Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza Wins Marty Award |
Biblical scholar and theologian Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza will be honored at the Annual Meeting as the recipient of the 2012 Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion. The Public Understanding of Religion Committee chose Schüssler Fiorenza from nominations submitted earlier this year. Awarded annually since 1996, the Marty Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the public understanding of religion. The award goes to those whose work has a relevance and eloquence that speaks not just to scholars but to the broader public as well. Schüssler Fiorenza is the Krister Stendahl Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School and she has done pioneering work in biblical interpretation and feminist theology. Her teaching and research focus on questions of biblical and theological epistemology, hermeneutics, rhetoric, and the politics of interpretation, as well as on issues of theological education, radical equality, and democracy. Schüssler Fiorenza is a co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion and has been a founding co-editor of the feminist issues of Concilium. She was elected the first woman president of the Society of Biblical Literature and has served on the boards of major biblical journals and societies. In 2001, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In recognition of her work, Schüssler Fiorenza has received honorary doctorates from Saint Joseph’s College in Connecticut, Denison University in Ohio, Saint Bernard’s Institute in Rochester, New York, the University of Uppsala, Sweden, the University of Würzburg, the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, and Augustana Theologische Hochschule in Bayern. Most recently, Schüssler Fiorenza has received the Jerome Award of the Catholic Library Association. In 2001, she was the recipient of the Society of Biblical Literature’s Excellence in Mentoring Award. Schüssler Fiorenza’s published work includes In Memory Of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins (translated into 13 languages, Crossroad Publishing, 1983); Bread Not Stone: The Challenge of Feminist Biblical Interpretation (Beacon Press, 1984); But She Said: Feminist Practices of Biblical Interpretation (Beacon Press, 1992); Discipleship of Equals: A Critical Feminist Ekklēsia-Logy of Liberation (Crossroad Publishing, 1993); Revelation: Vision of a Just World (Fortress Press, 1998); Searching the Scriptures: A Feminist Introduction and Commentary (2 vols., Crossroad Publishing, 1997); The Power of Naming: A Concilium Reader in Feminist Liberation Theology (Orbis Books, 1996); Jesus: Miriam’s Child, Sophia’s Prophet: Critical Issues in Feminist Christology (Continuum International Publishing Group, 1994); Sharing Her Word: Feminist Biblical Interpretation in Context (Beacon Press, 1998); Rhetoric and Ethic: The Politics of Biblical Studies (Fortress Press, 1999); Jesus and the Politics of Interpretation (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000); Wisdom Ways: Introducing Feminist Biblical Interpretation (Orbis Books, 2001); Grenzen überschreiten: Der theoretische Anspruch feministischer Theologie (2004); The Power of the Word: Scripture and the Rhetoric of Empire (Fortress Press, 2007); and Democratizing Biblical Studies Toward an Emancipatory Educational Space (Westminster John Knox Press, 2009). She recently co-edited, with Laura Nasrallah, Prejudice and Christian Beginnings: Investigating Race, Gender, and Ethnicity in Early Christian Studies (Fortress Press, 2009) and, with Kent Richards, Transforming Graduate Biblical Education: Ethos and Discipline (Society of Biblical Literature, 2010). Her most recent book is Transforming Vision: Explorations in Feminist The*logy (Fortress Press, 2001). Schüssler Fiorenza has been an active member of the Women’s Ordination Conference and a long-time supporter of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT), an association of men and women committed to the struggle for the liberation of Third World peoples by promoting new models of theology for religious pluralism, social justice, and peace. She has participated in numerous feminist and womanist endeavors focused on bringing scholars and activists together, including the 2011 International Symposium on Peacebuilding in Society and Religion: Feminist Practices of Intercultural Transformation. Schüssler Fiorenza has been interviewed by the BBC, the Belgian Broadcasting Company, the Swiss Television Network, and the Australian Broadcasting Company and has been a pioneering advocate for human rights both nationally and internationally.
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