Batteries, crosses, solar panels, and global sisterhood -- Julie is our ancestor : unearthing the roots of transnationalism -- Like night and day : sisters' personal and communal religious practices in two places -- Pathways to religious life for American and Congolese Women -- A life of ministries -- Mission Is everything : sisters on the frontiers of ministry in Greater Boston -- Poverty, development, and the challenges of Catholic sisterhood in the Democratic Republic of Congo -- Conclusion : Circling back and looking forward.
Summary:
"Unequal Partners is a portrait of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur that takes readers between the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United States, and Belgium, illuminating how the nexus of gender, race, economic inequality, and colonial history plays out in transnational religious organizations. While much current scholarship on Catholic sisters focuses on the decline in numbers in the West, sociologist Casey Clevenger casts her gaze on the Global South, where female Catholic orders remain vital. While the numbers of sisters in the old centers of Catholic power are declining, most of their religious orders are still headquartered in Europe or the United States, embedded in a colonial past that influences how the orders operate in the Global South. Attuned to this long history, Clevenger skillfully places the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in their global and historical context, revealing the ways access to knowledge, power, resources, and the politics of development lie at the heart of this and any partnership between groups of people in the Global North and Global South. Bringing the sisters' voices to the fore, Clevenger leads us to an understanding of how this transnational organization has persisted over time as a coherent whole, avoiding the splintering that is an all-too-common fate for religious groups and weathering the tide of a changing world"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.