The Gospel of John recounts the story of an encounter between Jesus and a Samaritan woman at the well. After their conversation, she goes out to tell her neighbors about the mysterious stranger, and many of them believed “on the strength of her witness.” These essays, drawn from around the world, reveal the many ways that women have reflected on and borne witness to the person, teaching, and praxis of Jesus Christ in light of their own varied contexts. These contexts include their struggles for life amidst wrenching poverty, racism, and violence; their experience of being female in male-dominated structures in the church and society; and their commitment to promote justice in view of the human dignity of women, all done in tandem with their faith relationship with the living God.
Table of Contents
Introduction, Elizabeth A. Johnson (USA)
Part I. THE EASTER EXPERIENCE
Contributors: Sandra Schneiders (USA), Teresa Okure (Nigeria), Joy Ann McDougall (USA)
Part II. SWEEPING OVERVIEWS
Contributors: Ellen Leonard (Canada), Elaine Wainwright (Australia), Kelly Brown Douglas (USA), Carter Heyward (USA), Francine Cardman (USA), Judith Plaskow (USA)
Part III. A SYMPHONY OF VOICES
Contributors: Chung Hyun Kyung (Korea/USA), Virginia Fabella (Philippines), Teresia M. Hinga (Kenya/USA), Mercy Amba Oduyoye (Ghana), Lee Miena Skye (Australia), Judith Vusi (Vanuatu), Maria Clara Lucchetti Bingemer (Brazil), María Pilar Aquino (Mexico/USA), Delores Williams (USA), Jacqueline Grant (USA), Loida I. Martell-Otero (USA), Dorothee Soelle (Germany)
Part IV. FRESH TAKES ON THE BODY OF CHRIST
Contributors: Kwok Pui-lan (Hong Kong/USA), M. Shawn Copeland (USA), Jeannine Hill Fletcher (USA), Kathryn Kleinhans (USA); Teresa Berger (Germany/USA), Astrid Lobo Gajiwala (India)
Index
Elizabeth A. Johnson, a member of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, is Distinguished Professor of Theology at Fordham University. A former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, she is the author of many books, including She Who Is (winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Religion), Quest for the Living God, Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love, and Abounding in Kindness: Writings for the People of God.