Asking Other Questions: Lifting up Gender and Sexuality in Womanist Practical Theological Research

Parker, Evelyn L.

doi:10.1080/00344087.2021.1917853

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…While many smaller seminaries have closed or contracted in size, theological schools with a stronger base of resources have broadened their focus from training leaders for ministerial positions in Christian denominations to providing education for faith-informed leaders seeking to serve in other fields and roles. Many theological schools have also engaged in collective self-reflection on the eroding, institutionalized religious context and their role within it, as expressed in efforts to increase racial, gender, and theological diversity among their students and faculty, and-for a few liberal Protestant schools-taking public stances of LBGTQ+ inclusivity and support (Parker 2021;Jennings 2020).…”

Section: Spirituality and The Institutionalized Context Of Theologica...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Spirituality of Deconstruction in United States Theological Schools

Manglos-Weber,

Alvarez Hurtado,

Wang

2024

Religions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Building on a movement within the sociology of religion to better situate studies of spirituality in relation to contexts, practices, and power relations, the current study examines shifts in spiritual practice associated with “deconstruction” among graduate students within theological education. We rely on new interview data with a cohort of 30 students at time 1 (2020) and follow-ups with 22 of those students at time 2 (2022), comparing students at four different types of schools (Mainline Protestant, Evangelical Protestant, Catholic, and Black Protestant), and oversampling for students of historically minoritized identities. After identifying patterns in the spirituality of deconstruction, including trends toward embodiment, attunement to the natural world, social activism, and syncretism, we examine how these students perceive the responses of their theological schools to students’ deconstructing spirituality. We especially note a pattern of ambivalence, where certain aspects of the institution (especially some individual faculty and administrators, and student affinity groups) support and model deconstruction for their students. We argue that the spirituality of deconstruction may, therefore, function to both challenge and regenerate institutionalized contexts of religion in an overall setting of institutional decline.

show abstract

Section: Spirituality and The Institutionalized Context Of Theologica...mentioning

confidence: 99%