Teresia Mbari Hinga

Teresia Mbarì Hinga (January 25, 1955 – March 31, 2023) was a Kenyan Christian feminist theologian and an associate professor of religious studies at Santa Clara University in California. She was a founding member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians. The family were pioneer African Catholics who treated their male and female children equally, including in education. She received a bachelor's degree in English Literature and Religious Studies from Kenyatta University in 1977 and a master's in Religious Studies from Nairobi University in 1980. She earned her PhD from the University of Lancaster in the UK in 1990 with a thesis titled Women, Power and Liberation in an African Church: A Theological Case Study of the Legio Maria Church in Kenya on the role of women in African Christianity. Hinga was a founding member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians and a member of the Kenyan Chapter of the Circle.

Career Hinga was one of the co-founders of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians,

Research and writing Hinga's research interests included Religion and Women, African Religious History, and the Ethics of Globalization.

Hinga's 2017 book, African, Christian, Feminist: The Enduring Search for What Matters, is a collection of essays that examine her journey from Africa to Silicon Valley, seeking to show the concrete impact of feminist work in religion in areas including HIV/AIDS and violence against women. It includes the story of Kimpa Vita, an African Catholic woman in the 1700s who was martyred for challenging missionary Christianity and its support of colonialism and slavery.

Selected publications

Books

Chapters

Journal articles