Rosemary P. Carbine

Rosemary P. Carbine, Ph.D. (she/her) holds master’s and doctoral degrees in Theology from the University of Chicago Divinity School, and is currently Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Whittier College in southern California.  She specializes in historical and constructive Christian theologies, particularly comparative feminist, womanist, and Latina/mujerista theologies, theological anthropology, public/political theologies, ecological theologies, and teaching and learning in theology and religion. 

Carbine's scholarly interests centralize the interrelationships of religion with gender, race, culture,  sexuality, politics, and social and eco-justice, and their impact on the understandings of the person and of society. In addition to publishing numerous articles in leading peer-reviewed journals and chapters in acclaimed scholarly anthologies, she has co-edited three books, The Gift of Theology (2015), Theological Perspectives for Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (2013), and Women, Wisdom, and Witness (2012). She is currently working on a book that offers a constructive feminist public theology in conversation with US faith-based social justice movements, tentatively titled, Nevertheless We Persist. Her scholarship elaborates a feminist public theology that critically revisits and reclaims Vatican II’s approach to the role of the Church in the modern world and simultaneously redresses common clericalist and patriarchal assumptions about the agents and activities of U.S. public Catholicism.

Carbine's scholarly research integrates with and infuses her teaching, which includes many courses that are crosslisted with and serve several interdisciplinary programs– Africana and Black Studies, Environmental Studies, Gender Studies, Global and Cultural Studies, and Latinx Studies.

Carbine formerly co-chaired the Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Unit within the American Academy of Religion, and previously convened Theological Anthropology as well as co-convened the Women’s Consultation in Constructive Theology, both in the Catholic Theological Society of America.  Currently, she is an editorial team member and edits the Winter issue of the international journal Critical Theology (formerly The Ecumenist), is an editorial board member of Horizons: The Journal of the College Theology Society, serves on the Women and Religion Unit steering committee in the AAR, and sits on the Women's Consultation steering committee in the CTSA.

• REL 101 | Religious Diversity in America
• REL 221 | History of Christianity    
• REL 225/226 | Global Christianities I and II
• REL 230 | Green Religion (crosslisted with Environmental Studies and Gender Studies)
• REL 251 | Monks, Nuns, and Ascetics (crosslisted with Gender Studies, includes a theatre workshop)
• REL 253 | Women and Religion (crosslisted with Gender Studies)
• REL 255 | Women and U.S. Liberation Theologies (crosslisted with Gender Studies, Latinx Studies)
• REL 257 | Black and Womanist Theology (crosslisted with Africana and Black Studies, and Gender Studies)
• REL 260 | Christianity and U.S. Social Movements (includes a community-based/service learning component)
• REL 307 | Religion and the Body (crosslisted with Gender Studies)
• REL 311 | Life and Teachings of Jesus (includes a theatre workshop)
• REL 350 | Latin American Liberation Theologies (crosslisted with Latinx Studies)
• REL 351 | Religion and Politics in the US
• GEN 385 | Feminist Philosophy      
• ​INTD 490 | Fulbright Application Seminar

Books

• Carbine, Rosemary P. and Hilda P. Koster, eds. The Gift of Theology: The Contribution of Kathryn Tanner. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015.
• Isasi-Diaz, Ada Maria, Mary McClintock Fulkerson, and Rosemary P. Carbine, eds. Theological Perspectives for Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Public Intellectuals for the Twenty- First Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
• Carbine, Rosemary P. and Kathleen Dolphin, eds. Women, Wisdom, and Witness: Engaging Contexts in Conversation. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2012.

Journal Articles

• “Religious Spaces and Biodiversity in Contemporary Myanmar.” ASIANetwork Exchange: A Journal for Asian Studies in the Liberal Arts, 27,1 (2020): 97-126. Co-authored with Cheryl Swift, Jason A. Carbine, Christina Mecklenburg, Marissa Ochoa, Anders Blomso, and Julia Davis. https://doi.org/10.16995/ane.314

• “Critical Constructive Theology as a Praxis of Worldmaking.” Critical Theology: Engaging Church, Culture, and Society 1, 1 (Fall 2018): 8-12. 
• “Creating Communities of Justice and Peace: Sacramentality and U.S. Public Catholicism.” Journal for the Academic Study of Religion 29, 2 (2016): 182-202. Special issue on Women and Religious Authority.
• “Birthing a New World: Women, Sacramentality, and the U.S. Public Church.” The Ecumenist: A Journal of Theology, Culture, and Society 50, 2 (Spring 2013): 5-12. Special issue commemorating the 50th anniversary of the journal.
• “Religious Studies Classrooms as Counterpublic Spaces: A Feminist Theological and Theatrical Perspective.” Lead article in a roundtable titled “Democracy’s Hope: Feminist Classrooms as Counterpublic Spaces.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 28,1 (Spring 2012): 141-156.
• “Erotic Education: Elaborating a Feminist and Faith-Based Pedagogy for Experiential Learning in Religious Studies.” Teaching Theology and Religion 13,4 (October 2010): 320-338.
• “Turning to Narrative: Toward a Feminist Theological Understanding of Political Participation and Personhood.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 78,2 (June 2010): 375-412.
• With Gabriella Lettini, “Embodying Radical Democracy: Reflections on the FSR/WATER 2008 Summer Forum.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 25,1 (Spring 2009): 125-142. Special issue in honor of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza’s contributions to feminist studies in religion.
• “Ekklesial Work: Toward a Feminist Public Theology.” Harvard Theological Review 99,4 (October 2006): 433-455. Special issue commemorating the 50th anniversary of the admission of women and the 25th anniversary of the Women’s Studies in Religion Program at Harvard.

