Abstract
How can and do mothers experience, undertake, and understand parenting as spiritual practice ? How do mothers’ and children’s intersecting identities of gender, race, sexuality , and class affect parenting as spiritual practice? And how can the spiritual practices of parenting contribute to theological scholarship? Parenting as Spiritual Practice and Source for Theology: Mothering Matters explores these interdisciplinary questions that arise in fields such as motherhood studies, religious practice, spirituality, pastoral care , and theology. The embodied practices of care that most mothers carry out on a daily basis historically have been devalued in Christian spirituality, which has too often sought an ethereal escape from matters of the flesh. Moreover, maternal voices have been missing from theology for most of Christian history. Therefore, this volume generates a fertile space for academic, ecclesial, and everyday conversations about how the experience of mothering challenges and informs both spiritual practice in particular and theological reflection more broadly.
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Notes
- 1.
Recognizing women’s complex and multiple identities, we have adopted an intersectional approach with this volume and have encouraged contributors to explore and challenge the ways mothering has been defined and confined within various power structures. See Kimberle Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color,” Stanford Law Review 43, no. 6 (1991): 1241–1299.
- 2.
See, for example, Mari Castaneda and Kirsten Isgro, eds., Mothers in Academia (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013); Elrena Evans, Caroline Grant, and Miriam Peskowitz, eds., Mama, Ph.D.: Women Write About Motherhood and Academic Life (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008); Kristen Ghodsee and Rachel Connelly, Professor Mommy: Finding Work-Family Balance in Academia (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2011); and Mary Ann Mason, Nicholas H. Wolfinger, and Marc Goulden, Do Babies Matter?: Gender and Family in the Ivory Tower (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2013).
- 3.
Anne-Marie Slaughter, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” The Atlantic, August 2012, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/.
- 4.
In addition to the volumes on academic motherhood cited above, some of the more significant titles of edited volumes on mothering include: Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Grace Chang, and Linda Rennie Forcey, eds., Mothering: Ideology, Experience, and Agency (New York: Routledge, 1994); Julia Hanigsberg and Sara Ruddick, eds., Mother Troubles: Rethinking Contemporary Maternal Dilemmas (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1999); Alexis Jetter, Annelise Orleck, and Diana Taylor, eds., The Politics of Motherhood: Activist Voices from Left to Right (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1997); Andrea O’Reilly, ed., Twenty-First-Century Motherhood: Experience, Identity, Policy, Agency (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010); and Joyce Trebilcot, ed., Mothering: Essays in Feminist Theory (Savage, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1983). See also the dozens of volumes available at www.demeterpress.org. Demeter Press is the publishing house partnered with the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (www.motherhoodinitiative.org). Both Demeter and MIRCI were founded by and continue to be under the leadership of Dr. Andrea O’Reilly, Professor of Women’s, Sexuality, and Gender Studies at York University in Toronto, Ontario. O’Reilly has authored and/or edited some 20 books, most of which are related to the topic of mothering.
- 5.
One very recent exception to this rule is Vanessa Reimer, ed., Angels on Earth: Mothering, Religion, and Spirituality (Toronto: Demeter Press, 2016). While Reimer’s volume is more geared to the academic study of religions, the present volume is geared to the Christian theological academy and persons involved in pastoral ministry in Christian contexts. Further conversation between and across these two volumes, and their respective authors and audiences, would surely bear much fruit. The closest comparison that can be drawn to what we aim to accomplish in this present volume is a 1989 issue of Concilium, edited by Ann Carr and Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, and entitled Motherhood: Experience, Institution, Theology (Edinburgh: Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd, 1989). This is an edition of a journal that was published prior to the subsequent proliferation of writings on motherhood that has come out in the 1990s and 2000s. This volume is out of print and not widely available outside of academia; while it offers a variety of theological perspectives on motherhood, it does not address mothering through the specific lens of spiritual practice.
- 6.
Margaret Hebblethwaite, Motherhood and God (London: Cassell Publishers, 1984); Sallie McFague, Models of God: Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress, 1987); and Elizabeth A. Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Discourse (New York: Crossroad, 1992).
- 7.
Delores Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993).
- 8.
Karen Baker-Fletcher, Sisters of Dust, Sisters of Spirit: Womanist Wordings on God and Creation (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1997), 79.
- 9.
See María Pilar Aquino, Our Cry for Life: Feminist Theology from Latin America (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993) and Ada María Isasi-Díaz, Mujerista Theology: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1996).
- 10.
See Letty M. Russell et al., eds., Inheriting Our Mothers’ Gardens: Feminist Theology in Third World Perspective (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1988). The title of that book takes inspiration from Alice Walker’s book of essays, In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose (San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace, 1983).
- 11.
Miller-McLemore, Also a Mother.
- 12.
Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, In the Midst of Chaos: Caring for Children as Spiritual Practice (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2006).
- 13.
What follows is a brief listing of monographs in which mothering informs theological scholarship. Many other journal articles and book chapters could be included in this list as well.
- 14.
Janet Martin Soskice, The Kindness of God: Metaphor, Gender, and Religious Language (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
- 15.
