Between Freedom And Submission

Women between Submission and Freedom is a cultural, historical, and spiritual inquiry into the nature of contemporary Eastern and Western society which highlights the gender inequality plaguing contemporary Arabian culture. The author has witnessed first-hand the role of cultural influences in her religion and society. Her analysis begins with personal stories and everyday instances of misogynistic behavior suffered by herself and those around her. The author delivers an important message about the deception and brainwashing of women in these communities. She bears witness to a culture which has taught women to be submissive and accept the fact that their societal value only exists in relation and deference to men. Whether through direct or indirect pressure, such communities reduce the innate human value of women, at the same time as the patriarchal system reduces them to virtual slavery. This systematic denigration includes not only the misogynistic mentality, but the historical suppression of women’s ideas and creations. The author explores the portrayal of women in a range of religions that employ gender-based social intimidation under the cloak of religion. The interpretation of these verses is based on the societal values and politics of those who lead and protect the patriarchal system. To them, religion is not an ethos, but a weapon.

Women between Submission and Freedom is a cultural, historical, and spiritual inquiry into the nature of contemporary Eastern and Western society which highlights the gender inequality plaguing contemporary Arabian culture. The author has witnessed first-hand the role of cultural influences in her religion and society. Her analysis begins with personal stories and everyday instances of misogynistic behavior suffered by herself and those around her. The author delivers an important message about the deception and brainwashing of women in these communities. She bears witness to a culture which has taught women to be submissive and accept the fact that their societal value only exists in relation and deference to men. Whether through direct or indirect pressure, such communities reduce the innate human value of women, at the same time as the patriarchal system reduces them to virtual slavery. This systematic denigration includes not only the misogynistic mentality, but the historical suppression of women's ideas and creations. The author explores the portrayal of women in a range of religions that employ gender-based social intimidation under the cloak of religion. The interpretation of these verses is based on the societal values and politics of those who lead and protect the patriarchal system. To them, religion is not an ethos, but a weapon.

In Freedom through Submission Johannes Renders explores Danish-Muslim statements on human freedom, analysing the Muslim community’s attempts to reconfigure a public debate that pits freedom against islam.

A philosophical exploration of female submission, using insights from feminist thinkers—especially Simone de Beauvoir—to reveal the complexities of women’s reality and lived experience What role do women play in the perpetuation of patriarchy? On the one hand, popular media urges women to be independent, outspoken, and career-minded. Yet, this same media glorifies a specific, sometimes voluntary, female submissiveness as a source of satisfaction. In philosophy, even less has been said on why women submit to men and the discussion has been equally contradictory—submission has traditionally been considered a vice or pathology, but female submission has been valorized as innate to women’s nature. Is there a way to explore female submission in all of its complexity—not denying its appeal in certain instances, and not buying into an antifeminist, sexist, or misogynistic perspective? We Are Not Born Submissive offers the first in-depth philosophical exploration of female submission, focusing on the thinking of Simone de Beauvoir, and more recent work in feminist philosophy, epistemology, and political theory. Manon Garcia argues that to comprehend female submission, we must invert how we examine power and see it from the woman’s point of view. Historically, philosophers, psychoanalysts, and even some radical feminists have conflated femininity and submission. Garcia demonstrates that only through the lens of women’s lived experiences—their economic, social, and political situations—and how women adapt their preferences to maintain their own well-being, can we understand the ways in which gender hierarchies in society shape women’s experiences. Ultimately, she asserts that women do not actively choose submission. Rather, they consent to—and sometimes take pleasure in—what is prescribed to them through social norms within a patriarchy. Moving beyond the simplistic binary of natural destiny or moral vice, We Are Not Born Submissive takes a sophisticated look at how female submissiveness can be explained.

Using the metaphor of ‘constitutional space’, this thought-provoking book describes the confluence and convergence of powers in a constitutional system, comprised of the principled exercise of the legislative, executive and judicial powers of constitutional government. Addressing the issues surrounding the freedom of religion or belief, the book explores the dimensions of constitutional space and the content of this freedom, as well as comparative approaches to defining and protecting this freedom.

This diverse anthology of original Buddhist texts in translation provides a historical and conceptual framework that will transform contemporary scholarship on Pure Land Buddhism and instigate its recognition as an essential field of Buddhist studies. Traditional and contemporary primary sources carefully selected from Buddhist cultures across historical, geopolitical, and literary boundaries are organized by genre rather than chronologically, geographically, or by religious lineage—a novel juxtaposition that reveals their wider importance in fresh contexts. Together these fundamental texts from different Asian traditions, expertly translated by eminent and up-and-coming scholars, illustrate that the Buddhism of pure lands is not just an East Asian cult or a marginal type of Buddhism, but a pan-Asian and deeply entrenched religious phenomenon. The volume is organized into six parts: Ritual Practices, Contemplative Visualizations, Doctrinal Expositions, Life Writing and Poetry, Ethical and Aesthetic Explications, and Worlds beyond Sukhāvatī. Each part is introduced and summarized, and each translated piece is prefaced by its translator to supply historical and sectarian context as well as insight into the significance of the work. Common and less-common issues of practice, doctrine, and intra-religious transfer are explored, and deeper understandings of the meaning of “pure lands” are gained through the study of the celestial, cosmological, internal, and earthly pure lands associated with various buddhas, bodhisattvas, and devotional figures. The introduction by the volume editors ties the diverse themes of the book together and provides a historical background to Pure Land Buddhist studies. Scholars of Buddhism and Asian religion, including graduate and post-graduate students, as well as Buddhist practitioners, will appreciate the range of translated materials and accompanied discussions made accessible in one essential collection, the first of its kind to center on the formerly-neglected topic of Buddhist pure lands.

Ramsey presents a new analysis and interpretation of the religious views of the nineteenth-century American philosopher William James. He argues that James was primarily motivated by religious concerns in his writings and that this fact has been obscured by the artificial scholarly division of his "philosophy," "psychology," and "religion"--a symptom of the professionalization which James himself strenuously resisted in his own time. Ramsey believes that James is best understood in his historical context, as a representative of a society and culture struggling to come to terms with modernity. Much of James's religious work is a direct reflection of what has been called "the spiritual crisis of the Gilded Age," a crisis which Ramsey examines in illuminating detail. James's religious vision, in Ramsey's view, hinges on the recognition and acceptance of "contingency"--the knowledge that we are at the mercy of change and chance. With so little else to rely on, James believed, people must learn to submit freely and responsibly into one another's care. Ramsey reintroduces James's thought into the contemporary discussion, and puts forward the kind of religious alternative that James was pointing to in his work: not worship, but acquiescence in a world of mutual relations; not obedience to authority, but conversion to the freedom of responsibility.