The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology (Cambridge Companions to Religion)

Rating:
Summary: Informative, insightful, and at times disturbing
Review: If I was rating this book based on how much of it I theologically agreed with it on, then the stars would be less for sure. But this isn't a personal slam review. It's supposed to be a review of the book at large, and so, that is what I'm attempting to do.

I've always been fascinated with feminist theology and this is a perfect place to begin if you're just starting out researching such a broad field of scholarship. I'm a guy, yes, but I'd consider myself to be a conservative feminist theologian (which is highly nuanced to say, I know). So, many of the essays in this book captivated me (not just because they were writing from perspectives I had never considered before, but also because of how creatively these writers were twisting and bending feminist theological study and theology of religions study into their own, morphed, personalized perspective). It is refreshing but at the same time, it gets a little tiring now and then. For insance, one essay seems to be solely attacking other feminist theologians for being too "exclusive" in their political, social and theological stances but yet, it ends up being way more exclusive then all the essays within the entire book because of how it eventually makes this outlined, detailed, specific, this-is-how-feminist-scholarship-must-be-practiced kind of roadmap. By the end of reading this essay, I was frustrated with this scholar by her lack of academic professionalism.

However, like I said at the beginning, I don't want this review to turn into personal attacks or theologically-messed-up griping on my part. Having said that, this book is a solid addition to any library lacking studies done or articles written or history recorded on the birth, rebirth, and continually growing fieled of feminist theology.