Discipline | Christianity studies |
---|---|
Language | English |
Publication details | |
History | 1973–1987 |
Publisher | Christian Women Concerned (Australia) |
Standard abbreviations | |
ISO 4 | Magdalene |
Indexing | |
OCLC no. | 173323146 |
Magdalene: A Christian Newsletter for Women was an Australian Christian feminist magazine published by the Sydney group Christian Women Concerned.
Fifteen volumes of the title were published over a 10-year period, Volume 1 (May 1973)-3/4 1987. [1]
The group Christian Women Concerned had been formed in 1968 and was the first explicitly religious feminist organisation in Australia. [2] It was founded by a small ecumenical group of feminist scholars that included Marie Tulip, Dorothy McRae-McMahon and Jean Skuse. They sought to bring women together and make feminism more generally acceptable in an environment where the women's liberation movement was seen by some as a threat to families. [3] [4]
Christian Women Concerned began publishing Magdalene in 1973 as a way to disseminate their views more widely. The magazine covered a broad range of topics in the fields of feminism and religion. Marie Tulip was one of the magazine's founding editors as well as being a regular contributor. [2] Jean Gledhill noted that Magdalene "started as a vehicle for women to tell their own stories – stories growing out of the oppression which they had experienced in the church, in domestic life, in their work and in society at large." [5]
Australian sociologist of religion and gender Kathleen McPhillips noted that Magdalene "was a powerful forum for discussion, change and creativity reflecting the early challenges of second wave feminism and its extensive social justice program." [6]
After Magdalene ceased publication in 1987 the members of Christian Women Concerned recognised and supported the development of a new Australian Christian feminist journal. Women-Church: an Australian journal of feminist studies in religion commenced publication in 1987. [6]
Mannix Library in East Melbourne has digitised all issues of the title and made it available via the University of Divinity's Digital Collections website [7] and on JSTOR Open Community Collections. [8]
Christian feminism is a school of Christian theology which seeks to advance and understand the equality of men and women morally, socially, spiritually, and in leadership from a Christian perspective. Christian feminists argue that contributions by women, and an acknowledgment of women's value, are necessary for a complete understanding of Christianity. Christian feminists believe that God does not discriminate on the basis of biologically-determined characteristics such as sex and race, but created all humans to exist in harmony and equality, regardless of race or gender. Christian feminists generally advocate for anti-essentialism as a part of their belief system, acknowledging that gender identities do not mandate a certain set of personality traits. Their major issues include the ordination of women, biblical equality in marriage, recognition of equal spiritual and moral abilities, abortion rights, integration of gender neutral pronouns within readings of the Bible, and the search for a feminine or gender-transcendent divine. Christian feminists often draw on the teachings of other religions and ideologies in addition to biblical evidence, and other Christian based texts throughout history that advocate for women's rights.
Marie Tulip was an Australian feminist writer, academic and proponent for the ordination of women as priests.
Dorothy McRae-McMahon is a retired Australian Uniting Church minister and activist, formerly Minister at Pitt Street Uniting Church—known for its human rights work and local "street level" activism.
Jean Enid Skuse is an Australian Christian leader and ecumenist who served as the general secretary of the Australian Council of Churches and the Vice-Moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC).
Hilary Mary Carey, is an Australian historian whose research focused for many years on the religious history of Australia. She has been professor of imperial and religious history at the University of Bristol since 2014, where her research interests include religious missions in Canada and Greenland and missions to seamen.
Camille Agnes Becker Paul (1932-2010) was an Australian feminist, moral theologian and activist.
Colleen Anne O'Reilly is an Australian Anglican priest. She was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2021 in recognition of her significant service to the Anglican Church of Australia, and to religious education. O'Reilly has been a strong advocate for women's leadership in the Anglican Church and women's ordination since the 1970s and described by Muriel Porter as "the ‘mother' of the movement that was a key factor in bringing about the ordination of women through many years of determined struggle".
Elaine Stuart Lindsay is an Australian academic. She was instrumental in the development of the Women-Church journal which provided publishing opportunities in feminist theology for Australian women.
Kathleen McPhillips is an Australian sociologist of religion and gender in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences at the University of Newcastle, Australia and the current vice-president of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion.
Erin Gabrielle White is a feminist philosopher and theologian. As an author she contributed significantly to feminist scholarship in Australia. She was the founder of the Sydney Women-Church Group and one of the founding editors of Women-Church: an Australian journal of feminist studies in religion.
Kim E. Power is an Australian academic, feminist theologian and church historian, who was a co-founder of the Golding Centre for Women's History, Theology and Spirituality at the Australian Catholic University.
Women-Church: An Australian journal of feminist studies in religion was an Australian journal published by the Women-Church Collective. It was established in 1987 and ceased publication in 2007, with a total of 40 issues published over that time. The journal covered a broad range of topics in the fields of feminist theology, religion and spirituality.
Janet Scarfe is an Australian academic and historian who was very involved with the Movement for the Ordination of Women (MOW) in Australia.
Bernice Moore is an Australian educator and former Sister of the Good Samaritan from Sydney. She is known for her significant contributions to the fields of education, feminist theology and social justice. Moore was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1997.
Women and the Australian Church (WATAC) is an Australian ecumenical religious organisation that was founded in 1984. It was originally a Catholic initiative, being a national project of Australian religious men and women. It is now an ecumenical association, open to different denominations and faiths, with a network of separate groups operating in different Australian states and territories.
Towards a Feminist Theology is the title of a publication based on an Australian feminist theology conference held from 18 to 20 August 1989 at the Collaroy Centre in Sydney. The conference was the first ecumenical feminist theology conference held in Australia. Significantly it was also the first time that three women's organisations had joined with a common purpose. The combined gathering of around 500 attendees represented an important milestone in the development of feminist theology in Australia.
Women Authoring Theology is the title of a publication based on a national Australian feminist theology conference held in Strathfied, Sydney in 1991. It was the second ecumenical conference of its type ever held in Australia, with attendees mostly coming mostly from the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Uniting Churches in Australia, as well as several international keynote speakers.
Jean Gledhill is a member of the Uniting Church in Australia and a former member of the Commission on the Status of Women of the Australian Council of Churches. She was associated with two publications that contributed to the development of religious feminism in Australia. These were the Christian feminist magazine Magdalene and Women-Church: an Australian journal of feminist studies in religion.
Christian Women Concerned was the first explicitly religious feminist organisation in Australia. It was founded in 1968 by a small ecumenical group of feminist scholars that included Marie Tulip, Dorothy McRae-McMahon and Jean Skuse. The organisation played a significant role in the establishment of the Commission on the Status of Women in the Church by the Australian Council of Churches and published the Christian feminist magazine Magdalene from 1973 to 1987.
Dangerous Memory is the title of a publication based on a national Australian feminist theology conference held in Canberra in 1995. It was the fourth ecumenical conference of its type held in Australia.