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On the Voices, Contexts and Tasks of Theology

Experiments in Quaker and Feminist Thought

On the Voices, Contexts and Tasks of Theology cover

On the Voices, Contexts and Tasks of Theology

Experiments in Quaker and Feminist Thought

Description

Who is Christian theology for, what is it for, and what can it do? Rachel Muers explores the voice of Christian theology – the relationship between the subject of theology and theological discourse.

The book begins with the question 'how does someone speak of God?', understood not as a question about the criteria or authorised sources for theology, but as a question of what is going on when theology is done. How is it possible to speak as this particular historical embodied subject about God?

Muers investigates voice through engagement with historical and contemporary theologians, particularly but not only with women who are speaking from relatively marginalised positions and contending with the lack of societal authorisation for their theological work. Recognising that the question of 'voice' is often equated in the contemporary context with the representation of identities and with how spaces and institutions can facilitate that representation, the narrative considers more directly how questions of identity and context – particularly in relation to gender – shape the construction and representation of systematic theology, and of theological tradition. Muers examines the vocation of theology, particularly in the contemporary Western academy and alongside other 'humanities' subjects, and a concluding chapter sets out a vision for ecumenical theological work. The book draws extensively on the author's own Quaker tradition and on her experience of teaching and mentoring theologians.

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Table of Contents

Part 1: Raising Voices

Chapter 1
Overview: Speaking Experimentally

Chapter 2
Let Us Hear Your Voice: Encouragement to New Theologians

Chapter 3
Thinking With Julian of Norwich About Doing Theology

Part 2: Finding Voices in Quaker Tradition

Chapter 4
Speaking, Justified

Chapter 5
The Seed and the Day of Small Things: Voice and Power

Chapter 6
Voice and the Bodyt: John Woolman's Silence

Chapter 7
Notes on Nonconformist Public Theology

Part 3: Finding Voices in Theological Systems

Chapter 8
A Systematics Of One's Own: Reflections on a Search for Foremothers in Systematic Theology

Chapter 9
Where do Women's Voices Come From?

Chapter 10
The Love Lives of Great Theologians

Chapter 11
Hearing Shibboleth: Borders and Boundaries in Theology

Part 4: Voices in Place

Chapter 12
Theology in the Fabric of the Secular University (Leeds)

Chapter 13
Divinity Among 'The Humanities': 'Idle Decoration' or Water of Life?

Chapter 14
'I Was Glad'

Bibliography
Index

Product details

Published 16 Oct 2025
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Pages 192
ISBN 9780567721280
Imprint T&T Clark
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Rachel Muers

Rachel Muers is Chair of Divinity at the Universit…

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