Church in the Round: Feminist Interpretation of the Church - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 066425070X ISBN 13: 9780664250706

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press, 1993

Synopsis

Ideas of the Christian church are changing, and Letty Russell envisions its future as partnership and sharing for all members around a common table of hospitality. Russell draws on her pastorate in Harlem, her classes in theology, and many ecumenical conversations to help the newly emerging church face the challenges of liberation for all people.

About this title

About the Author:

Letty M. Russell was one of the world's foremost feminist theologians and a longtime member of the faculty of Yale Divinity School. She died on July 12, 2007, at age 77. She was one of the first women ordained in the United Presbyterian Church and served as pastor of the Presbyterian Church of the Ascension in East Harlem for ten years. She joined the faculty of Yale Divinity School in 1974 and retired in 2001. She wrote and edited numerous books, including Church in the Round: Feminist Interpretation of the Church, Dictionary of Feminist Theologies (with J. Shannon Clarkson),and Inheriting Our Mothers' Gardens: Feminist Theology in Third World Perspective (with Kwok Pui Lan, Ada Maria Isasi Dias, and Katie Cannon).

From Booklist:

Purvis' engaging and informative study of two Atlanta churches, one Episcopal and one Presbyterian, whose senior pastors are women, is not only an excellent contribution to the study of congregational life and leadership, but also a model of ethnographic writing. The author is a good storyteller who lets the stories of these communities and their leaders unfold; there is as much to be learned from the style as from the content of the book. That is not to diminish the content, though. Two congregations is a small sample, but here it is an impressively deep one. Purvis' suggestion that "the combination of conventional roles in unconventional ways" helps "regender those roles and widen the range of possible social constructs for the process of gendering itself" is offered with appropriate caution, but it is thoroughly grounded and should prove fruitful for other researchers. Don't let the title restrict the audience; this is a gem, of interest to anyone who seeks a better understanding of communities, organizational change, or leadership. Steve Schroeder

About this edition

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 066425070X
• ISBN 13: 9780664250706
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: Russell Letty M.