Karen ODonnell (editor) - Feminist Trauma Theologies: Body, Scripture & Church in Critical Perspective

Feminist Trauma Theologies

Body, Scripture and Church in Critical Perspective

Edited by

Karen ODonnell and Katie Cross

Editor and Contributors 2020

Published in 2020 by SCM Press

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978 0 334 05872 4

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Typeset by Regent Typesetting

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd

This book is dedicated to our mothers Christine and Marie who showed us what it means to be compassionate, brave and strong.

The survivor who has achieved commonality with others can rest from her labors. Her recovery is accomplished; all that remains before her is her life.

(Judith Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence )

Contents

Karen ODonnell

Katie Cross

Hilary Jerome Scarsella

Manon Ceridwen James

Alistair McFadyen

Kirsi Cobb

Rosie Andrious

Leah Robinson

Sonia Soans

Natalie Collins

Ally Moder

Santiago Pin

Esther McIntosh

List of Contributors

Rosie Andrious is currently a Research Associate within the Theology and Religious Studies Department at Kings College, London. She previously worked as a chaplain and was Head of Spiritual and Pastoral Care in one of the largest NHS trusts in London. She completed her PhD under the supervision of Professor Joan Taylor at Kings College, London, and was also awarded the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice from the Kings Learning Institute. Prior to her ordination in the Church of England in 2001, she read theology as an undergraduate at Kings where she also completed a postgraduate masters in biblical studies. Previously she worked as a part-time lecturer at KCL and a Mental Health Chaplain for the South London and Maundsley NHS Trust. Her research interests include gender studies, women in early Christianity, martyrdom literature and representation of violence. She has published in the areas of biblical studies, contemporary spirituality and chaplaincy.

Kirsi Cobb is Lecturer in Biblical Studies at Cliff College in Derbyshire, UK. Her research focuses on biblical hermeneutics as well as Old Testament studies, with a particular interest in womens studies. Her recent research projects centre on the presentation and interpretation of women, especially in the Old Testament, exploring ways to read their stories in more empowering ways. Her most recent publication, When Irony Bites Back: A Deconstructive Reading of the Midwives Excuse in Exodus 1:19 (in I. Fischer, ed., Gender Agenda Matters , Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2015) was in part based on her PhD research (2012; forthcoming), which focused on the narrative portrayal of Miriam in Exodus 2, 15 and Numbers 12.

Natalie Collins is a gender justice specialist. She set up Spark (www.sparkequip.org) and works to enable individuals and organizations to prevent and respond to male violence against women. She is also the Creator and Director of DAY (www.dayprogramme.org), an innovative youth domestic abuse and exploitation education programme. Natalie organizes Project 3:28 (www.project328.info), co-founded the UK Christian Feminist Network (www.christianfeministnetwork.com), blogs and tweets as God Loves Women and has written a book about Christians and domestic abuse, entitled Out of Control: Couples, Conflict and the Capacity for Change (SPCK, 2019). She speaks and writes on understanding and ending gender injustice nationally and internationally.

Katie Cross is Christs College Teaching Fellow in Practical Theology at the University of Aberdeen. She is (in official terms) the first woman to teach for Christs College since its foundation in 1843. Her work and teaching are centred on theologies of trauma, suffering and disaster. Katies PhD research was a theological engagement with issues of trauma and suffering in an increasingly non-religious UK context, and involved a qualitative study of the Sunday Assembly, a godless congregation. A monograph based on this research, entitled The Sunday Assembly and Theologies of Suffering , will be published by Routledge in 2020.

Manon Ceridwen James is the Director of Formation for Licensed Ministry for the St Padarns Institute, Church in Wales. Her poetry has appeared in several publications, including Poetry Wales and Envoi . She gained her PhD investigating the role that religion plays in the identity of Welsh women in 2015, and her research has been published in two edited collections of feminist theological qualitative research ( The Faith Lives of Women and Girls and Researching Female Faith , both published by Routledge), and her book Women, Identity and Religion in Wales: Theology, Poetry, Story was published in 2018 by the University of Wales Press.

Al McFadyen is Senior Lecturer in Systematic Theology at the University of Leeds, while also a part-time (unpaid) operational officer in West Yorkshire Police. The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of either organization. His theological work is focused on theological anthropology and the doctrine of sin. He attempts to triangulate secular with theological thought in relation to concrete human situations where humanity is at risk. He has also published on religion and policing. His main publications are The Call to Personhood (Cambridge University Press, 1990) and Bound to Sin: Abuse, Holocaust and the Christian Doctrine of Sin (Cambridge University Press, 2000). In 2014, he was awarded an MBE for services to policing and the community.

Esther McIntosh is currently Subject Director for Theology and Religious Studies and Senior Lecturer in Religion, Philosophy and Ethics at York St John University. She is a feminist theologian and John Macmurray scholar engaged in interdisciplinary research that focuses on definitions of personhood and community, the ethics of personal relations, gender justice and the use of social media by religious communities. Representative publications include: John Macmurrays Religious Philosophy: What it Means to be a Person (Ashgate and Routledge, 2011); Belonging without Believing: Church as Community in an Age of Digital Media, International Journal of Public Theology 9:2 (2015); I Met God, Shes Black: Racial, Gender and Sexual Equalities in Public Theology, in S. Kim and K. Day (eds), A Companion to Public Theology (Brill, 2017). In addition, she is currently engaged in a CUF-funded project exploring chaplaincy support for trans and non-binary staff and students in Anglican foundation universities.

Ally Moder is a feminist practical theologian whose interdisciplinary work centres on theological, spiritual and psychological understandings of trauma, mental health and human flourishing. She holds a PhD in practical theology and teaches in this field at multiple universities, in addition to speaking globally on women in leadership and ending violence against women and girls. Through her published articles and popular blogs, she also provides free faith-based resources for survivors of domestic abuse to heal. Ally brings two decades of pastoral ministry to her work as a speaker, author and consultant, and is available at www.allymoder.com.