Gabriella Lettini

Last updated

Gabriella Lettini (born in Turin on February 25, 1968) is an Italian-American Waldensian pastor and academic. Rev. Dr. Lettini is professor of theological ethics at the Graduate Theological Union and is Dean of the Starr King School for the Ministry [1] in Berkeley, California. She is President of the American Waldensian Society and a member of the North Atlantic section of the European Society of Women in Theological Research.

Contents

Academic career

Lettini graduated in 1995 from the Facoltà Valdese di Teologia (Waldensian Theological Seminary) in Turin with a thesis on the figure of Jesus in the cinema. She earned her Ph.D. in Divinity from the Union Theological Seminary (New York City) with a dissertation titled The Allergy of the Other, which analyzes the theological conceptions of alterity (otherness) and the hegemonic schemes of the construction of identity.

In January 2011 Lettini organized in Rome an international interdisciplinary course on ecumenical theology. Bringing together all her institutional affiliations, she made the course a collaborative project of Waldensian Theological Seminary, Starr King School for the Ministry, Union Theological Seminary in New York, Union Presbyterian Seminary, and the American Waldensian Society. [2] In a 2017 interview Lettini said she would like it if academic theology could develop more organically as community theology, with real dialogue between the believers and theologians; she thinks the current rapprochement between Protestants and Catholics is a good thing, but, pointing to the history of Christian complicity in the world's worst atrocities, she considers their differing theological tenets less important than "to offer a corrective to these aberrations of the Christian faith." [3]

In 2017 she agreed to provide space at the Starr King School for the Ministry for the new women-led mosque Qalbu Maryam (the heart of Mary) upon request of mosque founder Rabiʻa Keeble, a 2012 alumna of that institution. [4]

Lettini's recent research explores the different models of identity and their implications for theology and ethics; at the same time, she continues her research on movies as sources of theological reflection. In concert with Rita Nakashima Brock, Lettini has developed the practice of soul repair from "a wound of war called 'moral injury'," defined as "the violation of core moral beliefs." [5] [6]

Publications

Lettini published her book Omosessualità (Homosexuality) in 1999, based on her experience in pastoral work. [7] [8] She has also published various contributions on syncretism, theology and culture, liberation theology, feminist theology, women and theology, cinema and religion, and religious tradition and "the Other" in articles and edited volumes.

Books

Edited

Chapters

Journal articles

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waldensians</span> Christian movement

The Waldensians, also known as Waldenses, Vallenses, Valdesi, or Vaudois, are adherents of a church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity before the Reformation. Originally known as the "Poor Men of Lyon" in the late twelfth century, the movement spread to the Cottian Alps in what are today France and Italy. The founding of the Waldensians is attributed to Peter Waldo, a wealthy merchant who gave away his property around 1173, preaching apostolic poverty as the way to perfection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paula Hyman</span>

Paula Hyman was an American social historian who served as the Lucy Moses Professor of Modern Jewish History at Yale University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Cuneo</span> Roman Catholic diocese in Italy

The Diocese of Cuneo is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church. It was created in 1817, from territory that previously had belonged to the Diocese of Mondovì. It is suffragan of the Archdiocese of Turin. The first bishop of Cuneo was Bruno di Samone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ermis Segatti</span>

Ermis Segatti, is a Catholic theologian and university Professor belonging to the Archdiocese of Turin, Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serene Jones</span> American Protestant theologian and seminary president (born 1959)

Lynda Serene Jones is the President and Johnston Family Professor for Religion and Democracy at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. She was formerly the Titus Street Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School and chair of gender, woman, and sexuality studies at Yale University.

Franco Manzi is an Italian Catholic priest and academic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raimondo Spiazzi</span>

Raimondo Spiazzi OP was an Italian Catholic theologian, advisor to Pius XII, and Mariologist with over 2,500 publications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protestantism in Italy</span> The largest minority of Christian denominations in Italy

Protestantism in Italy comprises a minority of the country's religious population.

Nazzareno Camilleri (1906–1973) was a Maltese philosopher, theologian, and mystic. His areas of specialisation in philosophy were chiefly metaphysics and pedagogy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luis N. Rivera-Pagán</span>

Luis Nicolás Rivera-Pagán is the Henry Winters Luce Professor Emeritus of Ecumenics at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Ivone Gebara is a Brazilian Catholic nun, philosopher, and feminist theologian. She is notable for her writing on ecofeminism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michela Murgia</span> Italian novelist, playwright, and radio personality (1972–2023)

Michela Murgia was an Italian novelist, playwright, and radio personality. She was a winner of the Premio Campiello and the Mondello International Literary Prize and an active feminist and left-wing voice in the Italian public scene, speaking out on themes such as euthanasia and LGBTQ+ rights.

