Re It’s All About Relationships, May
Thank you for your call for more women’s voices, and the welcome focus on relationships. But I take issue with your blanket statement that “the halls of academia are still dominated by male theologians.” This might be true of some halls, but I am happy to say that I work in one hall where that characterization is patently false. In the Vancouver School of Theology, the Principal and Professor of Church History is a woman; the Dean of Studies and Professor of Hebrew Bible is a woman; two professors of theology are women; the Professor of Liturgical Studies and Christian Ethics is a woman; the head of the Public and Pastoral Ministry program is a woman; the Director of Theological Field Education and the registrar are women.
There are also five men on the faculty. Theology here is neither “feminist” nor “masculinist;” it is theology, in all its beauty and complexity.
I am about to retire after five years of working with these fine colleagues who are all dedicated to the vital task of teaching and doing theology in an open, inclusive and caring community where relationships are given a primary place. Perhaps your judgment of academic halls is a little out of date!
Editor Responds:
Glen, thank you for covering for me as an editorialist this month. And while I am pleased VST, Knox College, Toronto, and Presbyterian College, Montreal, prove me wrong, I think as far as blanket statements go, mine is probably a little more true than not.
