Illumine The Journal of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society Graduate Student Association Volume 5, Number 1, 2006 Contents Introduction ...............................................................................................................................1 Jesus Was a Feminist: An Institutional Ethnography of Feminist Christian Women Beverley Bouma ....................................................................................................................2 Beer Bottles and Saints: A Postcolonial Reading of Jim Logan’s Let Us Compare Miracles from His Classical Aboriginal Series Alison Nicole Taylor Campbell ..........................................................................................11 The Popes and the Cold War: Examining Encyclical Evidence and the Evolution of their Ostpolitik, 1945–1990 Robert H. Dennis.................................................................................................................18 The Role of Animals In The Tale of the Nativity: A Textual and Visual Analysis Cynthia Korpan ...................................................................................................................25 Conflict in the Classroom: Religion and Republicanism in Algeria and Alsace, 1918–1940 Bronwen Magrath................................................................................................................37 What the Age Demanded: Power and Resistance in Premodern and Postmodern Texts Carolyn Salomons ...............................................................................................................45 A Spider Woman Story Janice E. Young...................................................................................................................56 Notes on Contributors..............................................................................................................61 Illumine: The Journal of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society Graduate Student Association Editorial Board 2006 Sarah Hunt Sabrina Jackson Cynthia Korpan Bronwen Magrath Paul Teel Subscription Information Copies of this journal can be obtained for $10.00 each from: Centre for Studies in Religion and Society University of Victoria PO Box 1700, STN CSC Victoria, BC V8W 2Y2 Phone: (250) 721-6325 Email: [email protected] Web: www.csrs.uvic.ca An on-line version of this journal is available at www.csrs.uvic.ca. Centre for Studies in Religion and Society Graduate Student Association The Centre for Studies in Religion and Society (CSRS) was established at the University of Victoria in 1991 to foster the scholarly study of religion in relation to any and all aspects of society, both contemporary and historical. The CSRS Graduate Student Association, led by graduate students who hold fellowships at the CSRS, draws together UVic graduate students from a variety of departments and academic programs who share an interest in areas related to the research mandate of the CSRS. This issue of Illumine represents a continuation of the Association’s tradition of producing an annual publication containing graduate students’ written scholarship exploring the interrelation of religion and society. Copies of back issues are available from the CSRS at the address above. Illumine is published annually, and welcomes submissions from graduate students enrolled in Canadian educational institutions. Submission and deadline details are available at http://csrs.uvic.ca/publications/graduate/illumine/index.php. Other inquiries may be directed to the CSRS, or to [email protected]. © Centre for Studies in Religion and Society Graduate Student Association, 2006 ISSN: 1705-2947 Introduction Illumine is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary Republic by fostering patriotism among youths journal produced by the Centre for Studies in during the interwar period. In her article “Conflict in Religion and Society (CSRS) Graduate Students the Classroom: Religion and Republicanism in Association at the University of Victoria. The journal Algeria and Alsace, 1918–1940,” Magrath provides a forum for graduate work that concentrates on the way cultural identities were contemplates religious and other spiritual and created and recreated in education policy so as to philosophical systems enmeshed in diverse cultural, demonstrate how individuals and groups on all sides societal, temporal, and geographic settings. This fifth of the colonizing relationship interacted. issue of Illumine explores the many ways in which Carolyn Salomons discovers the linkages between spirituality and ideology are reflected in assorted premodern and postmodern texts in such areas as the cultural products such as art, literature, oral histories, construction and maintenance of power, as well as in and print media. the varieties of resistant experience. The author Beverly Bouma uses the ethnographic method of explores and compares different examples of interviewing to examine the everyday, lived resistance found in St. Augustine, the desert fathers, experiences of feminist Christian women in relation the mystics, and the “little saints” of Aquitaine from to Biblical texts in her article “Jesus Was a Feminist: the postmodernists. The article is titled “What the An Institutional Ethnography of Feminist Christian Age Demanded: Power and Resistance in Premodern Women.” The author explores the variety of and Postmodern.” responses provided by competing discourses Janice Young, in “A Spider Woman Story,” associated with feminist and Christian institutions. explores Spider Woman, the Cosmic Weaver, as a Alison Campbell examines the art work of Jim healing symbol and image of empowerment. The Logan, who challenges tradition through his author traces the emergence of Spider Woman in her incorporation of First Nations imagery into many cross-cultural manifestations and textile significant Christian works in the Western art canon. metaphors, and links this to the “gynocentric Campbell addresses this dualism by means of post- language” and new linguistic landscape evident in colonial analysis in her article “Beer Bottles and contemporary women’s writing. Saints: A Postcolonial Reading of Jim Logan’s Let The essays in this issue contain thoughtful Us Compare Miracles from His Classical Aboriginal discussions of ideologies, practices, and expressions Series.” that permeate the lives of people in distant places at In “The Popes and the Cold War: Examining divergent times. The vitality of the contributions is a Encyclical Evidence and the Evolution of their testament to the scholarly inspiration that awaits Ostpolitik 1945–1990,” Robert Dennis provides those who venture into the entanglements of religion discussion about the changing nature of the Vatican’s and society. ostpolitik. Dennis separates his paper into historical The CSRS graduate student fellows who formed periods beginning with the papal rule of Pope Pius the editorial board for this issue would like to XII in 1945 and ending in the midst of Pope John express sincere thanks to all of the contributors for Paul II’s rule in 1990. He uses encyclical evidence to the effort they took to make their pieces so understand the contemporary Vatican’s position on expressive and engaging, as well as to those students the Cold War. who contributed submissions that were not Cynthia Korpan takes a look at The Tale of the published. Support from the CSRS and its Nativity, a composite narrative about the birth of administrative staff, Moira Hill, Susan Karim, and Christ. The author utilizes textual and visual analysis Leslie Kenny, were central to the completion of this to highlight the role that animals played in the project. retelling of this story by a group of Okanagan children from the Nk’Mip Reserve in British Cynthia Korpan Columbia during the 1930s. The article is fittingly For the Editorial Board, November 2006 called “The Role of Animals in The Tale of the Nativity: A Textual and Visual Analysis.” Bronwen Magrath conducts a comparative case study of Alsatian and Algerian classrooms to reveal how the French government sought to strengthen the Illumine, Vol. 5, No. 1 1 Jesus Was a Feminist: An Institutional Ethnography of Feminist Christian Women Beverley Bouma, University of Victoria Abstract Institutional ethnography is used to examine the these discourses are adopted by one person? Do everyday, lived experiences of feminist Christian women who identify as both feminist and Christian women in relation to Biblical text. Through engage in a particular process or do some work to interviews, I explore how feminist Christian reconcile what appear to be contradictory values? To women respond to, organize, and are organized by answer these questions, I begin with an examination textually mediated social relations. While feminist of the every day, lived experiences of feminist and Christian institutional discourses appear on Christian women in relation to a particular Biblical the surface to be competing belief systems, the text. women I interviewed had a variety of responses to The text is well known in Christian discourse as this apparent dissonance. Related to local and the Lord’s Prayer: trans-local settings, their responses include Our Father, compartmentalization, information management, Which art in Heaven. selective religiosity, and integration of beliefs. Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Jesus was a feminist—one of the greatest Thy Will be done— feminists of all time… I can’t understand On Earth as it is in Heaven. Christians who say they aren’t feminists! Give us this day ~Marie Our