What is a feminist theologian to do with Christianity's patriarchal inheritance? She can avoid the most patriarchal aspects of the theological tradition and seek resources for constructive work elsewhere. Or she can critique misogynistic texts and artifacts, exposing their strategies of domination to warn against replicating them. Both approaches have merits and yet, without other interpretive strategies, they reaffirm that the theological tradition does not belong to women and others marginalized by gender. They cannot transform the discourse. But within feminist theology are the seeds of another approach, aimed at just such transformation by reworking the theological landscape to become hospitable to all those marginalized by gender. Attunement: The Art and Politics of Feminist Theology identifies trajectories resonant with this alternative approach and from them, describes and develops attunement as a third, generative path for feminist theologians.

Attunement is an aesthetically-invested approach to texts and artifacts that self-consciously co-creates as it interprets. Aware of what the text affords the reader, attunement constellates images, texts, and insights to build or augment positive affordances in the text and diminish negative ones. Natalie Carnes describes why this approach is significant for feminist theology, maps its roots in a long history of gender-marginalized individuals claiming authority, describes how it casts interpretation as both an aesthetic and political event, and notes how it might provide a way forward in vexed topics in feminist theology.

Attunement is now available at the Oxford University Press website or wherever you purchase books.

Attunement is a theological achievement, an outstanding example of how the best constructive theology emerges from vibrant engagement with the history of Christian thought while also stretching traditional disciplinary boundaries. Attunement provides a distinctive angle of vision and an innovative intervention that suggests it ought to be granted a place of prominence within feminist theological discourse.

—Andrea C. White, Associate Professor of Theology & Culture, Union Theological Seminary.

Attunement is an extraordinary method to transform a patriarchal world. It opens us to new possibilities to consider the complex evolution of life and stresses how patriarchal theology is only a very limited and pretentious perception of human life we need to go beyond.

—Ivone Gebara, author of Mary, Mother of God, Mother of the Poor