Movement 137

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Nicola Slee, writer and theologian, talks to
SCM's Links Worker Rosie Venner, about
her work, her prayer life and what sustains
her creativity.
Nicola Slee is Research Fellow and programme leader for the MAin Applied Theological Studies at the Queen's Found.ation for
Ecumenical Theological Education in Birmingham. She is a well-known feminist theologian, as well as a poet. Her latest book,
dueoutin20ll,iscalledSeekingtheRisenChrista(SPCR). WehaveinvitedNicolatospeakatSCM'sconferenceStillsmalt
Voice in February on the theme of prayer. For more info about conference and to bookyour place see the backpage of Movement/
First of all, have you always wanted to be a theologian?
At one level, not at all! Even to find myself reading Theology
at university was quite a decision for me. At school I absolutely
adored literature and would have naturally gone on to
read English, but I had a very good RE teacher and chaplain
at my school. He assumed that I would read Theology and
got me into Theology in a big way. In the end I thought, I
will always carry ot reading literature, so if I read Theology
I'll get both.
When I was at University part of me wanted to be a Methodist
Deaconess, because two Methodist Deaconesses had
been important in my own faith life. Part of me wanted
to write, part of me wanted to teach. So in a way, all those
things could add up to becoming a theologian, although I
also feel I just stumbled into it. I was very lucky to fall into a
good first job, and I discovered I loved teaching, but it was a
bit haphazard, and certainly not part of a career plan.
If someone was beginning to explore feminist theologn
where would you recommend that they start?
I would come at that from two quite different angles. I think
there's some brilliant fiction around that raises key issues
from a feminist theological perspective even if the authors
don't think they are doing that. For example, a classic novel
like Alice Walker's The Colour Purple, which is a whole series
of letters to God, raises massive questions about the
nature of the divine, and issues around justice, sexuality
and gender. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is
a very different kind of novel which also raises the idea of
the feminine divine. It's also a story about struggle and liberation.
Also works by Sara Maitland and Michdle Roberts,
some of our greatest British feminist fiction writers, look at
religion in really interesting ways. That would be one way in.
I wrote Faith and Feminism for people who knew nothing
about feminist theology but were interested, and people tell
me that it is an accessible introductory text. We're blessed
with some very good introductory feminist texts and
readers. Natalie Watson has written a good one, and Janet
Martin Soskice has co-edited a very good reader. I'd also
recommend the journal Feminist Theology. Not all of the
articles are at an introductory level, but if someone wanted
to get a good idea of what people in feminist theology are
talking about, an hour or two in a library looking at some
issues of the journal would give you a good feel.
I imagine that an ecumenical and multi-cultural
4 . Movement . Spring 2011