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Theory That Can Be Lived: In Conversation about (with) Lived Experience
Heather Walton’s recent Practical Theology Beyond the Empirical Turn presses practical theology to rethink what counts as theory.[1] Rather than treating theory as an abstract system or a critical tool applied from outside, she invites us to see it as something that condenses and circulates through shared stories, images, practices, and felt worlds. She argues that practical theology has overlooked the way that theory functions as “collective sentiment” and “shared narrative”.[2] Taking that provocation seriously, we place our research projects into conversation. One of us (Chris) works on liturgy and symbolic action. The other (Giorgio) studies LGBTQ+ Catholic identity. In both contexts, lived experience is treated not as illustrative material…
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Can men do feminist theology?
Summary: This conversation explores how men might responsibly engage with feminist theology and how women can encourage men’s involvement in this vital area of work towards justice. Sarah: Feminist theology has always challenged and reimagined theological thought. Grounded in the wider feminist movement of the 1950s and 1960s early feminist theologians sought to push back against what was a very masculine-centric theological world. Instead, they demanded the experiences and perspectives of women were worthy of theological consideration. Working collaboratively and creatively, often in discussion with one another, they wrote from their own personal experiences. Not content with only challenging the content of theology, they argued for breadth and variety in…
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From Discipline to Leverage: The Marketisation of Fasting and Prayer
This essay examines how fasting and prayer are increasingly instrumentalised inNigeria—politically and ecclesially—and argues for a recovery of asceticism as formation incompassion rather than a technique of leverage. Introduction In June 2025, reports emerged from Nigerian media indicating that the Nigerian Ministry of Agriculture issued a nationwide call for prayer and fasting to address the issue of famine within the country. This appeal for prayer and fasting provoked significant controversy, as numerous Nigerians utilised social media platforms to accuse the government of attempting to divert attention from its fiduciary responsibilities.[1] Critics contended that the government was neglecting critical issues such as inflation and the escalating poverty levels by promoting national…
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Leaky Bodies: Uses and Abuses of Vulnerability in Feminist Methodologies
Human bodies are leaky. Leakiness, especially the leakiness of the female body, has been criticised historically, but more recently reclaimed as a strength for the task of research.[1] This is especially the case in feminist theology, where acknowledgement of the leakiness of the individual body has blended with autoethnographic research methods to privilege women’s experience in theologising. Of interest to this article is the vulnerability inherent in this turn to the sharing of the theologian’s experience in her work. Vulnerable sharing can clear the way for significant revelations, yet how this vulnerability can be managed fruitfully for both sharer and recipient must be considered. This paper aims to do just…
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Ten Commitments Of A Feminist Theologian
I was sitting opposite one of my PhD supervisors, having just attempted to dismiss the entire genre of feminist theology as not relevant to my project when my radicalisation began. I had grown up in a particular kind of evangelical church with a theology of complementarity that had impressed up on me that of course I was equal to my husband, but that my role was distinctly different from his. The kind of church where husbands were considered to be the leaders of their wives (and, of course, their children) and where only men could be elders of the church or preach in a service. Whilst I had started to…
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The Blessed Virgin, the Theotokos: The Bodily Autonomy of Women and a Post-Christian World
The rising cultural tide of a post-Christian world pushes against the shoreline of history. People once forced into the small inlets and coves eventually find themselves along the wide beaches of the peninsula. The wind carries their once silenced stories, and they crash loudly against the shore. Through strife and struggle, women have propitiated the Fates, having now been granted the gift of witness for their skill and wisdom no longer limited to the home. The maintenance of women’s domestication in Western countries stood the test of millennia, through limitations in career opportunity, education, political engagement, healthcare, and religious moralisation, women have been forced to experience a world that objectifies…
