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Erin White (feminist theologian)

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Erin White
Born1941
NationalityAustralian
Alma materUniversity of Sydney PhD
Occupation(s)Feminist philosopher and theologian
Known forFounder of Sydney Women-Church group

Erin Gabrielle White (born 1941) 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.

Early life and education

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Erin White was born in 1941. She completed her PhD in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Sydney. Her doctoral thesis, Itineraries of meaning: Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutic of the idea of the sacred, was completed in 1986.[1][2]

Career

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White was a nun for 15 years from 1960 to 1975.[3] The 1970s had seen a rise of Christian feminism in Australian churches and White suggested that as a nun she had been untouched by this wave of feminism because, "[W]e were too busy to hear; we had too many responsibilities to feel powerless; we were encouraged to be anti-intellectual; we lived in a Catholic female ghetto largely shielded from the more crass aspects of sexism and the more enlightened aspects of ecumenism."[3]

White, along with Hilary Carey, was one of the founding editors of Women-Church: an Australian journal of feminist studies in religion, which was distributed internationally and published between 1987 and 2007 by the Women-Church Collective. The journal was launched at the first Women and the Australian Church (WATAC) National Conference that was held in Sydney in August 1987.[4] In Women-Church's second-last and final issue White contributed personal accounts of the history of the journal and the Women-Church Group.[5][6] The Women-Church archives are now held by the Jessie Street National Women's Library in Sydney.[7]

White was a significant contributor to feminist scholarship in Australia. In 1989, at the Towards a Feminist Theology national conference held in Sydney, White, along with Elaine Wainwright, contributed an Australian response to the work of feminist theologian Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza.[8] The conference had been called together by the Movement for the Ordination of Women (Australia), Women and the Australian Church (WATAC), and Women-Church.[8] At the time White was a post-doctoral Fellow in the School of Philosophy at the University of New South Wales.[8]

White was also a presenter at the Women Authoring Theology Conference, held in Strathfield, Sydney in 1991.[9]

White's book Knowing otherwise: feminism, women & religion, was co-authored with Marie Tulip and published in 1991.[10] One reviewer, Margaret Heagney described the work as “a vital contribution to feminist scholarship in Australia”.[11] White's other contributions included journal articles and book chapters in edited volumes, in subject areas related to religion and gender, theology and feminism.

Personal life

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After White left the Sisters of St Brigid, she later married Graham Joseph English (16 September 1944 – 15 June 2021) and they had one child together.[3][12]

Select publications

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  • White, Erin; Tulip, Marie (1991), Knowing otherwise : feminism, women & religion, D. Lovell Pub, ISBN 978-1-86355-005-5
  • Catholic Education Office (Sydney,N.S.W.); Tulip, Marie; White, Erin; Catholic Education Office, (Sydney) (1989), Women in the church and the world : an annotated bibliography prepared by the Gender and Equity Committee for Catholic Education Office Sydney., Catholic Education Office, ISBN 094914052X
  • White, Erin; Poulos, Elenie; Wainwright, Elaine Mary; With Women Conference (3rd : 1995 : Kedron, Qld.) (1996), Transforming traditions : three keynote addresses given at the 3rd Annual With Women Conference held at Mt Alvernia College, Kedron, 27-28 October 1995.{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

Book chapters

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  • White, Erin. 1983. "Understanding two familiar models. God is father : a Ricoeurian interpretation." In Remodelling God: A Thematic Introduction to Metaphorical Theology, edited by William W Emilsen and Andrew D Irvine. Melbourne Australia: Joint Board of Christian Education and Desbooks.
  • White, Erin. 1995. "Religion and the hermeneutics of gender: an examination of the work of Paul Ricoeur." In Religion and Gender, edited by Ursula King. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
  • White, Erin. 1995. "Feminist understanding and the place of critique : a hermeneutical response to Daphne Hampson's Theology and feminism." In Freedom and Entrapment: Women Thinking Theology, edited by Maryanne Confoy, Dorothy A Lee, and Joan Nowotny. North Blackburn, Vic.: Dove.

Journal articles

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References

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  1. ^ White, Erin (1986). Itineraries of meaning : Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutic of the idea of the sacred (Thesis).
  2. ^ White, Erin. "Itineraries of meaning : Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutic of the idea of the sacred". sydney.primo.exlibrisgroup.com. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  3. ^ a b c White, Erin (1987). "At My Wits' Beginning". Women-Church. 1: 10–14.
  4. ^ "Theologian broadened the church with woman's touch". The Sydney Morning Herald. 4 October 2010. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  5. ^ White, Erin. "Women-Church Journal as it was in the beginning". Women-Church. 39: 3–5.
  6. ^ White, Erin. "Women-Church: a personal account". Women-Church: An Australian Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion (40): 125–128.
  7. ^ "Jessie Street National Women's Library catalogue › Results of search for 'women-church'". catalogue.nationalwomenslibrary.org.au. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  8. ^ a b c Towards a feminist theology : papers and proceedings from a national conference called together by MOW, National WATAC, Women-Church, 18-20 August 1989, Collaroy Centre, Sydney. N.S.W) Movement for the Ordination of Women. National Conference (5th : : Sydney, Women and the Australian Church. National Conference, Women-Church. [edited by Elaine Lindsay; illustrations by Bernice Moore; photos by Helen Leonard]. Helensburgh, N.S.W.: Conference Committee. 1990. ISBN 0-7316-9879-7. OCLC 29321188.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. ^ Women authoring theology : papers and proceedings from a national conference called together by MOW, National WATAC, Women-church, Feminist Uniting Network, 24-26 May 1991, Strathfield, Sydney NSW. Elaine Lindsay, Movement for the Ordination of Women. Petersham, N.S.W.: Conference Committee. 1992. ISBN 0-646-07448-2. OCLC 27552547.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  10. ^ White, Erin; Tulip, Marie (1991). Knowing otherwise: feminism, women & religion. Melbourne: David Lovell. ISBN 9781863550055.
  11. ^ Heagney, Margaret (1992). "Book Review: Knowing Otherwise: Feminism, Women and Religion". Pacifica: Australasian Theological Studies. 5 (1): 120–121. doi:10.1177/1030570X9200500119. ISSN 1030-570X. S2CID 148977891.
  12. ^ "Graham Joseph English". The Sydney Morning Herald - Obituaries.
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