Nevertheless We Persist

Elaborates an innovative feminist theological approach to the public church and to the praxis of public theology as ekklesial work, that is, creating community or creating a shared public life; it constructs and then applies this approach to identify and interpret theological claims (imago Dei, Christology, ecclesiology) and practices of public engagement (rhetorical, symbolic, and prophetic) exemplified mainly but not only by Christian social justice leaders and movements.

Drawing on major figures in feminist and womanist theologies as well as public theology, Nevertheless, We Persist examines a rich range of historical and contemporary faith-based movements such as the Catholic Worker, the Civil Rights Movement, United Farm Workers, and The Plowshares Movement. Each chapter ends with a contemporary social movement that continues and radicalizes a part of an earlier movement but in more multifaith ways in order to redress the increasing fracture of US public life in our time, such as the Revolutionary Love Project, The Poor People’s Campaign, The New Sanctuary Movement, and Green Nuns. The book concludes with a contemporary case study of feminist intersectional and interfaith justice, drawing out insights from NETWORK’s Nuns on the Bus for the future ekklesial work of feminist public theology to create community and to construct a shared public life that expands beyond single social issues and religions.