Nancy Pineda-Madrid calls Catholic theologies and Catholic theologians to take account of the supreme value of Black and Brown women. This book builds upon and expands Pineda-Madrid’s own seminal work, Suffering in Ciudad Juarez (Fortress, 2011), and persuasively argues for an insurgent soteriology that denounces feminicide in all its forms.
Through the violence of feminicide, women’s bodies are disappearing at an astonishing rate. Feminicide, a form of state-sanctioned violence, involves “the systematic killing of women as women” (19). Feminicide is a global phenomenon, and its greatest impact is on Black, Brown, and Indigenous women and their families. Drawing insight from the resources of social sciences (e.g., Marcela Lagarde), Catholic feminist thinkers (e.g., Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza), and liberation theologians from Latin America (e.g., Jon Sobrino, Marcella Althaus-Reid), Pineda-Madrid renders explicit the connections among feminicide, the normalization of gender violence, and social sin. Although Pineda-Madrid is clear to distinguish that there is no direct causal relationship between Catholicism and gender-based violence, feminicide is an evil that the church has a moral and theological responsibility to confront. At stake is the very integrity of what salvation means. As Pineda-Madrid explains, “To attempt to write a theology from the bodies of feminicide produces a crisis,” for it insists on recognizing their presence (48).
The challenge inherent in this theological claim is that one cannot recognize feminicide without simultaneously challenging kyriarchical notions of sin, grace, and redemption. To do theology within the purview of feminicide also means acknowledging the divergent positionalities of women within society and the church. Namely, it is not enough to advocate for the symbolic and literal inclusion of women within salvation history. Feminicide calls for a reckoning with the ways in which some women (mostly white) have moved into positions of power and leadership within the economic, intellectual, and cultural sphere, while other women are brutally slaughtered and murdered (50). To do theology within the purview of feminicide is to reckon with the violence of whiteness, colonialism, and misogyny. Within such a theology, few people are completely innocent.
Perhaps, the biggest question Theologizing in an Insurgent Key asks of the reader is whether Catholics are willing to listen and engage in radical acts of conversion. Catholics need to listen to her. For Pineda-Madrid it is not enough to simply denounce evil; there must also be an annunciation of God’s love through material actions within salvation history. Part of this involves the public processing of pain through public practices and political action (92–93). For theologians, this means attending to places where women have disappeared from Catholic theology: “What understandings of the cross and crucifixion support misogyny? What understandings of the cross and crucifixion dismantle it?” (97). Most important, what ways of doing theology are most conducive to mediating a new social reality that recognizes the God-given dignity of Black, Brown, and Indigenous women?
