Routledge Library Editions: Women and Religion – serie

RLE Women and Religion gathers in one place a collection of previously out-of-print titles from a variety of historic imprints. Encompassing a range of experiences, the set provides an essential reference source on some of the key points in the field of women and religion.1. A Map of the New Country 2. Muslim Women 3. Passport to Heaven 4. Sex and God 5. Women’s Religious Experience

Most of the early literature concerning women’s religious experience is about exceptional women; those who diverged from the traditional female role to become nuns, mystics or charismatic leaders. While women were permitted to be prophets and visionaries they rarely played an important part in church organisation. This paradox is explored in this book and a number of themes emerge: in particular, the dominance of male symbolism within the great religions. The question of whether men and women apprehend religious systems and signs in the same way is also explored. In considering the contemporary scene, the book is able to look at the ways in which religion affects the lives of women in different societies and in different historical periods; this gives us a larger view of the ways in which our own perceptions of ‘femaleness’ have been constructed out of the religious world views of both the past and the present.First Published in 1983.

These stories, essays and poems by women examine the connections feminists are making between sex and God. The women write from very different perspectives, cutting across the spectrum of feminist writing about sexuality and spirituality within the Judeo-Christian tradition. Some writers, though critical, are determined to retain their radicality in the very teeth of patriarchy by remaining within the traditional forms of faith. Others – impatient, suggests the editor, with the ‘great inseminator in the sky’ – have moved on to what might be described as a post-patriarchal spirituality. Contributions indicate the exciting spiritual journeys women are currently making and focus on the following areas: monogamy and promiscuity; sex, politics and spirituality; childbirth; sex and healing in dying; feminist sexual psychology; lesbian identity; and feminist ‘embodied’ theology. The recent and continuing debate about women priests in the Anglican church uneasily echoes the rumblings of change at a fundamental level in the relationship between women and religion. This book, with its reflections on both the politics of Christian feminism and the more widespread expression of women’s spirituality, makes an important contribution to that change.First published in 1987.

The history of Islam and the changing role-performance of Muslim women, given the various interpretations of the belief system of Islam, are described. It is the contention of the authors that it is these various interpretations which have given rise to the conflict between the ideal and contextual realities. This book also includes papers which investigate the problems of feminism and employment for Muslim women, as well as the educational and legal aspects of their lives in contemporary Islamic society.First published in 1984.

This book focuses on the gender roles within the Unification Church, and on particularly the gender roles as expressed through the vows of marriage. It examines the more widely shared patriarchal assumptions about women in a circumscribed socio-religious environment, with the Church’s gender role system being investigated largely on the level of its theological explanations for gender roles. The Church’s ethos, its lived reality, is also examined, and for this many interviews have been conducted with the ‘blessed’, the married couples.First published in 1992.

Most feminists have turned away from the Christian churches, regarding both Catholicism and the protestant denominations as bastions of sexism and patriarchal oppression. However, Christian feminists committed to improving the position of Christian women and to the spiritual renewal of their respective churches are drawing inspiration for their struggles from the contemporary Women’s Movement. In this study Sara Maitland looks at what has been happening to Christian women in general, and Christian feminists in particular, over the last fifteen to twenty years. She sets their experiences in the framework of the history of the churches and reviews it in the light of events such as the Second Vatican Council, the ordination of Baptist and Episcopal women ministers in America and Britain, and the debate about the ordination of women in the Anglican communion. She argues that the insights gained by Christian feminists put them in a unique position to prophesy to their respective churches, leading them back to the Gospel imperatives of love, justice and freedom, and that an understanding and acceptance of this role of women is crucial to the well-being of the whole Church. As well as studying the history, theology and institutional structures of the denominational churches, the book uses a wealth of interview material from both sides of the Atlantic to describe the experiences of women from many different backgrounds, including nuns, women priests and lay workers. Sara Maitland concludes that Christianity can and must pass beyond the long centuries of oppression and division into ‘a new country’, a country in which women and men are equally ‘made in the image of God’.First published in 1983.

Most feminists have turned away from the Christian churches, regarding both Catholicism and the protestant denominations as bastions of sexism and patriarchal oppression. However, Christian feminists committed to improving the position of Christian women and to the spiritual renewal of their respective churches are drawing inspiration for their struggles from the contemporary Women’s Movement. In this study Sara Maitland looks at what has been happening to Christian women in general, and Christian feminists in particular, over the last fifteen to twenty years. She sets their experiences in the framework of the history of the churches and reviews it in the light of events such as the Second Vatican Council, the ordination of Baptist and Episcopal women ministers in America and Britain, and the debate about the ordination of women in the Anglican communion. She argues that the insights gained by Christian feminists put them in a unique position to prophesy to their respective churches, leading them back to the Gospel imperatives of love, justice and freedom, and that an understanding and acceptance of this role of women is crucial to the well-being of the whole Church. As well as studying the history, theology and institutional structures of the denominational churches, the book uses a wealth of interview material from both sides of the Atlantic to describe the experiences of women from many different backgrounds, including nuns, women priests and lay workers. Sara Maitland concludes that Christianity can and must pass beyond the long centuries of oppression and division into ‘a new country’, a country in which women and men are equally ‘made in the image of God’.First published in 1983.

The history of Islam and the changing role-performance of Muslim women, given the various interpretations of the belief system of Islam, are described. It is the contention of the authors that it is these various interpretations which have given rise to the conflict between the ideal and contextual realities. This book also includes papers which investigate the problems of feminism and employment for Muslim women, as well as the educational and legal aspects of their lives in contemporary Islamic society.First published in 1984.

This book focuses on the gender roles within the Unification Church, and on particularly the gender roles as expressed through the vows of marriage. It examines the more widely shared patriarchal assumptions about women in a circumscribed socio-religious environment, with the Church’s gender role system being investigated largely on the level of its theological explanations for gender roles. The Church’s ethos, its lived reality, is also examined, and for this many interviews have been conducted with the ‘blessed’, the married couples.First published in 1992.

These stories, essays and poems by women examine the connections feminists are making between sex and God. The women write from very different perspectives, cutting across the spectrum of feminist writing about sexuality and spirituality within the Judeo-Christian tradition. Some writers, though critical, are determined to retain their radicality in the very teeth of patriarchy by remaining within the traditional forms of faith. Others – impatient, suggests the editor, with the ‘great inseminator in the sky’ – have moved on to what might be described as a post-patriarchal spirituality. Contributions indicate the exciting spiritual journeys women are currently making and focus on the following areas: monogamy and promiscuity; sex, politics and spirituality; childbirth; sex and healing in dying; feminist sexual psychology; lesbian identity; and feminist ‘embodied’ theology. The recent and continuing debate about women priests in the Anglican church uneasily echoes the rumblings of change at a fundamental level in the relationship between women and religion. This book, with its reflections on both the politics of Christian feminism and the more widespread expression of women’s spirituality, makes an important contribution to that change.First published in 1987.