Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Mbonu, Caroline N

Titel

A redemptive reading of the doulē in Luke 1:26–38: Towards a liberative process for women in Igbo society

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

2009

Link zum Volltext

• ProQuest

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This dissertation coheres with the goal of theology in the African context, the attainment of fullness of life. Certain religious and cultural structures, however, continue to exclude women from full participation in social processes hindering the realization of this goal. The dissertation seeks to explore and redeem some of the debarring configurations. It employs the biblical metaphor of the handmaid in the sense of doulē, servant-leader, in Luke 1:26-38, in order to make the contribution. Both an exploration of the Lukan passage as well as some aspects of contemporary African Christian theologies reveal how the qualities of the doulē, can become a model of self-identification for women in Igbo society. The women's religious community of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus provides a logical space from which to tease out the ethical and theological considerations of a redemptive reading of the doulē. This dissertation makes women's experience intelligible by draping it in idioms drawn from the language and experience of the biblical doulas and from that of women in Igbo society. The study utilizes the Bible, a product of human freedom, and literary analysis as vehicle for cultural studies alongside minimal sampling of select women concerning their given names in exploring the implications of vocality-visibility of women in Igbo society. In order to critically engage the texts to elicit meaning for the transformation of lives, a certain amount of suspicion must prevail in addition to the faith tradition enabling active engagement with the text. As a narrative theology in the African form, the systematic utilization of African traditional myths, symbols, and proverbs characterizes the methodology. Feminist, cultural, and reconstruction hermeneutics enables the recovering of the meaning of the female in the Igbo context. Because the reconstruction paradigm represents an inter-faith and inter-denominational enterprise, the Graduate Theological Union, an institution where "religion meets the world," becomes the birth place of this idea. The central use of the doulē metaphor allows for larger discourse and reflections. Consequently, the doulē metaphor can become a paradigm of universality, because service constitutes the very essence of social life (cf. Luke 22:27).