Jeannine Hill-Fletcher – Fordham Now

Whose Earth Is It, Anyway?

Patrick Verel — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 14:47:03 +0000

When people of faith dismiss the beliefs of others, they risk embracing behaviors that wreck the natural world.

“Just as now we are erasing over 200 species a day, [the work of missionaries], when wedded to religious supremacy, has worked deliberately and actively to erase religious and linguistic diversity,” said J ohn J. Thatamanil, MDiv., Ph.D., at an event geared towards first-year students at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus on Oct. 11.

“You cannot have an adequate analysis of how we got here without having an understanding of colonialism and imperialism, and you can’t understand how those forces work if you have no account of religious supremacy.”

In his talk “Enchanted Earth: Addressing the Plight of the Earth by Overcoming Religious Supremacy,” Thatamanil, a professor of theology and world religions at Union Theological Seminary and an eminent scholar of comparative theology, drew on the essay “Whose Earth Is it Anyway?” (University of North Carolina Press, 2000), a groundbreaking essay by James Cone, Ph.D.

All first-year undergraduate Fordham students taking the core curriculum class Faith and Critical Reason this semester read the essay. Many were present for the event at McNally Ampitheatre, which was sponsored by the Department of Theology and is part of the undergraduate Theology First-Year Experience program. It was open to everyone and live streamed to the Rose Hill campus.

The Perils of Religious Supremacy

While Cone connected the behavior that leads to slavery and segregation to the exploitation of animals and the ravaging of nature, Thatamanil suggested that those who embrace religious supremacy will inevitably embrace racism and ecological degradation.

In an onstage conversation with Jeannine Hill-Fletcher, Ph.D., professor of theology, Thatamanil said that in addition to Christianity, prominent 18th-century European intellectuals also promoted a form of scientism, which he said elevates the logical above the transcendent. Animism, an orientation embraced by Native Americans that posits that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence, was dismissed as primitive.

That belief in scientism stemmed in part from the metaphor, which was popular at the time, of God as a watchmaker.

“If we imagine nature as a mechanism, not an organism, then there must be a watchmaker. But is the watchmaker present in the watch? No, but maybe the watchmaker’s genius is present in the watch,” Thatamanil said.

“So if God is outside creation, then creation gets desacralized and conveniently becomes handy for capitalism. You can do with it as you please.”

Learning From Other Traditions

There are, in fact, many Christian teachings that do not lend themselves to conquest of the natural world, he said, and by engaging with other faiths, one can rediscover them.

“Imagine missionaries that came to the Americas with … a sense of ‘What do the First Nation peoples have to teach me?’ ” he said.

“So I think our traditions can be helped by each other. An encounter with indigenous traditions, with Buddhism, with Hinduism can recover submerged, suppressed, and repressed elements of our own tradition.”

Claire Harvey, a first-year student at Fordham College at Lincoln Center who is considering a visual arts major and a theology minor, said she was particularly moved by Thatamanil’s telling of how Gandhi welcomed Christian missionaries but also scolded them for being unreceptive to the lessons Hindus could share with them.

“I thought that was really interesting. I had never thought about the connection between colonialism and religious supremacy,” she said.

Likewise, Thatamanil’s take on Cone’s writing made a deep impression on her.

“He made a really great point about the climate crisis, how you have to fight racism if you want to fight climate change,” she said.

“I knew that people of color are disproportionately affected by the effects of climate change, but I had never heard it put like that. It made a lot of sense to me.”

How One Fordham Grad Learned to Take Up Space and Work for Systemic Change

Sierra McCleary-Harris — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 22:01:01 +0000

Students often credit Fordham as the place they’ve found their passion and purpose. That’s true for Loreen Ruiz, a 2021 graduate of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, but she learned something even more invaluable as an undergrad, she said: how to take up space—as a woman, and as someone working to end systemic injustice.

