The women's role in the diffusion of Jewish customs and traditions - 16th and 17th centuries
Published in "El Prezente" 3. Studies in Sephardic Culture. Gender and Identity, Beer Sheva, Ben Gurion University, 2009, pp. 63-81.
Download (.pdf) Toward a Goddess model of soteriology
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Religions answer people’s questions about death and afterlife, and provide support to overcome tangible problems of... more
Religions answer people’s questions about death and afterlife, and provide support to overcome tangible problems of life, such as poverty, illness and strife, and to make sense of life amidst them. Traditional religions thus developed their concept of salvation from the problems of life, the world’s ills, and ultimately the perceived consequences after death. Christianity developed an entire religion around soteriology, and means to salvation became the central interpretation on Jesus Christ’s mission, life, death and resurrection narratives. Modern seekers of feminine spirituality often come out from heavily soteriological religions in which sense of guilt is part of their indoctrination process. In proposing alternatives to those “salvation-based” patriarchal faiths, thealogians have not yet developed a coherent soteriology to adequately respond in a pastoral setting. The lack of working soteriology in a Goddess faith may be a driving factor in its inability to penetrate classist barriers and keeping the Goddess faith mostly an intellectual exercise and a social experiment by and for the university-educated, white middle-class women; and work toward a Goddess model of soteriology is essential in making feminine spirituality a living tradition shared and accessible by, and meets the needs of, people of all socioeconomic, ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
Lessons In Spiritual Leadership From Kenyan Women
citation: Ngunjiri, F. W. (2010). Lessons in spiritual leadership from Kenyan women. Journal of Educational Administration, 48(6), 755-768.
Abstract
o Purpose- The purpose of this paper is to explicate spiritual leadership lessons of beneficence,... more
Abstract
o Purpose- The purpose of this paper is to explicate spiritual leadership lessons of beneficence, courage, hope and ubuntu/humanness that are derived from the experiences of women leaders in Kenya. The paper connects African data with existing literature on spiritual leadership, to demonstrate where African spiritual leadership is similar to, or different from western conceptualizations of spiritual leadership.
o Design/methodology/approach- The study from which this paper is derived employed qualitative methods – specifically interviews with supplemental archival data and observations.
Findings - Four major themes are explored: beneficence, courage, hope/forbearance and ubuntu/humanness as emerging from the women’s leadership stories. These four themes are compared and contrasted against existing literature on spiritual leadership, finding that beneficence, courage, and hope are comparable to existing western conceptualizations, whereas ubuntu is unique to the African context.
o Research limitations/implications – the paper and the larger study were derived from interviews with 16 participants; as such, generalization was not a goal. The paper provides a deeper understanding of spiritual leadership as enacted by African women, with implications for the need for increased research on non-western, non-white perspectives on the phenomenon.
o Practical implications–readers will likely resonate with the women’s stories and be both informed and inspired towards their own social justice leadership.
o Originality/value – Whereas the paper is derived from field research conducted in 2005 and published variously in other sources as cited, this paper takes an original perspective in comparing and contrasting African and western understandings of spiritual leadership, and expanding our understanding of the same in a novel way not done in previous publications.
2. Keywords: social justice, spiritual leadership; beneficence, ubuntu, forbearance