Gladys Ethel Parentelli Manzino is a Uruguayan feminist theologian and photographer who has lived in Venezuela since 1969. A representative of Latin American ecofeminism, she was one of three Latin American women appointed by Pope Paul VI as observers at the Second Vatican Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonino Raspanti</span>

Antonino Raspanti is an Italian Bishop of the Catholic Church; he has been the Bishop of Acireale since 26 July 2011.

Rita Nakashima Brock is an American feminist scholar, Protestant theologian, activist, and non-profit organization leader. She is Senior Vice President for Moral Injury Programs at Volunteers of America, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, and a Commissioned Minister in the Christian Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luciana Percovich</span> Italian non-fiction writer, translator, and feminist

Luciana Percovich is an Italian non-fiction writer, a teacher, a translator and director of a series of books on women's history and spirituality. She was born in Gorizia, Italy in a Mitteleuropean Italian speaking family forced to leave Fiume, Rijeka at the end of World War II, with cultural and geographical roots in Austria and Dalmatia, she spent her childhood and adolescence in Gorizia attending Classical studies. At the age of 18, she went to Milan to complete her education, and there she graduated in 1972. She has been defined as "a traveller between worlds and a weaver of space-time connections for her ability of embracing distant wide horizons with a loving insight".

Whatever I've done, it's been conceived within women's relations, in presence of women's bodies and in the flowing of awakened women's emotions.

Elsa Támez is a Mexican liberation theologian and biblical scholar. Her writings on feminist theology and contextual biblical criticisms brought new perspectives to these fields of study, laying the foundation for later scholars. Her books include Bible of the Oppressed, The Amnesty of Grace, and Struggles for Power in Early Christianity: A Study of the First Letter of Timothy (2007). She is Professor Emerita at the Universidad Biblica Latinamericana in Costa Rica. She was appointed president of Universidad Biblica Latinamericana in 1995, becoming their first woman president.

Beatriz Melano was a Uruguayan, Protestant theologian from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Melano is the first known, Protestant woman in Latin America to earn a doctorate in theology. Her participation in international theological conferences established a foundation for future women and Latin American theologians. Melano's books, articles, and presentations on a wide range of theological topics contributed to Latin American feminist and liberation theology. Her influence as a theologian extended beyond Latin America to the United States and Europe. In 1994, a meeting of "Women Professors of Theology" honored Melano as the first woman to be a professor of theology in Latin America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roberto Repole</span> Italian prelate of the Catholic Church (born 1944)

Roberto Repole is an Italian theologian of the Catholic Church who became archbishop of Turin and bishop of Susa in May 2022. A native of Turin and a priest of that archdiocese since 1992, he taught theology at the university level from 1996 to 2022 and headed the Italian Theological Association from 2011 to 2016.

María Pilar Aquino is a Catholic feminist theologian. She is currently Professor Emerita, Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego (USD). Her primary areas of teaching and research were liberation theologies, social ethics, and feminist theologies.

References

  1. "Rev. Dr. Gabriella Lettini". sksm.edu. Starr King School for the Ministry. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
  2. "Rome: A Crossroads of Religion 2011: Second Successful Execution of Immersion Course" (PDF). AWS Updates (1): 3. July 2011. Retrieved November 10, 2011.
  3. Ribet, Elena (September 6, 2017). "A 500 anni dalla Riforma, cattolici e protestanti sono ancora così diversi?" [At 500 years from the Reformation, are Catholics and Protestants still so different?]. Riforma (in Italian). Turin: Edizioni Protestanti. Retrieved November 10, 2011.
  4. Escobar, Allyson (April 17, 2017). "Women-Led Mosque Opens to Build Place Where 'Everybody Is Welcome'". NBC News. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
  5. Wiener, Nancy H.; Hirschmann, Jo (2014). Maps and Meaning: Levitical Models for Contemporary Care. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. p. 171. ISBN   9781451482942.
  6. Nakashima Brock, Rita; Lettini, Gabriella (2012). Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury After War. Boston: Beacon Press. p. xiii–xvi. ISBN   9780807029084.
  7. "Lettini (Gabriella) - Omosessualità". Centro Studi Calamandrei. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
  8. Lettini, Gabriella. "Peccato contra natura?". Il Dialogo (in Italian). Retrieved November 10, 2017. Includes an excerpt from pages 21–33 of the book.