Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2009
The paper introduces the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, popularly known as ‘the Circle’ begun in 1989, and the issues they raise for theological discussion. The Circle sets out to recreate and retrieve women's stories so that they become an integral part of the story of the Church and of Africa as a whole. The Circle and its methodology is set within the ecumenical and multi-faith context of its membership. The range of studies undertaken by its members is reviewed here. These come under four general headings: Biblical and Cultural Hermeneutics; Religion in Pluralistic Cultures; Theological and Ministerial Formation for Women; and Women in Religion, which focuses on the stories of women and religion in Africa.
1. Oduyoye, M.A., ‘The Search for a Two Winged Theology: Women's Participation in the Development of Theology in Africa: The Inaugural Address’, in Oduyoye, M.A. and Kanyoro, Musimbi R.A. (eds.), Talitha Qumi! Proceedings of the Convocation of African Women Theologians 1989 (Ibadan: Daystar Press, 1990), pp. 27–48 (27).Google Scholar
2. Mosala, I.J., Biblical Hermeneutics and Black Theology in South Africa (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1989)Google Scholar. Another African scholar, Laurenti Magesa has put forward his defence of a socio-centric biblical hermeneutics against what he calls ‘a privatized’ hermeneutics. See his ‘From Privatized to Popular Biblical Hermeneutics in Africa’, in Kinoti, H.W. and Waliggo, J.M. (eds.), The Bible in African Christianity: Essays in Biblical Theology (Nairobi: Acton, 1997), pp. 25–39.Google Scholar
3. Trible, Phyllis, ‘Feminist Hermeneutics and Biblical Studies’, in Loades, A. (ed.), Feminist Theology: A Reader (London: SPCK, 1990), pp. 23–29 (23).Google Scholar
4. Fiorenza, E. Schüssler, Bread Not Stone: The Challenge of Feminist Biblical Interpretation (Boston: Beacon Press, 1985), p. xiii.Google Scholar
5. Trible, P., Texts of Terror: Literary-feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984).Google Scholar
6. Okure, T., ‘Women in the Bible’, in Fabella, V. and Oduyoye, M.A. (eds.), With Passion and Compassion: Third World Women Doing Theology (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988), p. 56.Google Scholar
7. Okure, T., ‘The Significance Today of Jesus' Commission to Mary Magdalene’, International Review of Mission 81.322 (1992), pp. 177–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8. Okure, T., ‘Feminist Interpretations in Africa’, in Fiorenza, E. Schüssler (ed.), Searching the Scriptures (2 vols.; London: SCM Press, 1993–1994), I, pp. 76–85 (77).Google Scholar
9. Oduyoye, M.A., Hearing and Knowing: Theological Reflections on Christianity in Africa (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1986), p. 147.Google Scholar
10. Kanyoro, M., ‘Bible Studies at the Convocation’, in Oduyoye and Kanyoro (eds.) Talitha Qumi!, pp. 52–53.Google Scholar
11. Dube, M., ‘Fifty Years of Bleeding: A Storytelling Feminist Reading of Mark 5:24–43’, in Dube, M. (ed.), Other Ways of Reading: African Women and the Bible (Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2001), pp. 50–60.Google Scholar
12. Dube, M., Postcolonial Feminist Interpretaion of the Bible (Missouri: Chalice Press, 2000), p. 20.Google Scholar
13. Dube, M., Other Ways of Reading the Bible: African Women and the Bible (Geneva: WCC, 2001), p. 3.Google Scholar
14. Okure, , ‘Feminist Interpretations in Africa’, p. 76.Google Scholar
15. Kanyoro, M., ‘Feminist Theology and African Culture’, in Wamue, Grace and Getui, Mary (eds.), Violence against Women (Nairobi: Acton, 1996), pp. 4–12 (5).Google Scholar
16. ‘Violence against Women in African Oral Literature as Portrayed in Proverbs’ in Wamue, and Getui, , Violence against Women, pp. 13–20.Google Scholar
17. ‘The Status of Women in African Naming Systems’, in Wamue, and Getui, , Violence against Women, pp. 27–39.Google Scholar
18. ‘Gender Violence and Exploitation: The Widow's Dilemma’, in Wamue, and Getui, , Violence against Women, pp. 40–48.Google Scholar
19. In Oduyoye, M.A. (ed.), Transforming Power: Women in the Household of God: Proceedings of the Pan African Conference of the Circle (Accra-North: Sam-Woode Limited for Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, 1997), pp. 96–101.Google Scholar
20. Amoah, E. (ed.), Where God Reigns: Reflections on Women in God's World (Accra: Sam Wood, 1997).Google Scholar
21. See n. 19.
22. Nyambura, N. and Musimbi, K. (eds.), Groaning in Faith: African Women in the Household of God (Nairobi: Acton, 1996).Google Scholar
23. Wamue, and Getui, (eds.), Violence against Women.Google Scholar
24. Getui, Mary N. and Ayanga, Hazel (eds.), Conflicts in Africa: A Women's Response (Nairobi: Faith Institute of Counselling, 2002).Google Scholar
25. Phiri, I., Devakarsham, B.G. and Saronjini, N. (eds.), Her Stories: Hidden Histories of Women of Faith in Africa (Pietermaritzburg: Cluster, 2002).Google Scholar