“Professor Jeannine Hill Fletcher taught me that there are so many more dimensions to religion and theology than I originally thought, and that there is space for women in theology—an important message as a woman in theology myself,” she said.

She’s taken that lesson to heart: Ruiz, currently a student at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), hopes to one day work at a nongovernmental organization, or in government, focusing specifically on creating policies that improve the lives of women.

A native of San Francisco, Ruiz majored in theology religious studies at Fordham with a concentration in faith and culture and a minor in American studies. She also served as a member of United Student Government at Lincoln Center; wrote for The Observer; was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Sigma Nu, Theta Alpha Kappa, and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies; and even received the 2021 Undergraduate Student Award for Most Active in Promoting Diversity and Inclusion from the Office for Student Involvement. She also completed internships with the National Development Council—a nonprofit that works with both government and community organizations to support and preserve “homes, jobs, and community”—and with Zina Spezakis’ campaign for Congress.

What do you think you got at Fordham that you couldn’t have gotten elsewhere?
Here’s a story that I like to tell: I arrived at Fordham a characteristically nervous freshman, daunted by a new city and the prospect of making social connections. On my way to audition for a club, I realized that I had no idea how to print the script I needed for my audition. Frantically, I approached an upperclassman to ask for help. Not only did he sit with me to figure out how to set up my printing account, he used his own credit to help me print my script. This unprecedented gesture exemplified the kindness and care that defines the Fordham community.

Academically, Fordham teaches its students to be deeply informed and concerned about injustices in the world, but also deeply moved to do something about them. Across disciplines, Fordham professors teach students not only about important issues in our communities but inspire their students to make a difference.

What Fordham course has had the greatest influence on you and your career path so far? How and why was it so influential?
Major Developments in American Culture, taught by Professor Diane Detournay. From academic discourse to everyday news, we often throw around terms like “systemic inequality,” “injustice,” and “oppression,” but we don’t spend enough time unpacking why these things happen or how they came to be in the first place.

Professor Detournay’s class allowed us to home in on the history of our country’s unfair systems and the ways in which they are perpetuated or upheld. Some topics we focused on were immigration, the prison-industrial complex, and the colonial history of Hawaii. I came away from her class with the confidence to articulate the history and mechanism of unjust systems, which was fundamental to my decision to study social policy for my master’s degree. I figured that the best way to combat systemic injustice is to change the systems that cause them in the first place.

Who is the Fordham professor or person you admire the most, and why?
This is a tough question because there are so many professors and people at Fordham I admire. If I had to choose, I admire Professor Jeannine Hill Fletcher. Among my non-religious peers, I’ve noticed that there is a general perception that religious people lack an awareness of societal discrimination. While it’s not her stated mission, I think Professor Hill Fletcher—who is Catholic—turns all of those stereotypes on their head. Not only is she a feminist theologian by training: she is very involved with advocacy work, as she is an prominent voice for faculty rights, and she is a dedicated ally to students of color and LGBTQ students. As someone who came to Fordham grappling with religion and trying to understand it better, it was really influential to meet Professor Hill Fletcher and see the kind of work she does.

Did you have any internships or any other experiences, such as clubs, that helped put you on your current path? What were they, and how did they prepare you for what you’re doing now?
I served on United Student Government (USG) for three years, culminating with a successful campaign for president. While USG is not an exact simulation of how state governments work, I felt that through my role, I was able to understand what it means to be a leader and how to deal with difficult issues because I entered my term right as COVID-19 hit and in the wake of the George Floyd protests. With the challenge of a pandemic and amid conversations about racial justice and everyday life, I found myself in a multitude of conversations about how to give students the best, safest, and most just experience possible.

During these conversations, I learned to play to the strengths of different personalities and work styles as I led the Senate and executive board, and I learned how to negotiate with high-level University administrators. I feel that the communication and leadership skills I gained through my role as president will be crucial to my future career in policy work, either as a government policy adviser or at an NGO.

