Faith Development In Women

Presenting a rich account of women's faith lives and, mapping women's meanings in their own right, this book offers an alternative to dominant accounts of faith development which failed to account for women's experience. Drawing on Fowler's faith development theory, feminist models of women's faith and social science methodology, the text explores the patterns and processes of women's faith development and spirituality in a group of thirty women belonging to, or on the edges of, Christian tradition. Integrating practical theological concern with Christian education and pastoral practice, this book will be of interest to all concerned with women's faith development, spirituality, education and formation, and those working in the fields of practical theology, pastoral care, adult theological education, spiritual direction and counselling.

Identifying, illuminating and enhancing understanding of key aspects of women and girls' faith lives, The Faith Lives of Women and Girls represents a significant body of original qualitative research from practitioners and researchers across the UK. Contributors include new and upcoming researchers as well as more established feminist practical theologians. Chapters provide perspectives on different ages and stages of faith across the life cycle, from a range of different cultural and religious contexts. Diverse spiritual practices, beliefs and attachments are explored, including a variety of experiences of liminality in women’s faith lives. A range of approaches - ethnographic, oral history, action research, interview studies, case studies and documentary analysis - combine to offer a deeper understanding of women’s and girls' faith lives. As well as being of interest to researchers, this book presents resources to enhance ministry to and with women and girls in a variety of settings.

'Women's Spirituality' is an enlarged and revised edition of the widely used anthology that looks at the spiritual and psychological dimensions of women's lives. Using classical and contemporary texts, the present volume illuminates the way feminist issues find grounding in great spiritual teachers such as Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Ignatius Loyola, and Jane de Chantal. Four sections develop the central theme. The first considers contemporary issues: women in ministry, different forms of feminist spirituality, and sexism in the church. The second provides contemporary resources for psychological development. The third gives examples of spiritual development in the biblical, Ignatian, Carmelite, and Salesian traditions. The final section considers new visions of women's spirituality in the present day. Contributors to this volume include Anne Carr, Joann Wolski Conn, Kathleen Fischer, Constance FitzGerald, James Fowler, Carol Gilligan, Rosemary Haughton, Elizabeth A. Johnson, Robert Kegan, John McDargh, Jean Baker Miller, Sandra M. Schneiders, Elisabeth Schÿssler Fiorenza, Mary Jo Weaver, Rowan Williams, and Wendy M. Wright.

This book explores the changing role of Muslim women in the economy in the twenty-first century. Sociological developments such as secular education, female-focused policies, national and global commitments to gender equality as well as contemporary technological advances have all served to shift and redefine the domestic and public roles of Muslim women, leading in many places to increases in workplace participation ​and entrepreneurship. The volume investigates the contexts of these shifts and the experiences of women balancing faith and other commitments to actively engage in the economy in vastly different countries. The book looks at how family codes and the understandings of Muslim male and female roles sit alongside social and economic advances and the increases in women partaking in the economy. ​Within a globalised world, it also highlights the importance of the implementation of the current sustainable development priorities in the context of Muslim societies, including Sustainable Development Goal 5 that focuses on the vital role of women and their full participation in all areas of sustainable development. With cases ranging from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Bangladesh, ​Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Kenya through to Spain, Bulgaria​ and Australia, Muslim Women in the Economy will be of considerable interest to those studying, researching and interested in gender, development and religious studies.

Exploration of religious attachment from a psychodynamic perspective, this book provides a coherent and convincing account of the roots and characteristics of Christian women’s faith experience which will complement and, in some respects correct, existing accounts. Drawing on attachment theory as a conceptual framework, this book employs a qualitative methodological approach, focusing analysis on linguistic meanings, and using autobiographical narrative in-depth interviews with a group of ten Korean Christian women. Examining the patterns of religious attachment in relation to human attachments, the key characteristics in women’s faithing are explored: the language, means and context, and the relational and affective accounts of faith with or in which women practice their faith. Three major patterns of religious attachment are identified in which the women’s faithing strategies and their representations of self and God are presented: these are Distance/Avoidance, Anxiety/Ambivalence and Security/Interdependence. Integrating theoretical and practical implications of religious attachment for Christian education and pastoral practice, this book will be a good use to all concerned with women’s religious attachment, faith development, spirituality and education, and those working in the field of practical theology, pastoral care, Christian education, counselling and psychotherapy.