Agapic Anger: Influencing Change While Navigating Gender

Christian tradition and faith formation often affirm anger as a righteous emotion. However, women and gender-diverse persons typically are conditioned to present themselves as soft and gentle. If they do express anger, they are conditioned to do so in constricted ways. Jan R. Schnell argues that such individuals should, in fact, fully explore anger as a vital part of their Christian vocations. In Agapic Anger, Schnell explores the religious ethics of virtuous anger to show that expressions of anger can be morally good. Schnell weaves the narratives of four female community organizers alongside key principles of Thomas Aquinas's virtue ethics, as well as practices gleaned from choreographic performance studies, to create a framework that dismantles oppressive traditions regarding anger. Schnell identifies three dance-like movements that instead cultivate a virtuous habit of anger expression that can fuel the work of communal justice. The result is a constructive presentation of a form