Pascale Engelmajer - Böcker

The Pāli tradition presents a diverse and often contradictory picture of women. This book examines women’s roles as they are described in the Pāli canon and its commentaries. Taking into consideration the wider socio-religious context and drawing from early brahmanical literature and epigraphical findings, it contrasts these descriptions with the doctrinal account of women’s spiritual abilities.The book explores gender in the Pāli texts in order to delineate what it means to be a woman both in the context in which the texts were composed and in the context of their ultimate goal - that of achieving escape from the round of rebirths. The critical investigation focuses on the internal relationships and dynamics of one tradition and employs a novel methodology, which the author calls "critical sympathy". This assumes that the tradition’s teaching is valid for all, in particular that its main goal, nibbāṇa, is accessible to all human beings. By considering whether and how women’s roles fit within this path, the author examines whether women have spiritual agency not only as bhikkhunīs (Buddhist nuns), but also as wives and mothers. It offers a new understanding that focuses on how the tradition construes women’s traditional roles within an interdependent community. It aims to understand how what many scholars have seen as contradictory and inconsistent characterizations of women in Buddhism have been accepted and endorsed by the Pāli tradition.With an aim to show that the Pāli canon offers an account of women that is doctrinally coherent and consistent with its sociological facts, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Buddhism and Asian Religion.

Beyond Mother Goddesses introduces key scholars in the study of mothers, maternal figures and motherhood at the intersection with religion and spirituality, as well as new paths for research.It features interviews with key scholars in religious studies and closely related disciplines, and offers a reflexive stance on theory and methodology. The scholars whose interviews are gathered in this volume study different traditions including Greco-Roman religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and contemporary cultures, and time periods from Antiquity and Ancient India to contemporary cultures. Although they also represent different disciplines and draw on different methodologies, they all examine the intersection of mothers, motherhood and mothering with religion and spirituality.With its introduction and its conclusion, which together provide a detailed description of the state of the field and new avenues for research, this volume offers a thorough examination of the emerging subfield of study on mothers, motherhood, mothering and religion.

The Pāli tradition presents a diverse and often contradictory picture of women. This book examines women’s roles as they are described in the Pāli canon and its commentaries. Taking into consideration the wider socio-religious context and drawing from early brahmanical literature and epigraphical findings, it contrasts these descriptions with the doctrinal account of women’s spiritual abilities.The book explores gender in the Pāli texts in order to delineate what it means to be a woman both in the context in which the texts were composed and in the context of their ultimate goal - that of achieving escape from the round of rebirths. The critical investigation focuses on the internal relationships and dynamics of one tradition and employs a novel methodology, which the author calls "critical sympathy". This assumes that the tradition’s teaching is valid for all, in particular that its main goal, nibbāṇa, is accessible to all human beings. By considering whether and how women’s roles fit within this path, the author examines whether women have spiritual agency not only as bhikkhunīs (Buddhist nuns), but also as wives and mothers. It offers a new understanding that focuses on how the tradition construes women’s traditional roles within an interdependent community. It aims to understand how what many scholars have seen as contradictory and inconsistent characterizations of women in Buddhism have been accepted and endorsed by the Pāli tradition.With an aim to show that the Pāli canon offers an account of women that is doctrinally coherent and consistent with its sociological facts, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Buddhism and Asian Religion.