Natality and Motherism: Embodiment within Praxis of Spiritual Leadership
Ali Green (2009: 51) has observed that “[w]omen’s experiences of giving birth have historically been under-explored as a resource for theology, but this essentially female function, now bodily represented by the woman priest, clearly symbolizes aspects of the divine”. In this article we explore — th...
| Authors: | ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
ASRSA
2013
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| In: |
Journal for the study of religion
Year: 2013, Volume: 26, Issue: 2, Pages: 59-73 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Ali Green (2009: 51) has observed that “[w]omen’s experiences of giving birth have historically been under-explored as a resource for theology, but this essentially female function, now bodily represented by the woman priest, clearly symbolizes aspects of the divine”. In this article we explore — through Grace Jantzen’s (1998) notion of natality, and the contested framing of “motherism” — the significance of giving birth and mothering to spiritual and religious leadership. We suggest that the experience of giving birth and the praxis of mothering provide not only a conceptual framework to harness new thinking about spiritual leadership and traditional theological doctrines, but also a practical means to transform patriarchal religious spaces. Drawing on feminist theology (which begins with personal experience — our own and shared) we show that there is a reciprocal relationship between mothering and priesthood, which transcends essentialist notions of mothering by embracing embodiment in a holistic praxis of spiritual leadership. |
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| ISSN: | 2413-3027 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the study of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.4314/jsr.v26i2 |