On the Voices, Contexts and Tasks of Theology: Experiments in Quaker and Feminist Thought - by Rachel Muers (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"This book makes me hopeful for the future of theology. Muers draws us into the unruly crowd of people who do in fact speak about God, and who take care over the coherence and implications of what they say. Introducing us to members of this crowd who are very much not amongst the usual suspects, she shows us how to attend to the emergence of their voices, to the compulsions that drive them, to the spaces their speaking makes for itself, and to their refusals to be silenced or made decorous. She is a deft, generous and enthusiastic guide to all this irrepressible speech, and her book stands as an invitation to attend and to join in." --Mike Higton, Durham University, UK

"Muers has brought exceptional clarity and insight, as well as a deep grounding in faith, to the subject of how theologians approach their tasks and contexts. This is a work of astonishing range and virtuosity, with something in it to appeal to anyone interested in Christian theology or interfaith dialogue. Her generosity and ecumenicity are strongly in evidence in this book. The way she engages her positionality as both a Quaker and a feminist helps to bring to the surface perspectives in truth, compassion, and liberation that desperately need an audience in the twenty-first century world." --Stephen W. Angell, Earlham School of Religion, USA

"In these fourteen succinct chapters, written from varied perspectives over the course of her career, Muers offers fascinating insights into the voices, contexts, and tasks of theology. Blending experience with experiment, Muers maps the voices and facets of the world of theology. Her work goes beyond the study of Quaker and feminist theologies to consider the study and practice of theology from multiple points of view. Muers' work does so much more than engage Quaker theology; she asks what can a theologian who is a Quaker and a feminist say about theology generally and the spaces it occupies?" --Robynne Rogers Healey, Trinity Western University, Canada

About the Author