Disrupting Religious Mothering

Despite evolving interest and a growing body of literature, mothering remains highly understudied, particularly in relation to non-mainstream models of mothering and the global south. Especially, the ways in which mothering is inflected by faith and disciplined by communities and religious institutions as well as the transmission of that faith to children remain largely unrecognized in the scholarship. The volume addresses UN SDGs 5, 10 and 16 around gender equality, reduced inequalities and peace, justice and strong institutions. This volume acknowledges that mothering is heavily coded and hedged by societal and religious expectation and constant scrutiny. Historically, and across various societies, religion had shaped norms of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ mothering. Simultaneously, mothers and women negotiate with these norms to achieve individual fulfilment, agency and selfhood within, through and sometimes against these. Through their mothering they nurture their children’s capacity to discern their own religious and social identities. They may also inculcate novelty or amalgam in the process of transmitting tradition and evoke new ways of engaging children’s curiosity and puzzlement about their faith in relation to the modern, secular and popular ways and beliefs that they routinely encounter. Far from mere instruction then, these processes may lead to newer ways of interpreting religion or negotiating the boundaries of community. This book charts mothers’ narratives and their practices. Foregrounding faith as an aspect of women’s intersectional identities, their different expectations and experiences of mothering, and amplifying diverse women’s voices this book will challenge normative ideas of good and bad mothers.