Rev. Dr. Jayachitra Lalitha

Rev. Dr. Jayachitra Lalitha

B.Sc., B.D., M.Th.,D.Th.

Specialization: New Testament

Church Affiliation: Church of South India

Contact:

About

Rev. Dr. Jayachitra Lalitha, a New Testament Scholar and feminist Theologian, holds working experience with Indian/American church and theological education. She was the first woman director of Christian Education Department of Church of South India. She has trained many women and men for pastoral ministry and theological education. Her biblical scholarship and her pastoral and theological experience in the Church of South India, The Episcopal Church of America, Leonard theological College and Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary are resourceful for Indian ecumenical theological education. Further, her active interaction with secular organisations has benefitted from her expertise on gender-sexuality discourses. She has authored works on the New Testament, postcolonial hermeneutics, feminist discourses, and theology. Her major works include Ephesians, Empire, and Egalitarianism, Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations: Global Awakenings in Theology and Praxis, Teaching All Nations: Interrogating Matthean Great Commission.

Publications

Books Authored / Edited

  • Mary Magdalene: Gender-Sexuality Conundrums (in progress; expected publication 2026)
  • Re-Reading Household Codes Christologically: Ephesian Household Codes, Empire, and Egalitarianism Christian World Imprints, 2017; 2nd edition, 2020.
  • A World for All: Towards Just and Inclusive Spaces (Co-edited) In God’s Image, Journal of Asian Women’s Resource Centre for Culture and Theology, Vol. 35, No. 2, December 2016.
  • Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations: Global Awakenings in Theology and Praxis (Co-edited with Kay Higuera Smith and Daniel Hawk) InterVarsity Press, July 2014.
  • Teaching All Nations: Interrogating Matthean Great Commission (Co-edited with Mitzi Smith) Fortress Press, May 2014.

Select Articles and Chapters Published

  • “Sinner or/and Saint: When St. Mary Magdalene Speaks”, Religion and Society, November 2025.
  • “Ephesians”, in The Asian Commentary on New Testament, edited by Johnson Thomaskutty (Fortress Press, 2021).
  • “Biblical Studies”, in Towards Greater Inclusivity in Theological Education: A Training Module for Theological Educators on Gender Identities and Human Sexuality, National Council of Churches in India, 2021.
  • “Queer Identities and the Bible”, in Theological Reader on Human Sexuality and Gender Diversities: Envisioning Inclusivity, edited by Roger Gaikwad and Thomas Nainan (ISPCK/NCCI, 2017).
  • “Dalit Theology as Anti-Caste Theology: Musings from Intersexual Dialogue in the Reign of God”, in Disruptive Faith, Inclusive Communities: Church and Homophobia, edited by George Zachariah and Vincent Rajkumar (CISRS/ISPCK, 2015).
  • “Great Commission: A Postcolonial Dalit Feminist Inquiry”, in Teaching All Nations: Interrogating Matthean Great Commission, edited by Mitzi Smith and Jayachitra Lalitha (Fortress Press, 2014), pp. 89–104.
  • “Postcolonial Feminism, the Bible and the Native Indian Women”, in Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations: Global Awakenings in Theology and Praxis, edited by Kay Higuera Smith, Jayachitra Lalitha, and Daniel Hawk (IVP, 2014), pp. 75–84.
  • “The Woman of Samaria and Levirate Marriage: A Gender-Sexuality Conundrum”, Masihi Sevak. Journal of Christian Ministry, Vol. XXXVIII No.2, 2013.
  • “Did LMS Women Missionaries ‘Save’ Native Women? Triple Colonization of Travancore Bible Women in the 19th Century”, in Construction of the Other, Identification of the Self: German Mission in India, edited by Martin Tamcke and Gladson Jathanna (Zurich: LIT, 2012).
  • “Towards a Postcolonial Feminist Biblical Hermeneutic Relevant for a Postcolonial India”, in Margins in Conversation: Methodological Discourses in Theological Disciplines, edited by Joseph Prabhakar Dayam and Mohan Larbeer (BTESSC, 2012), pp. 71–82.
  • “Decolonizing Marital Gender Norms in Ephesian Haustafel”, in Decolonizing the Body of Christ: Theology and Theory after Empire, edited by David Joy and Joseph Duggan (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
  • “Rediscerning Interconnections in Feminist Thinking for a Relevant Social Appraisal of the Bible in a Postcolonial India”, in Christian Theologizing and Social Thinking in India: Discernment, Interconnection, Transition and New Direction, edited by Vincent Rajkumar (CISRS, 2010), pp. 44–68.
  • “Alternate Petrine Community as ‘A Third Space of Enunciation’: Decolonizing Imperial Agenda in 1 Peter”, in Bible and Hermeneutics, edited by C.I. David Joy (CSS, 2010), pp. 54–67.
  • Book Review: Kwok Pui-lan, editor, Hope Abundant: Third World and Indigenous Women’s Theology (Orbis Books, 2010), Journal of Postcolonial Theory and Theology, October 2010.
  • “Jesus and Ambedkar: Exploring Common Loci for Dalit Theology, Dalit Hermeneutics, and Dalit Movements”, in Dalit Theology in the Twenty-First Century: Discordant Voices, Discerning Pathways, edited by Sathianathan Clarke, Deenabandhu Manchala, and Philip Vinod Peacock (Oxford University Press, 2010).
  • “A Postcolonial Feminist Biblical Interpretation: Mary Magdalene and Canonization”, Bangalore Theological Forum, Vol. XXXVIII, No.1, 2006.
  • Twelve articles in Bible Bhashyam, a Malayalam Biblical Dictionary (ISPCK, 2006).