Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-talk"In this landmark work of emerging African American womanist theology, Delores Williams finds in the biblical figure of Hagar - mother of Ishmael, cast into the desert by Abraham and Sarah, but protected by God - a prototype for the struggle of African-American women. African slave, homeless exile, surrogate mother, Hagar's story provides an image of survival and defiance appropriate to black women today." "Exploring all the themes inherent in Hagar's story - poverty and slavery, ethnicity and sexual exploitation, exile and encounters with God - Sisters in the Wilderness traces parallels in the history of African-American women from slavery to the present. A particular theology - a womanist theology - emerges from this shared experience; specifically, from the interplay of oppressions on account of race, sex, and class." "In Part I, Williams shows how reading Hagar's story exemplifies the issues and problems black women face. The "forced motherhood," "single motherhood" and "surrogate motherhood" Hagar experienced have been part of black women's lives. Williams also explores the dismal reality of contemporary "racial narcissistic...consciousness" which finds its parallel in Hagar's travail as foreign servant and outcast. Finally, there is the religious resonance of Hagar's sojourns in the wilderness and her encounters with God. These themes Williams finds echoed in the cultural and literary traditions of African-American women." "Part II considers the theological implications of the womanist understanding of Hagar's history. Williams explores the relationship between womanist and black liberation theology, and womanist theology and the black church. Through the combination of social history, political theology, and literary criticism, Williams demonstrates how approaching theology consciously informed by the awareness of the identity of black women results in a rich and vibrant knowledge of the sacred. Sisters in the Wilderness provides a reconstruction of "God-talk" that adds a new dimension of meaning to the struggle for faith in God, Who "makes a way out of no way.""--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
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Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk Dolores S. Williams Limited preview - 2013 |
Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk Dolores S. Williams Limited preview - 2013 |
Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-talk Delores S. Williams No preview available - 1993 |
Common terms and phrases
Abraham Abram According African African-American African-American women's American Apparently associated become believe Bible biblical black community black liberation black women called century chapter child Christian claim color Cone consciousness culture describes develop economic ethical experience faith Father female feminist forces freedom Genesis give given God's Hagar Hebrew human Ibid ideas involved Ishmael issue James Jesus kind liberation lives male mammy Mary means moral mother motherhood Negro nurturing oppression person political poor positive Press question race reality regard relation religion religious resistance response roles Sarah Sarai says sexual Sisters slave slavery social sources spiritual spiritual churches story struggle suffering suggests surrogacy task tells theologians theology thought tion tradition understanding University wife wilderness woman womanist York
Bibliographic information
| Title | Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-talk Twentieth century religious thought |
| Author | Delores S. Williams |
| Publisher | Orbis Books, 1993 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | Jul 8, 2009 |
| ISBN | 088344772X, 9780883447727 |
| Length | 287 pages |
| Subjects | › › Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies Social Science / Feminism & Feminist Theory |
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