Women In North America S Religious World

Examines societal, cultural, and legal issues confronting women in different regions of the world. This title teaches readers about the subjugation and prejudice women have endured, as well as their triumphs and hopes for the future.

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

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

"This book is a nuanced discussion of contemporary feminist thought in a variety of religious traditions. It draws from both academic and popular writings and offers a rich selection of books to pursue on one's own." -- Re-Imagining "This remarkable book examines American women's religious thought in many diverse faith traditions.... This is a cogent, provocative -- even moving -- analysis." -- Publishers Weekly This study of the fruits of many different women's religious thought offers insights into the ways women may be shaping American religious ideas and world views at the end of the twentieth century. At its broadest, this book presents a multi-voiced response to the question: "When women across many traditions are heard speaking theologically, publicly and self-consciously as women, what do they have to say?"

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

This collection of essays brings together voices from the most recent development in Muslim women's studies, namely, the burgeoning network of Muslim women working on issues of women's human rights through engaged revisionist scholarship in such areas as theology, law and jurisprudence, and women's literature. The essayists are leading Islamic women scholars in North America who affirm their religious self-identity in their acknowledgment of, and striving toward solving, serious problems women have faced in Muslim societies and communities around the world. Their approach is designated as "scholarship-activism" because it comes from the common conviction that to look at women's issues from within the Islamic perspective must unite issues of theory and practice. Any theory or analysis of women's nature, role, rights, or problems must include attention to the practical, "on-the-ground" issues involved in actualizing the Qur'anic mandate of social justice. Concomitantly, any considerations of practical solutions to problems and injustices faced by women must have a solid theological grounding in the Qur'anic world view. Contributors include representatives from the variety of constituents of Islam in America" immigrant" and "indigenous"—whose works are in the forefront of Islamic discussion and reform today: Amina Wadud, Nimat Hafez Barazangi, Maysam J. al-Faruqi, Azizah Y. al-Hibri, Asifa Quraishi, Riffat Hassan, Aminah Beverly McCloud, Mohja Kahf, Rabia Terri Harris, and Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons.

In the middle of the Great Awakening, a group of religious radicals called Moravians came to North America from Germany to pursue ambitious missionary goals. How did the Protestant establishment react to the efforts of this group, which allowed women to preach, practiced alternative forms of marriage, sex, and family life, and believed Jesus could be female? Aaron Spencer Fogleman explains how these views, as well as the Moravians' missionary successes, provoked a vigorous response by Protestant authorities on both sides of the Atlantic. Based on documents in German, Dutch, and English from the Old World and the New, Jesus Is Female chronicles the religious violence that erupted in many German and Swedish communities in colonial America as colonists fought over whether to accept the Moravians, and suggests that gender issues were at the heart of the raging conflict. Colonists fought over the feminine, ecumenical religious order offered by the Moravians and the patriarchal, confessional order offered by Lutheran and Reformed clergy. This episode reveals both the potential and the limits of radical religion in early America. Though religious nonconformity persisted despite the repression of the Moravians, and though America remained a refuge for such groups, those who challenged the cultural order in their religious beliefs and practices would not escape persecution. Jesus Is Female traces the role of gender in eighteenth-century religious conflict back to the European Reformation and the beginnings of Protestantism. This transatlantic approach heightens our understanding of American developments and allows for a better understanding of what occurred when religious freedom in a colonial setting led to radical challenges to tradition and social order.