Parenting as Spiritual Practice and Source for Theology

Claire Bischoff is Assistant Professor of Theology at St. Catherine University.  She has served previously as adjunct professor of religious education at Lexington Theological Seminary. She has blogged about the spiritual practice of parenting for Keeping Faith Today, a lectionary-based resource for small Christian communities, and is the co-editor of My Red Couch and Other Stories on Seeking a Feminist Faith.Elizabeth O’Donnell Gandolfo is the Edith B. and Arthur E. Earley Assistant Professor of Catholic and Latin American Studies at Wake Forest University School of Divinity. Her book, The Power and Vulnerability of Love: A Theological Anthropology, draws on women’s experiences of maternity and natality to construct a theology of suffering and redemption anchored in the reality of human vulnerability.  Annie Hardison-Moody is Assistant Professor of Religion and Health in the Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences at North Carolina State University.  Her work focuses on gender, reproductive health, foods and nutrition, and parenting. Her book, When Religion Matters: Practicing Healing in the Aftermath of the Liberian Civil War is forthcoming from Wipf & Stock Publishers.

• 1.- Introduction.- 2.The Race of It All: Conversations between A Mother and Her Son.- 3. Inspired Mothering.- 4. And the “Hall Was Burned to the Ground”: Mothers and Theological Body Knowledge.- 5. Transgressive Mothering As Wo/men’s Human Rights Work… Holiness and the Human.- 6. On Good Mothering: Practicing Solidarity in the Midst of the Breastfeeding Wars.-7. Motherhood as Self-Giving and Self-Receiving Relationship.- 8. A Mother-Whore Is Still a Mother: Revelation 17-18 and African American Motherhood.- 9.  Miscarriage Matters, Stillbirth’s Significance, and The Tree of Many Breasts.- 10. Awake My Soul: Mothering Myself toward Recovery.- 11. Oceans of Love and Turbulent Seas: Mothering an Anxious Child and the Spirituality of Ambiguity.- 12. Parenting Elders: Finitude, Gratitude, and Grace.- 13. Motherhood and The (In)vulnerability of the Imago Dei: Being Human In the Mystical-Political Cloud of Impossibility.- 14. In Justice and Love: the Christian life in a home with mental health needs.- 15. “Courage Unparalleled Opened Her Utterly:” A Practical Theodicy.

“This book offers parents a wealth of different experiences that open avenues of understanding and meaning making. … This book is not only for those in academe but offers a great deal of wealth of thought and reflection for all parents and could form the basis of valuable material for parish groups. … this book offers richness of theological thought and support. It is written by women for women and men who wish to deepen their appreciation of how parenting is a spiritual practice and a source of powerful theology.” (Angela McCarthy, Marriage, Families & Spirituality, Vol. 28 (2), 2022)“In addition to being of interest to scholars in feminist theology and ethics, childhood and family studies, and related fields, essays from this accessibly written volume would serve as excellent teaching tools in undergraduate or seminary classrooms. … This volume offers a symphony of voices on important issues in maternal theology and practice; its vibrancy invites others to continue itswork.” (Cara Curtis, Religious Studies Review, Vol. 45 (3), September, 2019)