Motherhood as Metaphor: Engendering Interreligious Dialogue

Introduction: We Feed Them Milk

While Christian theological discourse on religious pluralism has tended to function in a deductive fashion (starting with ‘first principles’ of scripture and doctrine and applying these principles to the reality of religious diversity), the inductive methodology of this book pursues an alternative method. The introduction presents an overview of this inductive methodology of feminist theology. Contrasting with traditional theological anthropologies which take male, Christian experiences and the doctrines they have formulated as the norm, this method draws on women’s experiences across the religious traditions as resources for thinking about who we are as human beings. The introduction also provides an overview of the theological discipline of ‘theological anthropology’ anticipating the constructive theology of the book (engaged with Genesis and the New Testament, but also the scriptures and experiences of women of many faiths).