Teresia Mbari Hinga
Teresia Mbari Hinga | |
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Born | |
Died | March 31, 2023 | (aged 68)
Academic background | |
Alma mater | |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Theology |
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Notable works |
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Teresia Mbari Hinga (January 25, 1955 – March 31, 2023) was a Kenyan Christian feminist theologian and a professor of religious studies at Santa Clara University in California. She was a founding member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians.[1]
Early life and education[edit]
Hinga was born in Kenya on January 25, 1955, to Agnes Wairimu and Ernest Hinga, pioneer African Catholics who treated their male and female children equally, including in education.[2] Hinga attended a Loreto high school.[3] She received a bachelor's degree in English Literature and Religious Studies from Kenyatta University in 1977 and a master's in Religious Studies from Nairobi University in 1980.[4][1] She earned in PhD from the University of Lancaster in the UK in 1990 with a thesis titled Women, Power and Liberation in an African Church: A Theological Case Study of the Legio Maria Church in Kenya on the role of women in African Christianity.[4][5] Hinga was a founding member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians and a member of the Kenyan Chapter of the Circle.[6]
Career[edit]
Hinga was one of the co-founders of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians,[4] established in 1989 at a gathering of African women theologians in Ghana.[2] She was associate professor of religion at DePaul University in Chicago.[7]
Hinga was on the faculty at Santa Clara University from 2005.[4] She was a member of the Black Catholic Symposium of the American Academy of Religion and of the Association for the Academic Study of Religion in Africa.[4] She was on the editorial board of the Journal of Global Catholicism.[8]
Hinga died on March 31, 2023, after a protracted battle with cancer.[9]
Research and writing[edit]
Hinga's research interests included religion and women, African religious history, and the ethics of globalization.[4] She argued that the Christ of the missionary enterprise was "ambivalent", both a conqueror legitimizing subjugation and a liberator.[7] Women, in particular, need to reject any christology that "smacks of sexism and functions to entrench lopsided gender relations."[7]
Hinga's 2017 book, African, Christian, Feminist:The Enduring Search for What Matters is a collection of essays that examine her journey from Africa to Silicon Valley, seeking to show the concrete impact of feminist work in religion in areas including HIV/AIDS and violence against women.[2][10][11] It includes the story of Kimpa Vita, an African Catholic woman in the 1700s who was martyred for challenging missionary Christianity and its support of colonialism and slavery.[2]
Selected publications[edit]
Books[edit]
- Hinga, Teresia Mbari (2008). Women, Religion and HIV AIDS in Africa: Responding to Ethical and Theological Challenges. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publishers. ISBN 9781875053698.
- Hinga, Teresia Mbari (2017). African, Christian, Feminist: The Enduring Quest for What Matters. Orbis Books. ISBN 9781608337149.
Chapters[edit]
- Hinga, Teresia (1995). "Inculturation and the otherness of Africans:Some Reflections". In P.Turksen; F Wijsen (eds.). Inculturation: Abide by the Otherness of Africa and the Africans. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802861788.
- Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza; M. Shawn Copeland, eds. (1996). "Between Colonialism and Inculturation: Feminist Theologies in Africa". Feminist Theologies in Different Contexts. Concilium Journal Series. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books. ISBN 9780334030362.
- Rosemary Radford Ruether, ed. (1996). "Gikuyu Theology of Land and Environmental Justice". Women Healing the Earth: Third World Women on Feminism, Ecology and Religion. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books. pp. 172–83. ISBN 9781570750571.
- Hinga, Teresia Mbari (2005). "African Notions of Afterlife". Macmillan Encyclopedia of Religion.
- Hinga, Teresia M. (2016). "Jesus Christ and the Liberation of Women in Africa". In Elizabeth A. Johnson (ed.). The Strength of Her Witness: Jesus Christ in the Global Voices of Women. Orbis Books. ISBN 9781608336395.