Finally, as president, I accomplished several landmark projects that were the first of their kind at Fordham. They included Fordham’s first anti-discrimination policy for student organizations, Fordham’s first ceremony of recognition for first-generation students, and statements of support for Black, Burmese, and Asian American communities. While they were not policies in a public or social policy sense, these long-term projects trained me to see large plans come to fruition and to uplift a diversity of voices in respectful ways.

What are you doing now? Can you paint us a picture of your current responsibilities? What do you hope to accomplish, personally or professionally?
I am currently at the London School of Economics, pursuing my MSc in international social and public policy. I am continuing my passion for leadership by serving as a Student Academic Representative for my programme at LSE. After graduation, I plan to either pursue a Ph.D. or begin my career in public policy.

What are you optimistic about?
While I miss Fordham dearly, knowing that it is inspiring generation after generation of changemakers makes me optimistic.

Interview conducted, edited, and condensed by Sierra McCleary-Harris.

Black Lives Matter Resources from the Chief Diversity Officer

Fordham News — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 15:25:10 +0000

In response to the death of George Floyd and the impassioned responses that have followed, Rafael A. Zapata, Fordham’s chief diversity officer, special assistant to the president for diversity, and associate vice president for academic affairs, recently shared with the Fordham community a one-page resource guide.

The articles, films, academic papers, podcasts, and interviews listed below are for anyone interested in learning about the Black Lives Matter Movement, racial inequality and racialized violence, and communal responses toward action and healing.

Multimedia: Documentaries and Conversations

The Bronx COVID-19 Oral History Project Fordham University. Carlos Rico, Veronica Quiroga, and Bethany Fernandez.
13th (2016) [Film]. Netflix. Duvernay, A. (Streaming for free)
Just Mercy (2019) [Film]. Warner Bros. Cretton, D. D. (Streaming for free)
Black vs. White: Protesting & Riots (2020) [Interview] Christina Greer & Jason Johnson
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on How Racism & Racial Terrorism Fueled Nationwide Anger (2020)[Interview] DemocracyNow!
Decade of Fire (2019) [Film]. GoodDocs. Hilderbran, G., Vazquez, V.
When They See Us (2019) [TV Mini-series]. Netflix. Duvernay, A.
Angela Davis – “Freedom is a Constant Struggle” (2019) [Lecture] The University of New England
Dr. Robin DiAngelo discusses ‘White Fragility’ (2018) [Book Talk] Seattle Central Library
The Urgency of Intersectionality (2016) Kimberlé Crenshaw, TED
The Black Power Mixtape (2011) [Film] PBS Independent Lens. Göran Olsson
Color Blind or Color Brave (2014) Mellody Hobson, TED.
The Power of Vulnerability (2010) Brené Brown, TED.
Intersectionality Matters [Podcast] Kimberlé Crenshaw
Code Switch [Podcast] NPR
Pod Save the People [Podcast] Deray McKesson

Get Involved

The Bronx Freedom Fund
#8cantwait
8toAbolition

Additional Resources

Jesuit Resources on Racism: Ignatian Solidarity Network – Racial Justice

Theologian Examines Painful Connections Between Christianity and Racism

Patrick Verel — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 23:55:14 +0000

The summer’s violent protests by white supremacists in Virginia brought virulent racism to the forefront of the American consciousness, perhaps for the first time in decades.

But deep down, subtle forms of racism have long been embedded in some of the most influential institutions in the United States.

In The Sin of White Supremacy: Christianity, Racism and Religious Diversity in America (Orbis, 2017), Jeannine Hill Fletcher, Ph.D., professor of theology, examines theology’s culpability in perpetuating ideas that elevate both Christianity and whiteness over all else.

The book was inspired by Hill Fletcher’s work as the faculty director of Fordham’s Service Learning program. As the program sent students to work in communities of color, workshops on racism have been a part of the student preparation, said Hill Fletcher. As a result, she became very familiar with practices, such as redlining, that have led to racialized disparities that continue today. And she began to ask questions about theology’s role in securing rights for some people and denying them to others.

