Feminists have critiqued assumptions and structures of inter-religious dialogue even as they have acknowledged the need for more feminist presence in this area. Because ecofeminist values span religious differences, exploring a spirituality evident across Christian ecofeminist authors makes a contribution to inter-religious feminist work. A spirituality of openness manifests in four prominent themes which recur across diverse Christian ecofeminist thinkers. Each of these themes arises from a foundational orientation to openness. Relational theories of self are grounded in the openness of fluid identity construction; a stress on personal narrative as a relational way of knowing depends upon the openness of experiencing subjects to each other; an ethic of risk and discernment emphasizes openness in the courage and responsibility required to act within ambiguity; and the openness of receptivity is a prerequisite for engaging the potentially transformative power of beauty.For more than a decade, scholars have noted the absence of robust feminist presence in interreligious dialogue (King, 1998). In addressing reasons for this counter-intuitive lack, some Christian feminists critique current dialogue assumptions and methodologies which are effectively closed to feminist perspectives, while others seek to advance dialogue by noting convergences of feminist expression across religious difference. After surveying major contributions by both of these approaches, I argue that a further way to
This essay describes a transformation in my experience as an adjunct teaching underprepared students from one of shame toward a desire to assert the value of this work. Insights from my feminist theological training helped me to affirm the importance of encouraging transformative learning in teaching the academically marginalized and prompted my analysis of student writing in an introductory World Religions course, in order to determine whether or not the course was a site of transformative learning. I argue that despite many contextual limitations, the movement toward deepening self‐awareness and increasing openness to religious diversity seen in student writing demonstrates that transformative learning began in this course, and that is valuable for students' lives whether or not they are academically successful.
The analysis of religious trauma is enriched by considering how it may be produced by formation in chronic shame. The testimony of those who have experienced religious trauma and severe religious shame is essential to interdisciplinary understanding of and response to this harm. The experiences of those harmed indicates that some traditional Christian doctrinal interpretations are shaming. Thus, the potential for Christian communities to create climates of chronic shame and cause religious trauma is present wherever such theological interpretations dominate. In this way, the religious teachings themselves, especially when communicated in chronically shaming environments, are traumatizing. In this approach, Christian religious trauma is not an added element to traumas of domestic, physical, or sexual abuse by a religious person or leader. Instead, the source of the trauma is formative experience of participating in Christianity. Religious trauma merits interdisciplinary study in Religious Studies and trauma studies, as well as Christian theology. Theological response to Christian religious trauma contributes to this interdisciplinary need.
Sam Bedson was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, where his father was Professor of Chemistry. He was educated privately up to the age of ten and after a year at a preparatory school went to Abbotsholme School in Derbyshire, where he spent the next six years. In 1904 he entered the Faculty of Science at Armstrong College and three years later graduated BSc. with Honours. Then followed five years in the Durham University College of Medicine and in 1912 he graduated M.B., B.S. again with Honours. He spent the next year at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where he attended the annual course in microbiology : among the lecturers were Metchnikov, ROUX, Borrel, Laveran and Besredka. During this year also he studied in Weinberg's laboratory toxic substances from Ascaris and Taenia. An account of this work submitted as a thesis won him the M.D. of Durham with a gold medal. In 1913 he returned to London and was working as British Medical Scholar with John Ledingham at the Lister Institute on blood platelets when war broke out. He was not accepted by the Royal Army Medical Corps because his training had been in research, so he obtained a commission in the Northumberland Fusiliers. He suffered a chest wound in Gallipoli
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