Women's theology has traditionally been pushed to the margins; it is ""spirituality"" or ""mysticism"" rather than theology proper. Theology from women has been transmitted orally, recorded by men as sayings or in hagiographies, or passed on as ""stealth theology"" in poems, hymns, or practices. In the past forty years, women have claimed theology for themselves and others as womanists, feminists, mujeristas, Asian, third-world, disabled, and queer women. Yet in most academic and ecclesial theology, the contributions of women skirt the borders of the written tradition. This unique volume asks about the conditions of women writing theology. How have women historically justified their writing practices? What internal and external constraints shape their capacity to write? What counts as theology, and who qualifies as a theologian? And what does it mean for women to enter a tradition that has been based, in part, on their exclusion? These essays explore such questions through historical investigations, theoretical analyses, and contemporary constructions.

"The picture that emerges from Women, Writing, Theology is one of the conscience in its purest form, and all the different patterns created by each individual following hers. Any reader who's ever had the sense that something has been left out of the official story of their faith will find some treasure in the excavation projects led by these diverse authors." -- Conscience (2012, 33:3)
"This wonderfully rich collection of women's contributions to theological thinking offers an important alternative set of lenses to the simplistic options of explicit protest literature vs. silence. The very concept of theology is deepened profoundly by these examples of women's writing and lived practices over the centuries as theology is stretched to include different literary genres and different forms of life expression. A very important and original piece of work." --Mary McClintock Fulkerson, Professor of Theology, Duke Divinity School
"This passionate volume shows how believing women, in a dozen times and places, found ways to write theology despite all the prohibitions. They wrote it as lives and letters of counsel, hymns and novels and poems--stubborn testimonies of their refusal to surrender the Word. From them--from this book--Christian theologians can learn again the promises of the art they profess." --Mark D. Jordan, Harvard Divinity School
"In this volume twelve women theological writers interact with other women theological writers from across history. They reflect on the experience of women's marginalization as writers and the way women have overcome this. In many breakthrough examples we witness how women have written themselves into transformed life, health and wisdom. This is a book to be read slowly, contemplatively." --Rosemary Radford Ruether, Professor of Feminist Theology, Claremont Graduate University
The collection is both insightful and interesting; each contributor successfully articulates an appreciation of both the violent prohibitions and transformative possibilities of women writing theology. -- Emily Pennington, University of Chester -- Theological Book Review
Women, Writing, Theology is a wellspring of consolation and hope for feminist theologians. -- Susan Abraham, Harvard Divinity School -- Journal of the American Academy of Religion

Emily A. Holmes is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Christian Brothers University. She previously served as co-chair of the Women and Religion section of the Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion. She lives in Memphis, Tennessee.

Wendy Farley is Professor of Religion and Ethics at Emory University. Her previous publications include The Wounding and Healing of Desire: Weaving Heaven and Earth and Eros for the Other: Retaining Truth in a Pluralistic World. She lives in Decatur, Georgia.