“In my studies of the theologies of the religious ‘other,’ I recognized that the ideology of Christian supremacy was actually a piece that informed legislation that dispossessed native people,” she said.

“Theology was being constructed in a way that made it seem reasonable to say that only Christians had rights to the land. It was producing ideas that made it reasonable to believe that enslaved Africans were better off because they’re with Christian masters.”

Exhibit A for this thinking, she said, is the Doctrine of Discovery, which scholars trace back to documents like those issued in 1493 by Pope Alexander VI. The protocol, which was embraced by European kings and queens, stipulated that if explorers from a Christian nation encountered settlers from another Christian nation in a new land, the new explorers had no rights to it. If, on the other hand, a non-Christian community was present, the Christian nation had the rights to the land—either by force or by purchase.

This principle was practiced over several hundred years, and was made government policy in 1823, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Native Americans could never lay claim to ownership of land. Chief Justice John Marshall, writing for a unanimous court, cited the doctrine as precedent for the decision, in the case Johnson v. M’Intosh.

“In most cases, you can’t trace a direct cause from something a theologian says to this kind of practical output,” Hill Fletcher said.

“But theologians have always had the ability to lend symbolic capital to ideas. These ideas can create conditions [that]have real-life effects.”

Although several Christian churches are wrestling with the legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, the Catholic Church has not yet officially repudiated it, Hill Fletcher said. It still has effects today in the struggle for Indigenous Nations’ sovereignty and self-determination.

“I know a lot of white Christians who are upset by what’s happening at Standing Rock, and upset by our segregated communities. But they don’t necessarily see how our Christian patterns over the last several hundred years have created the conditions for those things, so they don’t feel responsible for them,” she said.

“We are responsible for the realities that we see in front of us, and we need to rethink our theologies in order to address that.”

Even today, Hill Fletcher said theologians inadvertently make white Christian supremacy appear reasonable. Teaching, for instance, that Jesus is the savior of all people can be problematic.

“When a theologian teaches that, he is normalizing that to be human is to be Christian, and to be non-Christian is to be somehow ‘other,’ and that people of other faith traditions might be lesser Americans—maybe even lesser human beings,” she said. This has the practical effect, for example, in politicians’ calls to admit only Christian minority refugees into the country.

Hill Fletcher said she was inspired by the work of Fordham alumnus Craig Wilder, Ph.D., Barton L. Weller Professor of History at M.I.T. and author of Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013).

The book’s August release coincided with a week in which large numbers of white supremacists felt comfortable enough to march publicly for the first time in years. Hill Fletcher noted that, although such overt racism is new to the 21st century, the underlying issues are not.

“It was a crisis under enslavement. It was a crisis in abolition. It was a crisis under Jim Crow. It was a crisis for the Chinese workers in the 19th century, and it was a crisis for Native American peoples,” she said.

“It has been a crisis since the founding our country.”

Campus Groups Team Up For Teach-In on Undoing Racism

Patrick Verel — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 18:26:30 +0000

The Undoing Racism Collective, a group of faculty, administrators, and staff from all corners of the University, is hosting a daylong racial justice “teach-in” simultaneously at the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses.

Thursday, Oct. 29
10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Various locations

The teach-in will be divided into five sections and will be led by members of the psychology, theology, sociology, and English departments, as well as the Graduate School of Education, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and Campus Ministry.

In addition to “History and Groundwork,” the topics addressed will be “Intersections of Identity & Identity Beyond Black and White,” “Religion and the Movements for Racial Justice,” “Microaggressions,” and “Becoming an Anti-Racist Institution.” Members of the Fordham community can visit the page for more information and to register.

