Theology: Historical Theology: Feminist Ecclesiology

The church has always been a place of profound ambivalence for women. While the majority of those who attend church are women, women experience hierarchical exclusion and invisibility within its institutional structures. Throughout most of its history, women have not participated in the church's reflections on its own nature. And yet, feminist theologians claim that women are church and always have been church. This book explores women's experiences of being church and reclaiming the church in order to rebuild it as meaningful, open, sacramental space where everybody's presence is celebrated. Natalile Watson proposes a creative and constructive dialogue with existing theological approaches to the church, from different Christian traditions as well as more recent feminist theologians, and suggests the development of criteria which hear women's experiences of being church and reclaiming church into speech. The church is the embodied reality of all women, children and men whose stories tell the story of the Triune God. This book explores the ambivalence of women's experiences of being part of the church, yet often on men's terms, and seeks to establish a constructive and creative re-reading of ecclesiology from a feminist perspective.

The nature and story of the Christian church is immensely important to theology students and scholars alike. Written by an international team of distinguished scholars, this comprehensive book introduces students to the fundamental historical, systematic, moral and ecclesiological aspects of the study of the church, as well as serving as a resource for scholars engaging in ecclesiological debates on a wide variety of issues. It divides into six parts: the church in its historical context the different denominational traditions global perspectives methods and debates in ecclesiology key concepts and themes ecclesiology and other disciplines: social sciences, philosophy, literature and film. Authoritative, accessible and easily navigable, this book is indispensable for everyone interested in the nature and history of the Christian Church.