Women And Religious Traditions

Women and Religious Traditions, second edition, looks at a variety of religious traditions-their texts, symbols, interpretations, rituals-and discusses the roles women play within those traditions. Most importantly, this text gives a voice to a demographic that has traditionally been very underrepresented within religious scholarship.

Women and Religious Traditions analyzes women and religion in the context of the major world religious traditions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Chinese religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Aboriginal religions, and new religions that focus on the concept of the Goddess. Each chapter is organizedaround the following common themes: history and the staus of women in the respective religions; texts and interpretations; symbols and gender; sexuality; social change; women's official and unofficial roles; fundamentalism; and unique features of each religion as it pertains to women. Examples havebeen drawn from both Canadian and United States contexts. The volume also includes two case studies which highlight the historical and contemporary experiences of religious women in North America. Students will be introduced to the contemporary issues that surround the study of women and religionand will also be introduced to feminist theory by the editors in their introductory chapter.The essays are organized around five main themes.History and Status of Women: How each religious tradition has viewed the role of women.Text, Rituals, and Interpretations: How the central texts of each religion treat women and how the authorities use these texts to sanction religious rituals.Symbols and Gender: How the main symbols of each religion affect the role of women.Sexuality: How each religion contributes to the configuration of women's sexuality.Social Change: How each religion might contribute to the changing roles of women.Each essay follows the same basic structure, allowing students to make useful comparisons across these widely divergent religious traditions.

Description of the roles women have played in the construction and practice of Christian traditions, from the earliest disciples to the latest theologians.

This edited collection provides interdisciplinary, global, and multi-religious perspectives on the relationship between women’s identities, religion, and social change in the contemporary world. The book discusses the experiences and positions of women, and particular groups of women, to understand patterns of religiosity and religious change. It also addresses the current and future challenges posed by women’s changes to religion in different parts of the world and among different religious traditions and practices. The contributors address a diverse range of themes and issues including the attitudes of different religions to gender equality; how women construct their identity through religious activity; whether women have opportunity to influence religious doctrine; and the impact of migration on the religious lives of both women and men.

An introduction to the study of women in diverse religious cultures While women have made gains in equality over the past two centuries, equality for women in many religious traditions remains contested throughout the world. In the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints women are not ordained as priests. In areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan under Taliban occupation girls and women students and their teachers risk their lives to go to school. And in Sri Lanka, fully ordained Buddhist nuns are denied the government identity cards that recognize them as citizens. Is it possible to create families, societies, and religions in which women and men are equal? And if so, what are the factors that promote equality? Theory of Women in Religions offers an economic model to shed light on the forces that have impacted the respective statuses of women and men from the earliest developmental stages of society through the present day. Catherine Wessinger integrates data and theories from anthropology, archaeology, sociology, history, gender studies, and psychology into a concise history of religions introduction to the complex relationships between gender and religion. She argues that socio-economic factors that support specific gender roles, in conjunction with religious norms and ideals, have created a gendered division of labor that both directly and indirectly reinforces gender inequality. Yet she also highlights how as the socio-economic situation is changing religion is being utilized to support the transition toward women’s equality, noting the ways in which many religious representations of gender change over time.

A fundamental and well-illustrated reference collection for anyone interested in the role of women in North American religious life.

This volume contains a collection of studies describing and analyzing stereotypes of women in the religions of Ancient Israel and Mesopotamia, and in Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Medieval Christianity, Islam, Indian Sufism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Tibetan religions, and modern Neopaganism. In all these traditions the stereotypes are based on generalizations, which are socially, culturally or religiously legitimized, and which seem to have a lasting influence on society's conceptions of women. They represent oversimplified opinions, which are, however, regularly challenged by the women who are affected by them. In all traditions the stereotypes are ambiguous, either because women have challenged their validity, or because historical developments in society have reshaped them. They influence public opinion by emphasizing dominant views, as a strategy to restrain women and to keep them controlled by the rules and morals of a male-dominated society.

This book features a number of different articles and essays that focus on women as active agents of their spiritual lives--a topic that is often overlooked in most other world religion books. It explores how women from many parts of the world have thought about, acted, and have been treated as members of a religious tradition. Investigates how women of a variety of religious traditions (e.g., Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, etc.) practice their religion, how their beliefs differ from men, and how they have carved out their own place within their religious tradition. For anyone interested in how women are shaped by and how they shape the various world religions.