- Hinga, Teresia (2016). "Africa's Transformative Responses to the Gendered Global HIV and AIDS Syndemic". In Jacquineau Azetsop (ed.). HIV & AIDS In Africa: Christian Reflection, Public Health, Social Transformation. Orbis Books. ISBN 9781608336715.
- Hinga, Teresia (2017). "Of Rainbow Nations, Kente Cloth, and the Virtue of Pluralism: Navigating the Beauty and Dignity of Difference in Search Of a Livable Future in Africa". In Peter Cassarella; Mun’im Sirry (eds.). Finding Beauty In The Other: Theological Reflections Across Religious Traditions. Crossroad Publishing. ISBN 9780824523350.
- Hinga, Teresia M. (2019). "The Hummingbird Spirit and Care of our Common Home:An Afro-Theo-Ethical Response to Laudato si'". In Krista E. Hughes; Dhawn B. Martin; Elaine Padilla (eds.). Ecological Solidarities: Mobilizing Faith and Justice for an Entangled World. Penn State Press. pp. 132–146. ISBN 9780271085593.
- Hinga, Teresia (2020). "Tapping the moral wisdom of Africa's Triple Plus heritage of religion and culture". In Myriam Renaud; William Schweiker (eds.). Multi-Religious Perspectives on a Global Ethic. Routledge. pp. 185–197. doi:10.4324/9781003011279-19. ISBN 9781003011279. S2CID 228919475.
Journal articles[edit]
- Hinga, Teresia M. (2002). "African feminist theologies, the global village, and the imperative of solidarity across borders: The case of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians". Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. 18 (1): 79–86. JSTOR 25002427.
Personal life[edit]
Hinga was a single mother to two children, Pauline and Anthony, and two grandchildren.[3]
References[edit]
- ^ a b "Teresia Hinga". Catholic Theological Ethics in the World. Archived from the original on March 22, 2023. Retrieved July 16, 2023.
- ^ a b c d "Notes from WATERtalks: Feminist Conversations in Religion Series". Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual. 17 October 2018. Archived from the original on April 1, 2023. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
- ^ a b * Hinga, Teresia Mbari (2017). African, Christian, Feminist: The Enduring Quest for What Matters. Orbis Books. ISBN 9781608337149.
- ^ a b c d e f "Teresia Mbari Hinga". College of Arts and Sciences: Department of Religious Studies. Santa Clara University. Archived from the original on March 25, 2023.
- ^ Hinga, Teresia Mbari (1990). Women, Power and Liberation in an African Church: A Theological Case Study of the Legio Maria Church in Kenya. University of Lancaster.
- ^ Fiedler, NyaGondwe (2017). A History of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians 1989-2007. Mzuni Press.
- ^ a b c Maseno, Loreen (2004). "Gendering inculturation in Africa: a discussion of three African women theologians' entry into the inculturation scene". Norsk Tidsskrift for Misjon. 4.
- ^ "Editorial Board". Journal of Global Catholicism. Archived from the original on May 7, 2023. Retrieved July 16, 2023.
- ^ "In Memoriam: Teresia Mbari Hinga". Santa Clara University. April 27, 2023. Archived from the original on July 15, 2023. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
- ^ Mudiwa, Rudo (2019). "African, Christian, Feminist: The Enduring Search for What Matters by Teresia Mbari Hinga (review)". Africa Today. 66 (1). Indiana University Press: 146–147.
- ^ Oredein, Oluwatomisin (27 April 2018). "African, Christian, Feminist". Reading Religion. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
- Living people
- Kenyan Roman Catholics
- Kenyatta University alumni
- University of Nairobi alumni
- Alumni of Lancaster University
- Kenyan emigrants to the United States
- Kenyan writers
- Kenyan women writers
- Kenyan feminists
- Roman Catholic theologians
- Christian feminist theologians
- Women Christian theologians
- DePaul University faculty
- Santa Clara University faculty
- 1955 births