civil war veteran who traveled to India and worked in the then popular ice trade, sharing his perspectives and experiences of living in India for five years. Finally, in the mid to late 19th century, evangelical America and the Liberal Christian movement spread Christianity to other nations through missions, reaching India.