Jeannine Hill Fletcher, PhD, an associate professor of theology who will participate in the first and last sessions of the day, said the teach-in originated with meetings between faculty and staff members who’d attended training at the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, which describes itself as an international collective of anti-racist, multicultural community organizers and educators dedicated to social transformation.

At Fordham, the group began meeting three years ago as the Undoing Racism Collective, said Hill Fletcher. In February 2014, in response to an invitation by Fordham President Joseph M. McShane, SJ, to have a university-wide dialogue on racism, it held its first open meeting.

Hill Fletcher said that the idea for the teach-in predated a recent campus incident where racist and anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered in a dorm on campus; the incident, however, illustrates the value of promoting racial justice through a campus-focused event, she said.

“A teach-in became pressing last year with the national events (such as) the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Gardner, and the reality that, 50 years after Martin Luther King, we’re still not following though on the promises of the civil rights movement,” she said.

Hill Fletcher said organizers hope to offer shared language, history, and analysis that comes out of scholarship around issues of race to create a shared space where all feel comfortable speaking freely about a contentious topic. And it’s not just for students.

“At the same time we want to ask, how does Fordham as an anti-racist institution have an impact on all staff, faculty, and administration members?” she said.

“What are the ways in which Fordham moves us toward a fully inclusive world, through its policies, and its programming, the education it provides, and to whom it provides?”

Remembering the Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador, 25 Years Later

Joanna Mercuri — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 15:23:15 +0000

In the predawn hours of Nov. 16, 1989, Father Ignacio Ellacuría and his fellow Jesuits were jarred awake by the pounding of fists and wooden clubs on the doors and windows of their residence.

Outside, more than three dozen Salvadoran soldiers had surrounded the University of Central America’s (UCA) Pastoral Center, where the six priests lived. Forcing their way into the quiet residence, the soldiers dragged the Jesuits outside and ordered them to lie facedown on the ground.

That morning, the world awakened to news of the most gruesome attack in El Salvador since the 1980 assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero. The six Jesuits had been executed in their front garden, while their cook Julia Elba Ramos and her 15-year-old daughter Celina—who had taken refuge at the residence after fleeing violence near their own home—had been shot to death in the bed they shared.

A Commitment to Justice

Women guerillas of the FMLN in El Salvador.

November marks 25 years since the killings, which have become emblematic of the civil war that ravaged El Salvador in the 1980s. An estimated 75,000 Salvadorans were killed in the decade-long war between a people’s movement and a U.S.-backed military government.

Father Ellacuría and his fellow Jesuits had responded to the violence by transforming UCA into a source of information about the political, economic, and social problems plaguing El Salvador. They documented the kidnappings, torture, and mass killings committed by military “death squads” and offered UCA as a venue for open debate.

“Father Ellacuría envisioned a new kind of university, one that focused all of its resources on what he called the ‘national reality,’” said Charles Currie, S.J., former president of Wheeling College and Xavier University. “He said the university had to be committed to teaching, doing research, and engaging in social outreach.”

Justice has always been at the heart of the Jesuit ethos, Father Currie said, but the dire situation in Latin America called for something radical. In 1975, Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus, called for the Jesuits to be “men for others” and implored them to embrace a “faith that does justice.”

“Our mission to proclaim the Gospel [demands]of us a commitment to promote justice and enter into solidarity with the voiceless and the powerless,” he wrote in the fourth decree of the 32nd General Congregation.

He also issued a caution: “If we work for justice, we will end up paying a price.”

Coming to UCA’s Aid

Following the murders, Father Currie traveled to El Salvador as a representative of Georgetown University. Many American Jesuits were coming to UCA’s aid, including the late Dean Brackley, S.J., who at the time was on the Fordham faculty. They found the capital, San Salvador, still embroiled in violence.

A boy soldier during the Salvadoran Civil War.

“We would go to meetings and would have to walk through gauntlets of soldiers, who would hit us with the butts of their rifles,” Father Currie said. “There was a lot of fear. You never knew what was going to happen when you opened the door—who would be out there and what they were going to do.”