Marcia Mount Shoop, Let the Bones Dance: Embodiment and the Body of Christ (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2010).
- 16.
Michele Saracino, Being About Borders: A Christian Anthropology of Difference (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2011). Saracino also uses maternity as a metaphor for human hybridity in a chapter, “Moving beyond the ‘One True Story,’” she contributed to Susan Abraham and Elena Procario-Foley, eds., Frontiers in Catholic Feminist Theology: Shoulder to Shoulder (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2009).
- 17.
Jeannine Hill Fletcher, Motherhood as Metaphor: Engendering Interreligious Dialogue (New York: Fordham University Press, 2013).
- 18.
Chanequa Walker-Barnes, Too Heavy a Yoke: Black Women and the Burden of Strength (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2014).
- 19.
Cristina L. H. Traina, Erotic Attunement: Parenthood and the Ethics of Sensuality between Unequals (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2011).
- 20.
Kelly Brown Douglas, Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2015).
- 21.
Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder, When Momma Speaks: The Bible and Motherhood from a Womanist Perspective (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2016).
References
Aquino, María Pilar. Our Cry for Life: Feminist Theology from Latin America. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993.
Baker-Fletcher, Karen. Sisters of Dust, Sisters of Spirit: Womanist Wordings on God and Creation. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1997.
Carr, Anne, and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, eds. Motherhood: Experience, Institution, Theology. Edinburgh: Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd, 1989.
Castaneda, Mari, and Kirsten Isgro, eds. Mothers in Academia. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013.
Crenshaw, Kimberle. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color.” Stanford Law Review 43, no. 6 (1991): 1241–1299.
Crowder, Stephanie Buckhanon. When Momma Speaks: The Bible and Motherhood from a Womanist Perspective. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016.
Douglas, Kelly Brown. Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2015.
Evans, Elrena, Caroline Grant, and Miriam Peskowitz, eds. Mama, Ph.D.: Women Write About Motherhood and Academic Life. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008.
Fletcher, Jeannine Hill. Motherhood as Metaphor: Engendering Interreligious Dialogue. New York: Fordham University Press, 2013.
Ghodsee, Kristen, and Rachel Connelly. Professor Mommy: Finding Work-Family Balance in Academia. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2011.
Glenn, Evelyn Nakano, Grace Chang, and Linda Rennie Forcey, eds. Mothering: Ideology, Experience, and Agency. New York: Routledge, 1994.
Hanigsberg, Julia, and Sara Ruddick, eds. Mother Troubles: Rethinking Contemporary Maternal Dilemmas. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1999.
Hebblethwaite, Margaret. Motherhood and God. London: Cassell Publishers, 1984.
Isasi-Díaz, Ada María. Mujerista Theology: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1996.
Jetter, Alexis, Annelise Orleck, and Diana Taylor, eds. The Politics of Motherhood: Activist Voices from Left to Right. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1997.
Johnson, Elizabeth A. She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. New York: Crossroad, 1992.
Mason, Mary Ann, Nicholas H. Wolfinger, and Marc Goulden. Do Babies Matter?: Gender and Family in the Ivory Tower. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2013.
McFague, Sallie. Models of God: Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1987.
Miller-McLemore, Bonnie J. Also a Mother: Work and Family as Theological Dilemma. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1994.
———. In the Midst of Chaos: Caring for Children as Spiritual Practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2006.
O’Reilly, Andrea, ed. Maternal Theory: Essential Readings. Toronto: Demeter Press, 2007.
———. ed. Twenty-First Century Motherhood: Experience, Identity, Policy, Agency. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.
Reimer, Vanessa, ed. Angels on Earth: Mothering, Religion, and Spirituality. Toronto: Demeter Press, 2016.
Russell, Letty M., Kwok Pui-lan, Ada María Isasi-Díaz, and Kaite Geneva Cannon, eds. Inheriting Our Mothers’ Gardens: Feminist Theology in Third World Perspective. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1988.
Saracino, Michele. Being About Borders: A Christian Anthropology of Difference. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2011.
———. “Moving Beyond the ‘One True Story.’” In Frontiers in Catholic Feminist Theology: Shoulder to Shoulder, edited by Susan Abraham and Elena Procario-Foley. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2009.
Shoop, Marcia W. Mount. Let the Bones Dance: Embodiment and the Body of Christ. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010.
Slaughter, Anne-Marie. “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.” The Atlantic, August 2012. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/.
Soskice, Janet Martin. The Kindness of God: Metaphor, Gender, and Religious Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Traina, Cristina L. H. Erotic Attunement: Parenthood and the Ethics of Sensuality Between Unequals. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Trebilcot, Joyce, ed. Mothering: Essays in Feminist Theory. Savage, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1983.
Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace, 1983.
Walker-Barnes, Chanequa. Too Heavy a Yoke: Black Women and the Burden of Strength. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2014.
Williams, Delores S. Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Book, 1993.
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Bischoff, C., Gandolfo, E.O., Hardison-Moody, A. (2017). Introduction. In: Bischoff, C., O’Donnell Gandolfo, E., Hardison-Moody, A. (eds) Parenting as Spiritual Practice and Source for Theology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59653-2_1
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