Book Chapters

• “Women’s Religio-Political Witness for Love and Justice.” In The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Women’s Studies in Religion. Edited by Helen T. Boursier. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021, 281-298. Presenter for Virtual Book Launch, Emmanuel College at the University of Toronto. November 4, 2021.  
• “The Relational Turn in Theological Anthropology.” In T&T Clark Handbook of Theological Anthropology. Edited by Mary Ann Hinsdale and Stephen Okey. London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2021, 71-85. 
• “Rival Powers: U.S. Catholics Confront the Climate Crisis.” In Theologies of Failure. Edited by Roberto Sirvent and Duncan B. Reyburn. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2019, 197-215.   
• “Imagining and Incarnating an Integral Ecology: A Critical Ecofeminist Public Theology.” In Planetary Solidarity: Global Women's Voices on Christian Doctrine and Climate Justice. Edited by Grace Si-Jun Kim and Hilda P. Koster. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2017, 47-66.
• “Ways of World Making: Practices of Prophecy and Lament,” and “Ways of World Making: Practices of Contemplation, Connection, and Church.” In Awake to the Moment: An Introduction to Theology. Edited by Laurel C. Schneider and Stephen G. Ray, Jr. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016, 105-174.
• “Placards, Icons, and Protests: Insights into Antiracist Activism from Feminist Public Theology.” In The Gift of Theology: The Contribution of Kathryn Tanner. Edited by Rosemary P. Carbine and Hilda P. Koster. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015, 313-344.
• “Public Theology: A Feminist Anthropological View of Political Subjectivity and Praxis.” In Questioning the Human: Toward a Theological Anthropology for the 21st Century. Edited by Lieven Bove, Yves de Maeseneer, and Ellen van Stichel. New York: Fordham University Press, 2014, 148-163.
• “Revitalizing U.S. Civil Society by Reconceptualizing Civil Religion and its Virtues.” In Theological Perspectives for Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Public Intellectuals for the Twenty- First Century. Edited by Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, Mary McClintock Fulkerson, and Rosemary P. Carbine. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013,. 129-144.
• “The Beloved Community: Transforming Spaces for Social Change and for Cosmopolitan Citizenship.” In Women, Wisdom, and Witness: Engaging Contexts in Conversation. Edited by Rosemary P. Carbine and Kathleen Dolphin. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2012, 237-258.
• “Welcomed to Wisdom’s Feast: Memories of Monika as Professor and Mentor.” In Monika K. Hellwig: The People’s Theologian. Edited by Dolores R. Leckey and Kathleen Dolphin. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2010, 39-53.
• “ ‘Artisans of a New Humanity’: Revisioning the Public Church in a Feminist Perspective.” In Frontiers in Catholic Feminist Theology: Shoulder to Shoulder. Edited by Susan Abraham and Elena Procario-Foley. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009, 173-192, 241-245. Also, entries for the inset box on Types of Feminism in the United States, 86, as well as for the glossary on Body of Christ, Feminism, Waves of (U.S.), Metaphor, Patriarchy, Praxis, and Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), found on 249-250, 250-251, 253, 254.
• “Claiming and Imagining: Practices of Public Engagement.” In Prophetic Witness: Catholic Women’s Strategies for Reform. Edited by Colleen M. Griffith. Boston College Church in the 21st Century Series. New York: Crossroad, 2009, 176-185, 259-262. First Place: Gender, Catholic Press Association Awards, 2010.
• With Barbara E. Walvoord, “Case Studies: Small Classes in Theology, Bible, and Christian Formation.” In Teaching and Learning in College Introductory Religion Courses. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008, 160-179 (under pseudonym Prof. Bateson).
• “Contextualizing the Cross for the Sake of Subjectivity.” In Cross-Examinations: Readings on the Meaning of the Cross Today. Edited by Marit A. Trelstad. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2006, 91-107, 287-290. Reviewed by a panel in the Christian Systematic Theology Section at the American Academy of Religion, San Diego, CA. November 17-20, 2007.