At UCA, signs of the massacre were still evident.

“We went down there in early January, just over a month after the killings,” Father Currie said. “Blood was still on the ground. Everything had been left just as it was that night.”

And yet, there were also signs of what UCA had been a part of before it bore witness to the events of Nov. 16. The campus was alive with students walking to class or stretched out on the grass talking with classmates. Despite the trauma it suffered, UCA had refused to allow its spirit to be violated.

Justice and the Jesuit Campus

In the 25 years since the murders, Jesuit institutions have kept social justice at the core of their mission. A number of national initiatives evolved in direct response to El Salvador. Two of these are the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice, a yearly gathering to advocate for social justice issues, and the Ignatian Solidarity Network, which promotes leadership and advocacy among students and alumni.

Individual Jesuit institutions have responded on the local level withthe same ardor. Many Jesuit schools have centers dedicated to social justice, such as Fordham’s Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice. Grounded in the philosophy of “men and women for others,” the center connects Fordham with the local community to promote service and solidarity.

“Our aim is to invite faculty and students into local partnerships that can place our hearts, research, and resources within the wider community,” said Jeannine Hill-Fletcher, Ph.D., faculty director of Fordham’s service-learning program. “We are inspired by Ignacio Ellacuría’s vision that the university is a social force and its heart must reside outside its gates.”

On November 16, Jesuits around the world will remember those slain 25 years ago in El Salvador. Original paintings by Mary Pimmel-Freeman.

“I think it’s fair to say that no Jesuit campus today was the same after the killings in El Salvador,” Father Currie said. “Fordham has responded very generously to this vision, along with all of the Jesuit schools, by consciously committing to serving their local communities. I think that can trace back to what happened in El Salvador.”

To mark the 25th anniversary of the murders, presidents of Jesuit colleges and universities, advocates, U.S. politicians, and many others will travel to El Salvador. The delegation will meet with the nation’s leaders about urgent issues in the aftermath of the war, as well as visit sites related to the Jesuit martyrs.

The hope, Father Currie said, is to ensure for the Salvadoran people the justice that the Jesuits and their companions were denied.

“Peace without justice is not enough,” he said. “That doesn’t mean we should seek vengeance. But it is very important that we name the injustice so that we get to the root of the problem. Otherwise, peace becomes very fragile.

“The killing of the Jesuits represents a challenge to do just that,” he continued. “This 25th anniversary commemoration is the opportunity to recommit ourselves to a faith that does justice.”

The Westchester campus will celebrate a special liturgyThursday, Nov. 13.

Also on Thursday, Nov. 13 there will be a lecture at the Lincoln Center campus on the Jesuit martyrs and how they have influenced Jesuit institutions in the United States.

Twenty students will be attending the Ignatian Family Teach-In from Nov. 15 to Nov. 17, where Fordham theology professor Michael Lee will also speak.

At Rose Hill, there will be a prayer vigil on Sunday, Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m., followed by an 8 p.m. Mass in the University Church, celebrated by Claudio Burgaleta, S.J. A meal of pupusas, a traditional Salvadoran dish, will be served after Mass.

FUP Book Looks at On-the-ground Religious Work

Joanna Mercuri — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 16:24:21 +0000

Jeannine Hill Fletcher argues in her new book Motherhood as Metaphor that theologies that take a deductive approach to religious pluralism miss what actually happens when members of different faiths come together. Photo by Dana Maxson

The 21st-century world is shrinking.

But even as globalization becomes the reality, Christian theology still struggles to make sense of the dilemma of religious difference: If Christians believe in the truth of their tradition, does that mean that billions of believers in other faiths are wrong?

According to Jeannine Hill Fletcher, Th.D., a professor of theology who specializes in systematic and feminist theology, the reason that theology has stalled on matters of religious diversity is due in part to a reliance on deductive methodologies that begin exclusively with Christian tradition and doctrine.

