Walking with the Mud Flower Collective: God's Fierce Whimsy and Dialogic Theological Method

Arguing for a retrieval of the landmark work, God’s Fierce Whimsy, Stina Busman Jost establishes the critical importance of this volume for the construction of a dialogic theological method. This is accomplished through a close reading of God’s Fierce Whimsy in which the author identifies key methodological characteristics informing the volume’s formation. Critical importance also is established through interviews with the volume’s authors, the Mud Flower Collective—which included Katie G. Cannon, Beverly W. Harrison, Carter Heyward, Ada María Isasi-Díaz, Bess B. Johnson (Delores Williams), Mary D. Pellauer, and Nancy D. Richardson. Undergirding this endeavor is a recognition of the theoretical importance of difference to the project of theological construction and the vital form of the dialogic as constitutive of theological practice; this is carried forward through engagement with the pivotal theorists Martin Buber and Mikhail Bakhtin, who helped pioneer the philosophical and literary critical importance of otherness, difference, and dialogue. Finally, the author constructively engages recent developments in feminist theologies and postcolonial theories—ultimately making the argument that a dialogic theological method is relevant for the doing of theology today.