About this Book

 Arguing
for a retrieval of the landmark work, God’s Fierce Whimsy, Stina Busman
Jost establishes the critical importance of this volume for the construction of
a dialogic theological method. This is accomplished through a close reading of God’s
Fierce Whimsy in which the author identifies key methodological
characteristics informing the volume’s formation. Critical importance also is
established through interviews with the volume’s authors, the Mud Flower
Collective—which included Katie G. Cannon, Beverly W. Harrison, Carter Heyward,
Ada María Isasi-Díaz, Bess B. Johnson (Delores Williams), Mary D. Pellauer, and
Nancy D. Richardson. Undergirding this endeavor is a recognition of the
theoretical importance of difference to the project of theological construction
and the vital form of the dialogic as constitutive of theological practice; this
is carried forward through engagement with the pivotal theorists Martin Buber
and Mikhail Bakhtin, who helped pioneer the philosophical and literary critical
importance of otherness, difference, and dialogue. Finally, the author
constructively engages recent developments in feminist theologies and
postcolonial theories—ultimately making the argument that a dialogic
theological method is relevant for the doing of theology today.