“Theologians have tended to ask, ‘What does the Bible say? What has tradition said?’ and then take this body of theological principles and apply them to the situation of having a neighbor of a different faith,” said Hill Fletcher, who has published widely on religious pluralism and interreligious dialogue. “That approach has gotten us far, but not far enough.”

She argues that by zeroing in on established Christian tradition, the doctrinal method misses what actually happens when members of different faiths come together. “Our thinking about religious diversity is compromised by not having this on-the-ground sense of actual human beings,” she said. “We project things theologically that don’t match people’s lived realities.”

Moreover, because the history of Christianity consists mostly of the experiences and teachings of men, theology’s continued use of a doctrinal approach means that women’s voices are largely absent from the conversation.

In her newly released book, Motherhood as Metaphor: Engendering Interreligious Dialogue (Fordham University Press, 2013), Hill Fletcher asks what difference would it make if the conversation no longer pivoted on Christian doctrine, but rather the experiences of those working on the ground—especially women.

She discusses three examples of on-the-ground interreligious work being done by women: the missionary work of Maryknoll Sisters in China prior to World War II; the secular feminist movement; and a contemporary interfaith dialogue group that began in Philadelphia in 2001. Using archival information and interviews, she examines how the women work with people of other faiths and what we can learn from their experiences.

She found that in all three case studies, the women recognized that their work as missionaries, suffragettes, and activists brought them into contact with other women embedded in roles as mothers, daughters, caregivers, and breadwinners. As a result, they tended to tacitly appreciate that individuals are more than their religious, cultural, or national identities; each person is part of a complex network of roles and relationships, all of which contributes to who he or she is.

Such an appreciation, she said, also had profound theological implications.

“[For instance,] the Maryknoll missionaries went with a clear direction—they wanted to convert women [to Christianity]. And their early letters were all about saving these poor women and bringing them to the light,” she said. “But then you see them struggle with this cognitive dissonance, where they begin to see these other women as complex, part of this multiplicity… So the [Christian] teaching that they’ve inherited is put into conversation with a lived experience, and some of their theological thinking changes.”

Their appreciation of this complexity illustrates a key feminist theory of personhood—that the most accurate way to conceptualize ourselves is not as individuals primarily, which is the popular modern conception, but rather as relational beings, individuals embedded within networks of relationships.

As the title suggests, Hill Fletcher employs the metaphor of motherhood throughout the book to describe what a deeper appreciation of this complexity would look like.

“It’s not about biological motherhood. It’s about thinking about how that subject position of mother illuminates something about relationality and our need to care for others,” she said. “It’s a metaphor for our caring for one another and bringing one another into being beyond family and beyond community for a world that needs care.”

Theology, she said, needs to mirror the complexity of lived experience. In terms of religious identity, this would mean that whether one identifies as Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or Buddhist is less important than how these traditions have contributed to who one is.

“The doctrinal approach has categorized people as [Christians and] non-Christians, but these on-the-ground experiences approach the religious other with a much more complex notion,” she said. “We need our theologies to take seriously the fact that religion isn’t just about what I believe or what I do on certain days of the week. It’s about a complex dynamic of who I am as a human being.”

While making headway on this question of religious diversity is indeed important for Christian theology, Hill Fletcher said that it is critical for an increasingly globalized world, where people of different nationalities, cultures, and religions are no longer anonymous others, but instead are neighbors, coworkers, and friends.

“We can’t afford not to get to know our neighbors of other faiths. We can’t afford not to cooperate across religious lines,” she said. “The world that we live in—we’re in this together. So either we find those ways to get to know each other, appreciate each other, and maybe do some interesting theological thinking together, or we close in on ourselves.”

Through the Metaphor of Motherhood Comes a New Way to Breach Religious Boundaries

Joanna Mercuri — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 21:16:21 +0000

Reconciling Religious Difference: