#  Congress of Wo/men: Religion, Gender, and Kyriarchal Power 

 





March 23, 2017

 

 

On Monday, March 27, HDS Krister Stendahl Professor of Divinity Elisabeth Schússler Fiorenza will discuss her recent book, Congress of Wo/men: Religion, Gender, and Kyriarchal Power. Below, Schüssler Fiorenza spoke about her work at the intersection of religion and gender, in addition to giving some insight around her book itself:

**HDS**: What inspired you to write this book?

**ESF**: The book has its roots in 2 events. In 2012, I was invited to give the distinguished Cátedra MacKay lectures at the Universidad Bíblica Latinoamericana in Costa Rica which were published as Poder, Diversidad y Religión ( Power, Diversity and Religion) as a special issue of La Revistá Vida y Pensiamento in 2013. Since these 4 lectures were well received, I decided to edit and revise them to be published in English and to work through the text in my fall 2014 graduate seminar on Feminist Theories and The\*logies. Since I had an excellent experience with this pedagogical approach when working on my book *Democratizing Biblical Studies,* I planned the syllabus and readings around the chapters and the student’s research papers published in a roundtable metalogue. This revision resulted in a new book. In the process the content and the book’s focus on power was specified as kyriarchal power and diversity articulated in terms of a critical feminist political the\*logy and intellectual space imagined as Congress of Wo/men. Since we at Feminist Studies in Religion. Inc were at the time of its reconceptualization and rewriting in the process of initiating FSRBooks, the volume also seeks to signal a theoretical vision or “branding” for this new book series.

**HDS**: What are the main points you want readers to take away from Congress of Wo/men?

**ESF**: Here I want to quote Prof. Maria Pilar Aquino who has succinctly stated these goals in her blurb for the book:

"Amidst neoliberal globalization, Schüssler Fiorenza declares that the social force of religions must be devoted to promoting hope, justice and well-being for all. She sees religion as an ethical-political space for imagination and change and rightly advocates for closer collaboration between feminist the\*logy, theory and movements. More expansively, *Congress of Wo/men* offers an exciting vision of feminism working in greater solidarity with social justice activists, religious leaders, and community builders to transform global kyriarchal powers."

Written in 2014/15 the books main points and goals have become even more urgent today after after a bruising sexist, racist, and Islamophobic election campaign and the election of Trump as president.

**HDS**: This concluding “metalogue” is comprised of reflections and responses from your students. Why did you invite them to be part of the book itself?

**ESF**: In the process of discussing the chapters and exploring the proposed vision as well as by exploring their own feminist theoretical-the\*logical questions the participating students became “colleagues.” In this process of shaping their own work they were actualizing the vision of “the congress of wo/men” at HDS.

**HDS**: What is your next project?

**ESF**: I have just finished a feminist commentary on the letter to the *Ephesians* which will appear in the first feminist commentary series covering all books of the Bible: This *Wisdom Commentary* series is sponsored by Barbara E. Reid O.P. as General Editor and published by Liturgical Press, Collegeville Minnesota, but is not a Roman Catholic but an ecumenical commentary series including Jewish authors.



 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ Books ](/topic-tags/books)
- [ Center for the Study of World Religions ](/media-topic/center-study-world-religions)
- [ Faculty Book ](/topic-tags/faculty-book)